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VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 12, 2016Bill HaasPalm Harbor, Florida DOUG MILNE: All right. Billy Haas, thanks for joining us for a few minutes. 4-under 67 after Round 3 of the Valspar. Puts you at 8-under, up by one. Obviously not the easiest conditions the past few days but you're obviously in the position you want to be in heading in the final round. BILL HAAS: Yeah, feel lucky to be in that position. Like you said, it's been breezy, gusty at times and so you just -- there's been a few holes that you just have to hit good golf shots. You can't wish one up there. My putter the first two days I felt like I had about probably between 6 putts from 4 to 5 to 6 feet to save par and I've made almost all of them. I three-putted 13 and missed a short putt. I -- it looked bad. I would like to see it on film. But it looked like it hit something and dove left. That's been the thing that's really helped me this week, I've made a lot of par saving putts. Q. Your dad was here earlier in the week. I know that his opinion, you value that and everything. Was there anything you were working on in your game or anything that he told you that made you feel better about your game? BILL HAAS: Yeah. I mean I brought him down here -- basically, like you said, I value his opinion more than my own opinion and so I asked him to come and watch me hit some. I was just hoping he would have the magical touch and change it for me and luckily so far -- I mean, obviously, I'm playing well and I give him full credit but we came up with a shot on the 5th hole on Tuesday to kind of feel like I abbreviate my follow through a little bit but still hit a full shot which, in turn, I think makes you speed your hands up a little bit because I tend to -- my body -- my lower body goes and my upper body hangs behind and I hit shots to the right. So, just that one swing thought, in turn, does something in my swing. Now, I'm not a technical guy so I don't think I do well if I'm thinking clubhead position but I do well when I'm thinking type of golf shot, if that makes any sense. So, yeah, he came up with the swing thought I've had basically for three days and I'm leading so I give him -- without him coming down, I might not even have made the weekend. It was very valuable. Q. Had you heard that tip before or that thought before? BILL HAAS: Yeah, I think so. I mean it's just a way to -- I don't even know really what it does. I was into the wind and hit this shot kind of high and soft to the right, like the shot on 18 today. I don't know if y'all saw that one. Just an awful shot with a wedge. Shouldn't go that far off line with a wedge. I think if I speed -- if I try to hit a full shot but not follow through and turn I got to hit my -- my hands have got to go pretty fast to hit it full. So I think in turn, that's what it's doing. But certainly when you're struggling you either try to speed your hands up with the full finish or speed your hands up with the half finish. There's so many ways to get something through, you know, through -- from your head to your body because sometimes they don't equal up. Q. Is that a difficult thing to do, have a new swing thought before you tee it up in the tournament? BILL HAAS: I don't think so because I have a new swing thought every week (laughter). That's the nature of this game. Someone else might tell you different. I think every week we're trying to get better and when we're at our best we're trying to stay there. It may be a new swing thought, may be the same one you used last week but you're still thinking. Since you're thinking of a new swing -- when you start struggling you're looking for the one thing that's going to change it. Maybe that gets me in trouble because then I'm searching too much, but, then again, that helps me that I'm not okay with mediocrity or not okay with struggling. You always got to try to get better. Q. What has it been like for you being part of such a golf family? You found it's putting more pressure on you or raised the expectations and the bar for you? How do you look back at it? BILL HAAS: No, I don't know. I was very lucky to have my dad and do what he did for a living growing up. I don't think I understood it when I was real young and once I got to an age where I did understand it, then I started playing golf. He was very valuable to me to learn and to get better. It was great. I don't see it any other way because that's how it was. I didn't have two dads. I had the one dad and this is just how it was and I loved it. I got to travel a decent amount, we got to see a lot of golf and see some pretty neat things. I remember the '04 I was in college but I think it was the '04, the Presidents Cup when they ended up in a tie. I was walking with my dad watching the playoff and hearing him kind of talk about what Ernie and Tiger were doing. I just thought was a very cool moment. I was at the -- I can't think of the year, maybe the '93, '4, '5 Ryder Cup at Oak Hill. I remember my dad was in one of the last matches and it came down to his match and just seeing that, those were such cool moments for me to experience and to feel more involved than, say, just the average fan. So, golf-wise it was awesome and I don't think it adds any pressure. Like this is a perfect example. He came down here this week and helped make me play better. Didn't -- I didn't feel like now I should play better because my dad came and looked at me. I value his opinion, you know, so much and if it goes south, I can blame him (laughter). That's always nice. Q. You guys have the same personality? BILL HAAS: I think so. I think he and my brother are a lot alike. Everybody tells me I say certain things and that sounds just like your dad. I think we're pretty similar. I mean I'm trying to be like him but we're all individuals, we're all, DNA-wise, we're all different but I think led by a great example and I'm just trying -- I think I say and act and do mostly like he would. Q. You would seem to be, and I think you would agree with this, hard on yourself, expect more out of yourself. Do you know if he was like that and do you guys ever talk about that? BILL HAAS: Yeah, I think so. I think some of the people -- some players I've talked and other people maybe that have caddied for him, walked for him they say one thing that surprised them about my dad was how much he cared and how much he grinded and tried and how good he was. Everybody talks about what a nice guy he is but nice guys can be really good and care a lot and get mad and I certainly think I am hard on myself but everybody that's out here -- Jordan Spieth is hard on him. He was the No. 1 player in the world. Q. He verbalizes it all the time. A Yeah. But I don't mind that. I enjoyed playing with him. He struggled the first day but it was like even when he struggling it's like you're waiting for him to be in the Top-10 and sure enough coming tomorrow he's in the Top-10. The guy is amazing and I think the reason he's so good because he's hard on himself. I don't see anything wrong with it. Obviously if it gets in your way and you're so hard on yourself that you can't even pull the trigger, then that's bad. But if you're hard on yourself that makes you try to get better, then I don't see anything wrong with it. Q. What's the second best beard you've ever seen anybody in golf have? BILL HAAS: The best has got to be my playing partner tomorrow. Q. That's what I'm assuming, yeah. BILL HAAS: Is there such a thing as a good beard (laughter)? Q. You tell me. BILL HAAS: He wears it well, but I remember when I was young my dad, when I started shaving and playing golf he would always say, "Did Arnold ever have a beard? Did Jack ever have a beard? Did you lose your razor, Bill?" I would get those a lot. That was just instilled in me. But Graham wears it well. It looks good on him. I'm just joking there. He even said -- I was talking to him this morning. "You going to ride that out, whenever (laughter)?" He's like, "Yeah, one day probably wake up and shave it." He has no timetable. I mean it works. He's Canadian. I don't know why that makes sense (laughter). That's what hockey players do, right, playoff beard? He's got a full year beard. Q. What you're saying, it looks good on him? BILL HAAS: It does. I don't think it looks bad at all. Boo Weekley was impressive. Now he's got the goatee, long goatee. Mine wouldn't look like that. Mine -- I don't have any on my head so it looks silly, I think. Colt Knost, he's like -- we were joking, looks like that game you used to put the magnets and you put the black stuff on the bald head, that's kind of what Colt got. Don't quote that. That's bad. Colt is going to get so mad. Q. Bill, when you were going to PGA TOUR events as a kid to follow your dad, who else would you go around to watch? BILL HAAS: He used to say once I got to an age of where he noticed that I was watching and trying to learn, he would say, "Don't just watch me. You watch me all the time. Go watch Freddie, go watch" -- he used to say Slu, Slu has got one of the best golf swings out there. I mean all of his friends, really, that we were around a lot, Tom Purtzer. I remember watching a guy that hit that I really liked swinging, Doug Martin. He hurt his back and didn't play much. Really could swing it well. Mike Hulbert, I remember watching him. But I was pretty lucky in the sense I got to watch a lot of those guys. Maybe after a round I would go out to the range and be sitting with my dad and those guys would be hitting. Davis Love, some of my swing thoughts like Davis. It's good to keep doing that, to keep watching other players on the range and see what they do and why do they hit such good shots. Why is that guy fading it so well, try to do what he does. Why does that guy draw it in there nice? That's what he taught me, to look at other players and learn from them. Q. What was the chip like that went in? BILL HAAS: Didn't get into the heavier stuff into the first cut. Other than the green right there where everybody was walking off, really beat up. If you went down and looked at it there's not any grass. There was a strip of grass and dirt and then green again and I was trying to land it on that first strip of grass. I was just focusing on that and once it did that it was downhill to the hole. So pretty elementary chip, I would say. Obviously for it to go in was a bonus but I didn't really -- I never thought I wasn't going to get that up and down. Now, I've hit many chips four feet by and missed it. Q. I have one last one. You were 8-under with a one shot lead and the next group is three shots behind and you shot 67 today. These are the facts. Does it feel like that's the position you're in as you're out there on the golf course? BILL HAAS: What do you mean? Q. I don't know. Let me rephrase that. Does it feel like you should be scoring better than you are? Is it the nature of the golf course? BILL HAAS: Definitely the nature of the golf course. I think there are certain holes that I just don't think you can birdie unless you make an unbelievable second shot or unbelievable long putt, you just happy with par and you go to the next hole. Then the next hole is into the wind, I got to get it in the fairway and hopefully hit the green and you two-putt. Already, made par there. I don't ever feel like No. 1, if you hit a good drive -- which is a really hard tee ball. If you hit a good drive you're kind of licking your chops on that hole to be able to hit it on the green and two-putt, start with birdie. 3 is a really hard hole. 4 -- 5 is one of the hardest par-5s we play on Tour your. 6 you can't hardly hit the fairway. 7 is played into the wind so that tee -- 8 is 230 into the wind. 10 is a tough fee shot. It's just every hole seems like all right, here we go again, which I think is good for tomorrow, I think it's going to keep me in the frame of mind that if I do bogey early it's okay, people are making bogies out here but, at the same time, it doesn't lend you -- you're not seeing many runs of birdies out there. Q. Feel like hard work does good for your swing? BILL HAAS: This course for sure what you're seeing 8-under leading for three days is almost Major-esq scoring. It's not necessarily a Major but -- or a Major set-up but that's what the great golf courses do, here, Hilton Head, everyday you'll see a 66 but you don't see four of them put together. I think we all wish we played more courses like this. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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