Q. Aside from obviously the weather and the conditions of the courses, obviously you like these courses. You've played well here in the past. Is there anything specific about them that brings out the best in you?
JAY HAAS: I think No. 1 might be the weather. I love it being warm. I guess the colder I get, my bones work a little better in this weather.
The conditions are just fabulous. I say every year the greens are as good as I've ever seen, but they seem to get better and better. There's not a mark on them.
This course has as much grass on it as any place I've ever seen. The fairways are perfect. There's a lot of rough. I drove it in the rough on No. 6, the par 5 and hit a 5-iron and hit it 150 yards down the fairway, if that.
So there's rough out here. The other courses are not quite as thick off the edges, but here, there's as much grass as I've ever seen.
I guess the weather and the conditions, it just looks like you're going to hit a good shot every time.
Q. Mercedes, Ernie was at 31, Vijay was at 23 last week. Is this good for golf, and what I mean by that, are you a purist that thinks shot-making should be harder or is this good for golf?
JAY HAAS: I think it was an unusual week as the Mercedes tournament. There was not any wind there.
Last week, it was ten degrees warmer than it normally is there. You usually have frost and it's cold in the mornings, and I think that had a big effect on the scores there.
You know, let's talk about it in another three or four months when we've played some pretty difficult golf courses under some difficult conditions. I think you'll see the scores maybe not be as ridiculous as they are right now.
I do think that the ball seems to go straighter. I catch myself aiming at the flag every time. I think 20 years ago, we would always aim a little right or left and curve the ball into the flag and the ball just doesn't seem to curve as much. We're using 45-inch drivers and we used to use 42-and-a-half-inch drivers. The conditions of the course are perfect. You know, the guys are just very, very good. The mindset I think now is, "Go for it." There's no kind of getting into position.
Years ago, it was, "Make the cut first and then try to make a little move." Now it's, "Hair on fire; let's rip it. Don't worry about it, you miss the cut, go on to next week."
You used to have to make the cut to be exempt for next week if you were not in the top 60, so you had to be cautious at times.
Good for golf? Gosh -- is it good for basketball if a guy scores 40 points? I watched Kobe last night score 40 points. That's like shooting 61, maybe.
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