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HUMANA CHALLENGE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CLINTON FOUNDATIONJanuary 24, 2015Bill HaasLA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA DOUG MILNE: All right, we'll just keep rolling right along. Bill Haas 3‑under 69 today in round three of the Humana Challenge. Past champion here, so certainly familiar territory for you. Just some comments on today's round and then we'll take a few questions. BILL HAAS: Yeah, today was, I haven't really felt sharp from tee to green funny as that is to be 17‑under, all week. Which maybe has made me play smart. I think I only made one bogey in 54 holes. So I'm not necessarily in a lot of trouble a lot. I made a few nice par saves, but it's just kept me from being up‑and‑down all week. It's just kind of been progressively a bunch of pars and occasional birdie and yesterday I got hot with the putter. I made a couple 35 footers just to keep it going and today just the putter wasn't as hot. I had some chances. On that Nicklaus Course, you get a lot of short irons and I definitely had my chances to maybe shoot five or six. But I needed to be hot with the putter again and I wasn't quite as sharp. DOUG MILNE: We'll take a few questions. Q. When I saw you Wednesday on the range you said you hoped to be in here late on the weekend. Here you are, late on the weekend. Are you surprised that you're still maybe in touch with the leaders with a 69 today instead of maybe going 64? BILL HAAS: I mean, obviously, I think the weather today, the weather, I mean, it's perfect out there, but there is definitely some wind. I don't think it takes much wind here in the desert to really affect the way the golf course plays. It wasn't that strong, but it was certainly strong enough to ‑‑ I heard Erik touching on it a little bit, that you had to think. And if it was left‑to‑right and there was water right, if you got one leaking, the wind should certainly take it over to the water. So, it made me hit a few bad shots that made me then play safe and I couldn't get aggressive on some of the holes. So, 3‑under on the Nicklaus, usually if you look back at the past winners, that's probably, they probably didn't shoot 3‑under on Nicklaus they probably went a lot lower than that. So I wish I could have gotten a few more just to keep pace with the leaders and, hopefully, Matt doesn't birdie the last four holes and get too far in front of us. But if he does, that just means we good got to go out and be that much more aggressive tomorrow. Q. Did you feel coming into this, obviously you're very comfortable on these golf courses, because you played so well here, did you feel like you had another run at the top of the leaderboard here or do you just feel that way every year you come here? BILL HAAS: Obviously, I remember I called my wife, I shouldn't even say this, but I called my wife and I said I think I'm going to have trouble scoring this week. I haven't played in four months. I fractured my wrist last year, not to the point where I couldn't play, I played on it, and doctors orders were if you want it to heal, you need to not play. So basically for three months I played a few outings and that was it. I didn't practice, I didn't grind it out, just because I was trying to get healthy. So, when I came out here, last Wednesday, I literally was knocking rust off, like we say. I know everybody does. Everybody takes breaks, so I shouldn't even harp on that. But I was unsure of how I would be able to score out here and so obviously very pleased to be anywhere near the lead. Q. When did you hurt your wrist, how did you do it or was it a progress sieve thing? BILL HAAS: I talked about it a few times. I fell down some stairs at Hilton Head. Q. Left wrist? BILL HAAS: Left wrist. It's really not that bad. It doesn't really hurt to swing, it just hurts in random times, like if I'm doing a waggle with the club, I can feel it twinge. But at impact it doesn't hurt. Q. So it's pretty well healed now? BILL HAAS: Not really. It doesn't feel like it should, in my opinion, but I just, the only thing that I'm concerned about is whether or not I favor it unconsciously. Has it changed my swing or do I have less power because of it. But pain‑wise, I'm pain free, pretty much. Q. Does Bob Goalby still come around here much? BILL HAAS: He's here. He was out the first two days. I didn't see him out there today. On the Nicklaus Course is pretty, very difficult to walk, so I don't think he was coming out today. But he'll probably be out there on the back nine tomorrow if I'm, if I play any good. Q. He's got to be mid 70's at least? BILL HAAS: He's in his 80s. Q. He's still walking? BILL HAAS: Yeah, he's doing great. Q. You had had four straight years with a win. And then you didn't. Do you mitigate that by saying well I was hurt or do you still feel like it wasn't as successful a year as you want. Because a broken wrist is a broken wrist? BILL HAAS: Honestly, I think my wrist, I was lucky when I fell to not get hurt worse. But, yeah, it was the first year that I didn't play a couple tournaments because of an injury and then I was playing not feeling great. Pretty much for 10 years I've been injury‑free. So, that maybe played a part in it, but I lost by one in Greensboro towards the end of the year, gave myself a chance there. Didn't miss any cuts last year. So I was consistent enough to give myself a chance on some weekends. I just didn't play as well as I would like on Sunday, pretty much. I think there was a couple times last year where I could have maybe pulled one out. But it's just hard to win out here. Which makes me thankful for those wins I do have. Q. You only played China and McGladrey in the wrap around season and then you said you had an extended time off as well. I know they asked you earlier, but is it really surprising that you're shooting this number? BILL HAAS: I'm comfortable here in the desert. I certainly, I believe that I can shoot good scores here. But, yeah, I played horrible in China and so I, that was kind of when I said, all right, well I just need to take a break, get away from it. So, I definitely was not as confident as I had been coming in this week. So, definitely so far something to build on, but I also know in the back of my head I don't think I'm a hundred percent. So, I'll go on the range and work on it and I just got to stay in the moment and try not to hit too many foul balls tomorrow. Q. It's only been two years of this wrap around. What do you think of it? BILL HAAS: Yeah, mixed thoughts. The TOUR, in my opinion, they got a lot more, they got a lot of people that are a lot smarter than me figuring all that out to where we make, to where we play for more money more often. Which is great for our TOUR. And we give a lot more money back to charity because of these tournaments that we do. So, it's a good thing. Now, when it comes to I only played twice in the fall and some guys have already played six, seven, eight events. You get behind the eight ball a little bit. But that's when you have to tell yourself, it's a long year, there's 20 more something tournaments, plenty of opportunity to play well, it's just, it is what it is. I think you have to like it or at least deal with it. And it's just hard to ‑‑ it's nice to start, in my opinion, we always thought of the year as January 1. But it's just, you can't think of it that way anymore. Q. Do you still have people come up to you on the street or just on the golf course and want to talk about hitting the ball out of a like? BILL HAAS: Yeah. Q. A lot of them? BILL HAAS: I mean, it's kind of what I'm become ‑‑ that's what they equate me to and which is great. It was probably my career moment, so far. I would have to do something pretty special, I would have to win a Major to top that. So, that's my goal, so maybe we can talk about winning a Major one day. But until then, I'm happy to talk about it. It was a fun moment for me and a great moment. Q. An 11.4 million dollar moment? BILL HAAS: Yeah, I mean it was a lot riding on it and like you say, and more than that, it was the shot. And to win in a playoff against one of my friends and one of our best players in Hunter Mahan and to win the TOUR Championship, that's what it was about and those kind of how I remember it. You guys remind me of the bonus, which is great. I'm not trying to sound ungrateful, it's amazing. It's something that the guys on the TOUR have done to this wrap around schedule it means that we get to do that. So, I can't complain about it. DOUG MILNE: All right. Well, Billy, thanks for your time. Great playing. BILL HAAS: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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