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THE PRESIDENTS CUPOctober 7, 2015Bill HaasSongdo IBD, Incheon City, Korea Q. Tough question to ask, but what was it like for your dad to sit you down and tell you you're sitting during the first session tomorrow? BILL HAAS: I mean, I totally get it. You look at the other 11 guys, and you can put anybody out there on both sides. Everybody here is exceptional golfers. I do feel like I could add to the team. I feel like I could help. But then again, I also think I can help by being a cheerleader tomorrow and just be ready to go when it's my turn to go, and that will be Friday, I believe. So get a little work in tomorrow, but also go watch some good golf and hopefully feed off of some of that. Q. How much work do you think you'll put in tomorrow or more cheerleading? BILL HAAS: I think more cheerleading in a sense. I'd love to watch some golf. But one of the neat things about it is we are allowed on the golf course, so behind the matches I can go play a few holes, and I may do that. Even if it's four holes, just get some swings in, and some reps in, and do some chipping and putting and have a nice range session. All that could take an hour and a half, and the rest of the three or four hours we're out there, I'd love to watch some golf. So lime looking forward to it. Q. It's quite interesting that you can do that. That's beneficial, isn't it? BILL HAAS: I think so. If you're sitting a whole day, why not go get some holes in if you're allowed to do that? If anything, it's just so me and Chris can go play. We might do a little match against each other and have to make a putt. You never know and during the matches the next day there might be a putt that you have to make, and that might give you that little bit of confidence. But, overall, it's going to be exciting to watch those matches. When you look at the match-ups, there are some great matches out there. Looking forward to that part of it. The other two Cups I played, you didn't sit. You just knew you were playing. So this is a new animal for me and a new experience. You just have to embrace it. If you think negatively about it, that can't help anything. Q. So it keeps it a little bit competitive in a sense if you guys go out and play some? BILL HAAS: I think so. I don't think there is anything good about sitting. I'm not going to sleep in and go out later in the day and hit a few balls. I think you come out with the team, support them, cheer them on. They're out there making birdies. Let them know that you're there watching them, and I think that's important. I'd love to see my own teammates watching me to make a birdie to go one up or tie a match or whatever. So that's what I'm going to try to do tomorrow, and while I'm doing that hopefully get carded in for a rain session or whatever. Just do whatever I can do to stay sharp for when my turn does come. The rest of the time be out there supporting them. Q. How has the week been for you so far? BILL HAAS: It's been great. Obviously, the team atmosphere, getting to be in the team room with the guys that you're in the locker room with on a weekly basis, but you're not really spending time with them intimately. Or they don't seem to -- on a weekly basis we're not picking each other's brains about golf swing or what's going on or how they're playing, certainly not talking about cheering each other on. I think this week is a week that you get to know a lot about these people. It's so much fun. We've talked about it a few times being there with my dad as the captain. Having him stand up at some of the dinners and round everybody up to leave or just give it a little bit of a talk is very fun for me. Q. Has there been a moment this week that you'd like to share that's been fun or behind the scenes type stuff? BILL HAAS: I mean, there is plenty of stuff. I just enjoy being with the team. Last night at dinner I'm sitting there with Fred, and you've got Jimmy Walker and Rickie Fowler and those guys, just talking to them at the table. I don't go to dinner with those guys very much during the year. I think you get to know these guys on the team so much better than you would if he didn't do this. I don't have anything specific. Certainly no father/son or Jay Haas player story or anything like that. Just having my mom here. My two sisters got here yesterday afternoon. To have the family here is pretty special. Q. What have you guys done for the couple dinners this week so far, anything special? BILL HAAS: Last night we did a little Korean barbecue where you cook some meat right there in front of you. Had plenty of food. The food just kept coming. It's just nice. The food has been delicious too. I think you come not knowing what to expect. Everybody seems to be pretty pleased. All the team rooms here at the course and back at the hotel. It's pretty easy to enjoy yourself. Q. Has this week been different than other cups you've played on? BILL HAAS: It's different in the sense we're in an area of the world that I've never come to and may never come again. I don't want to say that. I mean, it's beautiful here. Everybody that I've talked to has really enjoyed the atmosphere, the city where we're staying. The hotel is so nice. It's a ten-minute ride to the course. I mean, everything about it is easy and that makes everything comfortable and fun. So, so far, so good. Can't wait for the matches to start. Obviously we want to win. But win or lose, everybody here is having a blast. Q. What's that conversation like with your dad telling you you're not going to play? BILL HAAS: I guess for me, he was more comfortable telling me. I was there when he told Chris. And I hate if there is any bad feeling towards my dad, it's just not the way I am or the way I was raised or whatever. I don't know. He's telling me you're not playing, not one bit of me thought well, he doesn't think I'm playing well enough or anything like that. It's more of a numbers thing. Here's the guys we want to put together. Here are the guys, they want to play alternate shot and this is just the way it's worked out. You and Chris will probably play best ball Friday, and I'm like that's great. Not one bit of me, other than the competitive side of me wants to play every match. And I think that's the thing we all enjoyed about the Presidents Cup, is when you show up here, you know you're going to play every match and maybe sit on Saturday one day, but you're probably going to play every day, and there is no question of that. So this is new for me to have the feeling of I'm sitting a whole day. So that is different for me to have that feeling. At the same time, I'm looking forward to having that feeling to go cheerlead and maybe watch Phil and Zach play. Is that who is playing? Q. Yeah, is there a match? BILL HAAS: I think I'd love to see all of them or maybe pick a hole and say this is going to be a pivotal hole. Let's see how our guys play that hole. Or if there are guys that are one or two up, go watch them try to dominate a match. I think winning breeds winning. I think birdies breed more birdies. I think if anything, go feed off of them or pump them up. I remember in Melbourne, me missing a short putt, I think it was the ninth hole or tenth hole, and I was walking off the green and Phil was right there. He put his arm around me and said I don't want to see you looking down. He kind of smacked me in the butt and said let's go. Me and Hunter ended up winning that match. It was something I'll never forget. I didn't do anything special in the next hole or anything. But in that moment, Phil no way remembers that, but for me I do. I don't think I'm going to go put my arm around Phil if he hit a bad shot. But certainly having our teammates faces out there, I can't do anything but help. I look forward to experiencing that. Q. Why does it take so much time for your captain to pick a side or tell you? Does it make such a lot of difference to whom you might be playing against? I couldn't understand why couples and your dad were taking so much time. Now maybe it's confidential, I don't know. But obviously you were told before the meeting you weren't playing, I'm sure. That's all I've got to say. I'm not criticizing, I'm just intrigued why it took such a long time. BILL HAAS: Yeah, I think that's a question you need to ask them. I wasn't in there. I didn't know anybody took anymore time than the next guy. Q. I'm not criticizing, I just think it was a long time to make a decision, and whether it was a decision because of who you might play or what. BILL HAAS: Well, I think that's what a captain's job is certainly to put guys out there when they want to put them. And I think there is a method to it. One guy goes and the other guy answers and the other guy goes first and he answers. Q. I see all that. BILL HAAS: Well, it sounds like you understand. Q. Any reason on your caddie this week? BILL HAAS: Yeah, just the caddie I had all year, aside from throwing him under any kind of bus, I just wanted to change it up and use my brother-in-law in the playoffs. I used a guy that caddies for Scott Stallings usually a couple weeks just because I'm friends with him. And John Wood and Hunter, they're not splitting up by any means. I know Wood has been in a bunch of these, and he's done really good with Hunter. I just thought his experience with John and very fired up to be part of this. We just talked about it. He said I'd love the opportunity, and I said I'd love the opportunity to work with you for a week. If anything, it might give me what I'm trying to figure out what I'm looking for down the road. But I just think his experience can help. I'm good friends with Hunter, so I've gotten to know John pretty well. So I think it was an easy fit for something like this. Q. You've probably been asked this, but first time playing for your dad and his first move is to bench you? BILL HAAS: Yeah, I guess I don't see it that way. I mean, a lot of people are going to be benched, I guess. Q. You're supposed to be the starting pitcher. Isn't that how it works in little league? BILL HAAS: Yeah, dad puts his son on the mound. I don't know, when you look down the list, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar. Some guy has got to sit. I'm not saying I can't play with those guys, and I definitely think I can help the team when I do play, but I think it's a numbers game. A lot of guys really want to play foursome matches, and the way it's set up and the way we've all talked about it, it's been very much -- it's not like my dad, and Freddie and Davis are sitting there not letting us know what they're thinking. I think all of us are telling them this is what we like. Q. Who do you expect to have in Four-Ball tomorrow? BILL HAAS: I think maybe me and Chris will play together. Oh, the next day. Q. I'm sorry, Friday. BILL HAAS: I would think me and Chris will play together. I don't know if that's set in stone a hundred percent, but a little bit tomorrow if they go 5-0, certainly going to be harder to split guys up. But certainly foursome and four-ball are different animals. I think it's hard to look at the list of players and go I don't want to play with that guy. If you look at those guys, I want to play with all of them. I think that's what makes the captain's job difficult. As far as me sitting or Chris sitting, I don't think it has anything to do with who is playing good or bad. Everybody seems to be pretty sharp. There's been a lot of history with some other guys, Rickie, and Jimmy have had good success together. I think Phil has made it known who he thinks is good or who is playing well right now and who he'd like to play with. I think my dad likes that. Getting tidbits from everybody. You can't please everyone in the sense we all want to play with Jordan. We all want to play with Phil. It's so hard to just pick. But it's just the way it worked out. People are going to sit. I'm not happy sitting. I think the way the format was it made that less of an issue. Now all of a sudden it's an issue, I guess. So it's a new animal for me, because I've only played a couple, and I haven't played Ryder Cup, so I haven't felt this feeling of sitting or whatever. I've only felt the feeling of, yeah, let's go play. I played five matches in my other two events. But without sounding like I don't care. If I only played three or if I only play four, I'm not going to leave here disappointed. I think I just want everyone to play well and win, obviously. You know, we talk about it Sunday, whatever happens, whatever the results are, at the end of the day I just want everybody to play their best. And if I have to cheer on a match, that's my deal. Q. It's a team thing. So I could ask you the same question I asked Jordan. As a Carolina guy, when you're told you're going to a barbecue, what were you expecting last night and what did you get? BILL HAAS: Well, I definitely wasn't expecting pulled pork and ribs. I was expecting -- I think I was in Hawaii one time and I went to a Korean barbecue place, and it was the same thing. They had the grill on the table and some rare meats came out and you got to cook them to your temperature and all that. So I was somewhat expecting what we got. But there were definitely some dishes. A lot of food kept coming, and there were certainly dishes that I would not order, which is nice because you're experiencing a little bit of what they have here that you wouldn't experience if you didn't have that night. If I order room service every night I'm probably going to order pasta or pizza or whatever, a hamburger. So it's nice to go eat some Kim Chi and obviously some sushi and stuff like that. Q. Who was at your table? Because Jordan said Rickie was licking the bowl. BILL HAAS: Rickie ate everything from what I understand. He was a couple tables down. But by the end of the night I sat with my dad and my mom. But I started and I was sitting with Fred and Bubba was to my left and Angie. It was fun hearing Bubba doesn't eat a whole lot of that stuff. So hearing him talk about the food and what he's used to, it was just all entertaining, I guess. But I, on the other end of the spectrum, like to somewhat taste things and give it a try. If I don't like it, I'm not going to eat it. But you don't know you don't like it until you try it. All the food was great. I didn't leave there not enjoying anything. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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