FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

June 28, 2002

Jay Haas

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Jay, for joining us. Great round of 64 today. 11-under par. 131. First tournament since the U.S. Open where you finished tied for 12th. Which was awesome for that tournament. Why don't you just make a couple comments about your round today and then we will go into some questions.

JAY HAAS: I had to finish up two holes this morning for my first round. 17, I promptly hit a 4-iron on the front fringe and three-putted for bogey. I was 5-under during my first round there. And so that was a little disappointing. But I felt like I was playing well and the course is very receptive to good shots right now. The greens are holding. They're in good speed to make putts. They're not real fast. They're pretty smooth this morning. And I played from tee-to-green about as well as I played all year. Just hit a lot of good shots. I love playing on these Zoysia fairways they're my favorite surface to hit off. And every year I come here I feel like I hit good shots. I feel like I'm going to hit a good shot. Tee shots look good, to my eye. The greens, I don't know, I feel like I'm confident when I'm getting ready to play. And today was a little bit of an exception. But I did play very well and putted well. Made the putts when I had the chance. The second round, I got off to not as great start. I missed the green at 12 and just over the fringe and putted it by eight feet. And made that one to save my par. And that was a big putt because like I said, I just bogeyed 17. I was 5-under after 16 yesterday. Bogey there, another bogey at 12. Would have gotten me a little defensive, I guess.

But I made that putt and then from 13 through oh, say two, I didn't really have it outside of eight feet. For any length of time there. I hit it about eight feet at 13. I missed it.

Maybe six or seven feet at 14 and made it.

15, was about eight feet.

16, I 3-putted from the left fringe. Putted up about a foot.

17, I hit it probably six feet. I missed it.

18, was about four feet and I made it.

1, I hit the pin, with my second shot. And it kicked off, I guess that was the only one actually that was going to be the closest. It hit the pin and kicked over to about the left, about 12 feet left. And then I missed that one.

And then the next hole I had it about eight feet to the right of the hole and missed that.

So that was the bulk of my -- I made four out of those seven, I guess. And then I kind of got over the hump. I made a nice birdie at five. Just short of the green, chipped to about a foot.

6, I hit an 8-iron to about six or seven feet there.

Then 8, I got kind of lucky break. No, not kind of, a very lucky break.

7, I'm sorry. I hit just on the back fringe and I hit a pretty good putt, but it was going to miss to the right and it hit a rock in the middle of the putt and it kicked to the left and it just fell in the right edge. So I hit some good putts that didn't go in. So that was just, I was due for that one. But that was really the only long putt. That was probably 16 feet. 18 feet maybe.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions.

JAY HAAS: It was one of those days.

Q. You were talking about just playing well here through the years. You haven't the last three or four times. Is this a place where to win on Tour, this is a place where you think it could happen, to win again on Tour.

JAY HAAS: Well, I guess, yeah, there's, at my advanced age and, you know, the winning at Bethpage was maybe, you know, not out of the question. But that really didn't suit my game so well. There's a ton of courses out here that don't suit my game very well. But this one, I was thinking about it, I won't say it takes the driver out of your hand here, but you don't need to just crush every single drive. There's a few lay-up holes, even for me there's lay-up holes off the tee. And I've played well here before. Obviously, it could be, I guess, any of us feel -- any of us in the field out here feel that we could win at any time that we tee it up. But this is probably, you know, if I had to pick the five places of the year that would be my best chance, this would probably be in that five.

Q. The past two years it seems look you have really elevated your game and your career, and you said it yourself; advanced age. What have you done or what have you done to change the last couple years where you're really a factor out here now?

JAY HAAS: In 2000 I had my worst year ever. I finished 141st or something like that on the Money List. First time out of the top-125 ever. And I just didn't feel like I was done. I didn't feel like that was the, my slide, you know I was going to just ease on out the door. I just felt like I still had good golf left in me. I had a little shoulder problem that year. I had surgery in December of 2000. And last year I played in the 126-to-150 category. So I only got in 21 events. But I just made up my mind that I was going to play well, I was going to work at it, I was going to do whatever it took to get back to being an exempt player again. And I ended up finishing 91st or 92nd. Something like that. Which I thought was okay. I thought it was good. But I didn't think that I just played out of my head. I still felt like I could improve and still I feel like that's the -- whether we're dumb or what, but I think all golfers, if you play golf, you think that man, I shot 72, but I should have been 71 or 68 or I mean, it's just, you always feel like you left a couple out there. And whether it be one round, one tournament, the whole year, I just felt like I could still do this. And my putting has been much better the last 15 months or so. I've had, changed a little bit in my putting. Just my outlook, my stroke, and that's helped me as much as anything. But I just feel like -- in this day and age with the technology, I'm hitting the ball farther than I ever have before. 20 years ago when they first started doing the stats my driving distance was 252. Last year it was 276. Now at 252 my position was like 70th in driving distance. And last year 276 I was 161st. So everybody's hitting it longer, but for me it seems like, man, this is great, I'm hitting my 7-iron longer than I ever hit a 7-iron or a driver longer than I ever hit a driver. So the courses don't seem that much longer to me because I'm getting a little bit longer. I have gotten longer, just with the technology.

Q. You probably got to keep your game up so you can beat your kids.

JAY HAAS: Well that's part of it too. They're both really good players and I hope they beat me all the time. But I'm not going to make it easy for them.

Q. Was there any point today where you, when you were watching the leaderboard, as good as you were playing, seeing some other players were doing some pretty amazing things too, did you, did that spur you on or did you think, gosh, why can't I be the only one playing well?

JAY HAAS: Well I looked up to see what everybody else was doing. But it is way too early. No, I don't ever begrudge anybody playing well. It's just part of it. There's no defense out here. And they probably looked up and said, who the hell is that? It must be, you know, Hunter Haas or one of his kids or something. You know, so but, you know, it is way too early to look at the leaderboard. But I think also when I play well, I feel like everybody else is playing well too. Because it seems that when you hit the ball well, the course seems easy. When you hit it badly, the course seems really hard. And today I hit it well and I drove it in the fairway every hole just about. Hit a bunch of greens. And so it seemed the course seemed very easy for me today. Very playable. But I know that's not the case every day out. So I just have to -- you have to take advantage of it when you can.

Q. Great round.

JAY HAAS: All right. Thank you very much.

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