QUICKEN LOANS NATIONAL

June 26, 2014

Bill Haas

Q. 16 of 18 greens in regulation, you hit the ball really well today.
BILL HAAS: Yeah, felt pretty good. Kept the ball in play off the tee. Missed a couple fairways but from the times I did, they were decent drives I was able to play from. You know, my only bogey was a 3-putt on probably the hardest hole on the course, so I wish I could have that 3-putt back. Other than that, this was a nice round to start the week. Obviously hopefully the ball-striking stays the same but I would like to putt a little nicer and get a little more out of it. Any time you shoot in the 60s here, you have to be happy.

Q. The golf course getting a little drier. How tough was it?
BILL HAAS: Yeah, the greens, they are still holding with a good-quality golf shot. That's the thing, if you're striking it well, you can get it. The wind was up. I thought the holes were tricky into the wind. The fourth hole, the first and second hole, those holes were into the wind today and played much more difficult than what we are used to.

Q. You have a win here, Riviera and East Lake; are these golf courses you just feel comfortable playing?
BILL HAAS: I don't know. Somebody asked me that yesterday. Maybe because it's somewhat -- it fits the lay of the land. It's an older golf course. For some reason, I think a newer golf course, you can tell it's been built by a bulldozer doesn't seem to suit my eye as much as the old-style golf courses. So happy to have done well on the good, classic golf courses.

Q. Apparently you're carrying some of the momentum from last year into this year with an opening 68. What was working well for you?
BILL HAAS: My ball-striking was consistent. I didn't hit a ton of shots close but got off to a nice start. Birdied the first and fourth hole, and getting to 2-under early always helps relax you a little bit. I certainly left a couple out there, but overall, I hit a number of greens and most of the fairways, and I think when you're doing that out here with this thick rough and challenging greens, it's nice to make it somewhat stress-free.

Q. You said yesterday that you love this golf course and it fits your eye. What about Congressional fits your eye?
BILL HAAS: I like the somewhat narrow fairways. I think it forces you to drive it better and in the thick rough, so if you do drive it well, you can really take advantage of this course because the greens are still somewhat receptive even though we have dry conditions. If you hit good tee shots and hit the fairways, I think you can be aggressive on some of these greens.

Q. Coming back defending champion, does it make you hungrier to win again?
BILL HAAS: Absolutely. Any time you get that feeling. I was having them out there today remembering some of the shots on Sunday. We had some similar pins yesterday to last Sunday and I remember hitting some good shots in there. It's a feeling you want to have more often for sure, and back here walking on the Congressional grounds, it gets the juices flowing. If anything I would love to have a good weekend and try to contend again.

Q. How is the course playing?
BILL HAAS: It is playing tough but I think if you hit the fairways, the greens are still receptive. You just have to make your par on the into-the-wind, tough holes today. Normally No. 1 and No. 4, you somewhat have short irons in and today you were having longer irons into those holes and you just had to make pars on those. Like 11 today played a little easier, a little more downwind, and certainly one of our tougher holes, I thought was more playable. Just got to take advantage of what the course was giving you and I did a decent job of that today. Off to a nice start, which anything can happen. I've had a few good weeks this year, where I started well and didn't finish as well, so I would like to correct those mistakes this week.

Q. Give us an example.
BILL HAAS: Like 4, I hit 4-iron in today with a good drive. So felt like the wind was pretty pumping into our face there today and luckily the pin was in the front and I hit a nice shot and actually made a birdie on that hole. So it felt like an eagle almost knowing that that hole is going to be playing tough foremost everybody. Got away with one there.

Q. The rough seems juicier than last year.
BILL HAAS: Yeah, I think so. They have done a good job. It's not that long but it's plenty thick enough, so I think if you get a bad lie, you cannot be aggressive at all, much less that's if you can get to the greens. Half the time I think you do just have to put it back in play.

Q. Did you hit any of those?
BILL HAAS: I didn't today. I drove the ball pretty well. The two times I remember being in the rough was No. 3, which is downwind so I just hit a 9-iron in and also No. 13 up the hill, kind of downwind and I hit an 8-iron out of the rough. So I was able to play both times when I had thick lies in the rough, so it worked out. But if you have a hole into the wind and you start missing fairways, 5-irons are not getting out of there.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports