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GREATER HICKORY KIA CLASSIC AT ROCK BARNEOctober 19, 2014Jay HaasCONOVER, NORTH CAROLINA DAVE SENKO: We'd like to welcome our 2014 greater hickory Kia Classic champion, Jay Haas. This is getting to be ol' hat for you. This is your third win here in Hickory, and you also won three times in Iowa at the Principal Charity Classic. This has got to be special, especially a lot of people talk about the window being between 50 and 55, and you became the 22nd player to win at 60 or older. Maybe just get us started and we'll get some questions. 22 events, 18 different players. JAY HAAS: Well, I think that in itself, we talked about it yesterday, it had been a couple years since I'd won, and I felt like I'd played well enough to win at times in those two years, but for whatever reason I wasn't able to pull it off. Today having the lead basically the whole day, whether it be tied or I think maybe I got one behind of Joe going into 6, he maybe birdied 6, and had me by a stroke, but other than that I was right by the lead or in the lead for the last couple days. To hold on, I guess, and to do that is pretty special. When I won a couple years ago, I was wondering if I could still do it, but is that the last time, so to do it‑‑ I didn't know‑‑ 60 is I guess some kind of benchmark or watermark that not that many guys have done that. But it's just a number, I guess. I still feel like I'm capable, obviously, after this weekend, and it certainly gives me some confidence in the last couple events and then going on to next year. Hopefully I won't completely fall off the map when I turn 61 in December. It was very special. It was a special week, and we talked about Bill being inducted into the Wake Hall of Fame. To think that I came to Wake Forest in 1972, in my math serves me right, that's 42 years ago, is pretty incredible all that's happened, all the great stuff that's happened to me in my life has just been‑‑ I've been extremely blessed, and just to do this today is‑‑ I don't know, I'll think about it and remember it for a long, long time. Q. I know you touched on it a little bit, but what's been the biggest difference between this year you've got I think this is your 15th top 10 finish and you almost just about doubled your earnings from a year ago. JAY HAAS: Yeah, I'll tell you, last year I just didn't do anything very well. I didn't drive the ball well. My irons were not good because of my driving. My putting wasn't great, chipping. Nothing was very spot‑on. I made some adjustments over the winter perhaps, but I've made adjustments over the winter for years, for 30 and 40 years, and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. This year I came out and played very well early, played good in Hawai'i, played good in Florida, and it just kind of built through the year. It was kind of a big wave for me, and I putted well, and I played some good rounds under the pressure and hit some good shots under the pressure early on in the year, and I think that was as much fun as anything just still being able to hit‑‑ I remember a 5‑iron at Boca earlier this year. You know, it was at the Allianz tournament, and it was on the 17th hole, and I needed to birdie the last couple holes maybe or birdie‑eagle, and I hit this 5‑iron to about six feet, and I don't know that I could have done that last year, or I didn't do it last year. I didn't make the putt, and I didn't birdie 18, but still, it just was a‑‑ it really gave me some fuel, I think, just to know that I can still hit a shot like that. You might think that's crazy, but if you keep giving yourself opportunities and keep failing, once in a while you kind of go, well, I guess I just can't do it anymore. But to hit a shot like that, to hit a shot like the 4‑iron I hit at 17 today, wasn't stiff to the pin or anything, but it was a beautiful shot under the conditions, and then make the putt, those are the kind of things that I play for, I live for, to be able to do that. DAVE SENKO: Jay, birdies, starting at No.2. JAY HAAS: Yeah, I pit a pitching wedge to about 12 feet. 3, I hit a lob wedge to four feet. 6, I hit a 9‑iron to two feet. 10, I hit an 8‑iron to about four feet. Three‑putted 12 from about 35 feet, missed about a four‑footer. And then 13, I hit a gap wedge to about six feet. 17, 4‑iron to maybe 16, 18 feet, I guess. I three‑putted No.1 for par. That was not the way I wanted to get off to the start. Missed about a four‑footer there. It seemed like every hole today I had a three, four, five‑footer, whether it be for birdie or for par. My lag putting was not great, but you know, it was one of those days, it was not an easy‑‑ I never made it easy on myself I didn't feel like. There was not many tap‑ins. I put a lot of stress on my putting, and it showed missing that putt and missing the one at 12. But overall I hit a lot of good putts all week, and I made three bogeys and they were three three‑putts. I didn't miss many greens and had quite a few opportunities. Q. Your back issues earlier in the year, did that scare you a little bit? JAY HAAS: You're right, it did. I never really lost any events through injury. I was at the Senior U.S. Open in Oklahoma and was‑‑ had played really, really good up to that point. It was a tournament or a site that I had won the Senior PGA at Oak Tree, so I was really anxious going into the event, and then Thursday morning came and I couldn't go. It might have been the first time in my career that I've withdraw at the event, and then didn't go to the Senior British, just I didn't feel like it was a smart thing to do to get on an airplane and do that, so I lost about a month there where I had a couple weeks off in between there, so I didn't play any tournament golf for about a month and then I came back and didn't play great in Minneapolis. I'm trying to think what was after that, and didn't finish top 10 at Dick's. But then the following week I did play well and kind of stayed on this roll, I guess, if you will. But yeah, I was concerned, and there are no miracle cures. I just think I'm going to feel like this now for the remainder‑‑ if I don't play golf, it's pretty good, and it felt good this week. It has felt good for a couple weeks. Q. Did you do much practicing? JAY HAAS: No, I putted after the round yesterday, and I would say that was the fourth or fifth time this year that I've practiced anything after golf. For most of the year I've just felt like going right to the fitness trailer and laying on some ice and just getting off my feet. But certainly with the adrenaline flowing and everything, that makes it easier, I think, to forget about it, but hopefully it's on a downward cycle now where it won't be bothering me for a while. Q. (No microphone.) JAY HAAS: Yeah, I won't say it consumed me or anything like that, and like I say, I've played some of my best golf this year in relation to where I am in my life, I guess. I've been very, very consistent, and talking about that shot I hit earlier this year in February, but at the same time I kept kind of hitting my head on the ceiling and I couldn't break through. To be able to do that again, to hold it together and not shoot 64 from six strokes back or something and have somebody hand me the event, being in the lead with a couple stroke lead coming out today, David is a beautiful play, beautiful putter, Kirk obviously has been on a roll after winning last week, and it's funny, he was kind of‑‑ not floundering, but I had him by three, I think, and then he was making a mess of the 13th hole, he hit it in the water on his second shot trying to lay up, and then he almost hit it in the water on his fourth shot, and then he chipped in for par. He made about a 20‑footer on the next hole and about a 15‑footer on the next hole, and I'm saying, isn't this something, the guy who was getting ready to make a six or seven, now he's one behind. But that's just the way golf is. Joe Durant ahead was playing great. There were a ton of guys that were‑‑ every time I looked up it seemed like there was two pages of 10 or better on the leaderboard. So any one of them could have gotten hot, made five or six birdies on our back nine here. Q. You said you and Jan have five kids and seven grandkids? JAY HAAS: We have five grandchildren, two more on the way, so by March we'll have seven. Q. Is Bill one of them? JAY HAAS: Bill's wife is expecting in March. It's just satisfying to have some type of longevity, I think, in my career, and to think that my first victory on the PGA TOUR was 1978 in San Diego, and so how many years is that since that's been‑‑ Q. 36. JAY HAAS: Just 36? So just to be able to have a career to last that long, I guess, is‑‑ I don't know if it's any more satisfying at 60, it's just extremely satisfying to be holding that trophy. I always tell me to see your name up on the top of that list at the end of the week means you were the best that week, and there's just no substitute for that. Q. (No microphone.) JAY HAAS: She was at Pinehurst, I won the Hall of Fame Classic. That was probably '81 or '82, last one of those. And then she was at The Legends down in Savannah, and then here. You know, she chose to‑‑ and we chose, I guess, for her to stay home and take care of kids and raise them what we thought was somewhat in a normal environment of going to public schools and all that stuff. And she's not a terrific traveler anyway. She's not fond of jumping on an airplane and all that, so that's just the way I was. Yeah, I won nine times on the PGA TOUR, so out of 800 tournaments, that's not a great percentage, so the chances of her not being there were pretty darned good. But for her to be here is just‑‑ she drove over yesterday afternoon and watched me play the last couple holes. The first hole she saw I three‑putted, 17, and she went, oh, my gosh, maybe I shouldn't be here, and then I birdied 18. We had a good laugh about that last night. But it's just nice to‑‑ we're almost empty nesters now. Georgia is our youngest. She is graduating in December and she's living at home now, and she's ready to get out away from us. It's been a lot of water under the bridge here so far. Q. (No microphone.) JAY HAAS: You know, just every year I see her here behind the stands at the 18th green there, and she's got a great big grin on her face, and I think this is the first year she's actually watched and walked some holes out there. Yeah, I usually give her my glove and my ball when I finish, and she's got the best, most natural, uninhibited smile on her face. It's just so great to see her. And then this year, I saw her on the course. It was the first time, and gave her a big hug. It was funny, I told Jan, I said, this little girl Ashley has been following me here, and I kind of gave her a little rundown. I said, introduce yourself. I always say, hey, how's my girl doing when I see her, and so she told Jan, I'm Jay's girl and he's my man, so her basically saying, just stay back. But it was fun to see the smile on her face. We'll have some good pictures for her. Q. Will your schedule be any different next year? JAY HAAS: You know, I've looked a little bit of where I can get out to see some of the guys, and I'll be out probably like at Doral, the tournament there, maybe Charlotte for a day or two, Augusta I will be at, PLAYERS Championship. Every five or six weeks I think it'll be important for me to get out there and see some of the guys on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and just‑‑ the team will be starting to take shape I would say by that time. Maybe not definitive, but certainly the top six or so will be in great position to make the team, and there will be some guys that I don't know that well. I just met Harris English, I've been around Jimmy Walker a little bit in the last year, so I think I can only enhance the process if I'm there a little bit more and knowing the guys. I have a little bit of a benefit of a foot in the door with Bill, being with him a little bit, and so he can play a practice round with somebody and I can watch him play or something like that. But as far as missing tournaments out here, I don't know. I haven't looked that far in advance, but if that has to be, that has to be. I'd much rather miss an event on the Champions Tour, and if I need to be somewhere to see the guys more, then I'll do that. Q. (Question regarding Ryder Cup). JAY HAAS: You know, I hate it for everybody. Certainly the players‑‑ I know everybody is trying their guts out on all sides of it. You know, you can say in all sports you look and say, boy, those guys are really having a lot of fun and loose and everything like that.  Well, yeah, they're winning. You look in the dugout of the World Series or the Division Series and things like that, and the guys that are getting the timely hits, they're all yukking it up in the dugout, and on the basketball court, everybody is high‑fiving, they're making three‑pointers. The better you play golf, the more fun it can be. I don't know, I'll feel pressure, I think. I will feel the pressure of being the captain, but these guys are tremendous golfers, and I've watched them now as an assistant captain for three times, and some of the stuff that they do just amazing me how good they can play under the heat. They've had three victories on Freddie's watch. Having him there is wonderful. I told him basically and told everybody that basically I'm going to be giving the speeches, but nothing else is going to be any different. In the team room, hopefully we can pull the right strings and put the guys together and pair them up like they want to be paired up. Q. You mentioned Joe Durant and how you guys were nip and tuck for a lot of the day. He said earlier that he felt like the dynamic kind of changed on 15 when he bogeyed and dropped another stroke behind you. As a competitor when that happens to the guy you're playing against, does that change the way you approach the final two holes? JAY HAAS: I will say that I noticed that, and I'm a scoreboard watcher. I'm not seeking them out and studying them, but it's not like they're an eclipse. I can look at them and feel like it's a benefit to me. I like seeing my name up there. To me it would be like a football coach and he's got six minutes to go, he doesn't really need to throw it, or he needs to be aggressive. That's kind of why I like to look at the leaderboard. But yeah, I'd seen that he had made a bogey there at 15, and I made a nice par. But then Kirk made his putt for birdie on probably the hardest hole on the course, or where most of the accidents could happen for me. You know, I could‑‑ every time my ball is in the air going over on to that green, I feel very fortunate that I'm going to make at least not a six or a seven. But yeah, I felt like a couple strokes was big. Then it went down to one. But to have Joe, not two or three guys there a stroke behind, just having the one guy a stroke back was big. It wasn't like I was playing with Kirk, so it wasn't like I could guard him, but I could see what he was doing. That was a big hole for Joe. And then me making the birdie at 17 was huge. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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