JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 28, 2002

J.P. Hayes

TODD BUDNICK: We welcome Champion of the 2002 John Deere Classic, J.P. Hayes, second career victory comes four years one month and 14 days after the first, JP, which one is sweeter.

J.P. HAYES: (Laughs) well, it's a hard question. This one was -- I probably wanted this one more just because I didn't win the first one. I didn't know what I was getting into and it just kind of happened. But I definitely wanted this one more, so in that respect it's pretty sweet.

TODD BUDNICK: You played incredible week two, three birdies just one bogey. That pretty much tells the story right there.

J.P. HAYES: Yeah, I don't think I have ever gone that many holes or played a tournament with that few bogeys. I am sure I haven't, actually probably haven't even come close. It was a pretty steady week.

TODD BUDNICK: Tell us you wasted no time birdies on 1 and 2 got, you going right away. Just tell us about today.

J.P. HAYES: Well, it was, I felt very good from the start. I just had absolutely no feeling at all on the 1st tee, different than when I was on the 1st tee on Thursday. It was -- I didn't know if that was good or bad. But that's the way it was, and I got off to a good start, didn't hit a great drive, but it wasn't a terrible drive,. But with two birdies, with Robert struggling from the start, definitely, you know, gave me some confidence, right from the start, and seemed like nobody really shot low today.

TODD BUDNICK: Questions.

Q. What is your previous low four-round total on Tour?

J.P. HAYES: To par?

Q. Yes.

J.P. HAYES: This would be it. I am sure. Oh previous?

Q. Yes.

J.P. HAYES: Probably a couple of weeks ago in Milwaukee. I was 18-under. I might have been 18-under there a couple of times, I am not sure. No, no, well, okay for a four round tournament I was 18-under par. I shot, I think, 24-under par at the Bob Hope but it is a 5-rounder.

Q. Are you really happy with the way today went? You seemed unflappable everything seem ed -- nothing seemed to be bothering you really?

J.P. HAYES: Yeah, I kind of surprised myself a little bit in that I really didn't miss a golf shot today. You expect in the situation to maybe hit a couple of lose shots, but I just, boy I just -- every shot I hit was pleasing to the eye. Aside from the tee shot on 1.

Q. Robert talked about yesterday about wanting to win and get back to where he felt he belonged in the world of golf. Where do you see yourself fitting in in the hierarchy or whatever -- having scored your second win now?

J.P. HAYES: Well, I don't know really. I haven't thought about that. I probably would have to say that I am no different than when I started this tournament in my mind. I always believed that I was going to win again and I did, but, you know, I don't think it really changes my -- where I am. It will improve my world ranking. It's going to get me in some more tournaments, but I am still going to be a guy that's going to go out and give it is 110% at every tournament. That's not going to change.

Q. How far removed is the two-time winner from the guy who went through Q-School nine straight times?

J.P. HAYES: Well, I am definitely at a different point in my career. Then I was -- I probably could say that everything I did revolved around golf. I wanted it very badly and was willing to go through Q-School every year to get it. Not that I am not now, but I am to the point now where I have other things in my life. I have got a wonderful family. I have got other things I enjoy to do, and, you know, it's not the grind that it used to be.

Q. JP, you had the course record 61 and all those birdies all throughout the week. But those two strings of pars, 13 in a row yesterday, and I think it was 8 in a row after (inaudible) it kept you in a position to win while other people may have been falling back having periodic bogey. How important was maintaining par when you -- (inaudible)?

J.P. HAYES: It was huge. The weekend had played pretty difficult with the wind. Yesterday I played pretty steady starting off the round, had some birdie chances and didn't make them.

Today was a little bit different in that I hit the ball very well right from the start and I told my caddie walking off 8, I felt like I could have birdied the first eight holes. I hit all these putts, that were just what I thought were perfect putts, and, you know, so I felt like there was nothing more I could have done at that point to do anything better. I just was -- I was really happy with the way I was rolling the ball and I thought if I just get it on the green. But you are right, I think, that makes all the difference is when you are not making mistakes in those times when you are not making birdies it makes a lot of difference.

Q. You said you would always believed winning again what made you think that, game progressing (inaudible) --

J.P. HAYES: Probably a little bit of everything made me believe that. I don't know, I just thought I would. I knocked on the door several times and always felt comfortable in those situations, although they didn't work out. I always felt like there was nothing really keeping me from winning again. So I think just, you know, maybe I just made myself believe that I would.

Q. Did you surprise yourself even walking onto the 1st tee and feeling so comfortable and calm?

J.P. HAYES: I did. I didn't know if that was good or bad, like I said, I thought maybe I should be a little nervous, then after my 1st tee shot which wasn't that solid I thought maybe I should having a little more adrenaline going or something, but it was definitely a calming feeling. It was -- I'd rather feel that way, then be wound up and uptight on the 1st tee.

Q. It seems like it was a little bit of a struggle for you until the GMO, that kind of turned things around for you, can you talk about what was going on prior to that and what might have turned it around for you?

J.P. HAYES: I don't know, really other than -- I don't know. I think I get to a point in a year where -- the last two years I have gotten to points where it's time to start playing golf and quit worrying about, you know, what my swing looks like, or anything like that. I work very hard on my swing, but -- and I play some good golf through those stretches, but the last two years the summers come and I say, all right, the year is kind have coming and going here, let's get down and who cares what it looks like, let's play some golf and have some good tournaments. Same thing happened last year.

Q. Does being a father change your outlook at all?

J.P. HAYES: Oh, it always does. I would think it always does. Yes, it did. I look at him and he doesn't care what I shoot. You hear that from everybody, but he doesn't. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter.

Q. You were trying to get out here, where did you play? What kind of tournaments -- where do you have to play to keep your game going while you were going through Q-School?

J.P. HAYES: I qualified in '92 out here, and then in 93 and 94 when I wasn't out here I played the Nike Tour and then got out here again in 1995 and had conditional status in 1996 and played a limited number of tournaments on this Tour and mostly focused on, I guess, it was the Nike Tour still back then and that was the last year that I haven't been out here.

Q. So you never really had to do Canada and Asia, that sort of thing?

J.P. HAYES: I haven't. No, I haven't. Before 1992 I played some -- I played the Hogan Tour for a couple of years. Not as an exempt player but I chased the Monday qualifying round and did fairly well with that.

Q. You missed nine straight -- you tried Q-School 9 times before you got through; is that correct?

J.P. HAYES: No, I made it, I think, in my third try, maybe.

Q. When you dream, what do you dream in terms of what you want from your career?

J.P. HAYES: In golf?

Q. U.S. opens, do you dream of being Tiger? Do you dream of --

J.P. HAYES: That's a good question. I guess I don't really do a whole lot of that. I dream of winning tournaments. Something eery, and I just remembered it. I told my caddie walking to the 1st tee in the pro-am, I said I just had a vision, and he said what was that? I said I just had a vision that I had -- had to make a putt to win this tournament. It's pretty weird now that I think of it. Not to win the tournament. I said I just had a vision that I had a putt to win and he says, you mean the pro-am? And I said (laughter) -- I said no, the tournament. You know, that was one of my dreams, but that's, yeah, I just dream of winning, playing well. I guess I really don't have a whole lot. I like to play well in majors and I have in a couple, but maybe I need to do more dreaming.

Q. Everybody wants to win, no question, was there any doubt in your mind after the first two holes about you winning this tournament?

J.P. HAYES: In my mind?

Q. Yes.

J.P. HAYES: Oh, yeah, there was a lot of doubt.

Q. Why?

J.P. HAYES: Well, I shouldn't say there was a lot of doubt but I never let it -- never got the feeling that there was no way I wasn't going to win. A lot of things happen out there and I never take anything for granted in this game. Anything can happen on any golf course and -- you have seen it. You have seen it happen at every tournament, at least once in several tournaments, the guy has a lead that you cannot be low, if you tried, and he ends up doing it.

As a golfer you never make a comment about somebody when that happens because you know it might be you around the corner. So, no, I never felt that confident that I was going to win. I knew I had a very good chance though.

Q. What's your caddie's name?

J.P. HAYES: Steve Kay.

Q. You had your A-game today as Tiger would say. What in particular would you say was clicking for you? What could you rely on more in your game?

J.P. HAYES: Seemed like I could really rely on having a shot from the fairway. I hit my driver very well, and I didn't -- the first couple of days I really hit it quite far actually, had a lot of shorter irons, I guess, into the green. Didn't bomb it on the weekend. I am not a bomb er -- I don't bomb it anyway, but just wasn't the distance that mattered. I was always in the fairway and that just made everything so much easier.

Q. Was the change in the clubs earlier in the season, was that part of the deal? Can you just talk about that? Did you think the clubs you were struggling with and that's why you switched?

J.P. HAYES: Yeah, and I can trace it back to probably one round of golf I played with Vijay Singh at the Houston Open, I was playing pretty well and Vijay won that tournament, he was playing great. It was either Sunday, I think it was Sunday -- Saturday or Sunday, and he just hit these iron shots that went so high you could hardly see them. I thought if I am going to play better out here I need to hit it higher. So I went to a set of clubs I thought I could hit higher. But it turns out I gave up something in return, you know, and then --

Q. What was that?

J.P. HAYES: Maybe a little confidence, a little distance control, you know, and I can hit these irons as high as I need to, pretty much and I just -- I guess I let myself believe that I couldn't. But I played all right with him for a few weeks. It wasn't -- I didn't really waste my time with him. I made some money, but I got back -- got these clubs back, got an old driver back that I played well with at the end of last year and I told Steve that I felt like we were getting the old band back together because everything was coming back together, you know, the drivers, the irons, the wedges.

Q. Did you switch back everything all at the same time?

J.P. HAYES: Irons came back at the GMO. And, you know, he made the comment that he was -- he thought he couldn't caddie anymore because, you know, my -- the distances were a little bit off, and he felt like he knew how to caddie again because I was pin-high at the GMO and I did that a lot this week. I hit a lot of shots that if they weren't right at the pin, at least they were pin-high.

Q. What brand?

J.P. HAYES: Mizuno.

Q. Do you consider yourself just kind of a regular Wisconsin kind of guy or describe yourself a little bit away from the game.

J.P. HAYES: Yeah, I would same pretty laid back. We have a pretty laid back life in El Paso. There's not a whole lot to do there and, I think, I think we like it that way. There's a lot to do out here, so when we get home we like to just get back to basics, and I would say I am a pretty average person outside of golf. I have some hobbies and I have some -- I don't like mowing the yard just like everybody else.

Q. You will now?

J.P. HAYES: I will now (laughter).

Q. Kelly wins the Western, you win here. Stricker next, Wisconsin going to control the world of golf now or what?

J.P. HAYES: No, well, I don't know. We have been blessed to have some good players come out of Wisconsin and incredible fan support in Wisconsin that you know, they are behind everyone of us, doesn't matter who it is. So we're very lucky and I think it is a product of a great junior program and amateur program in Wisconsin.

Q. Do you have relatives in Appleton that are still around?

J.P. HAYES: Yeah I have got most of my family still in Appleton.

Q. Do you play there much?

J.P. HAYES: I was there during the week of the GMO played with my brothers, and don't get up there as much as I'd like to, but every time I am we at least get one round in.

Q. Probably not much of a Packers fan?

J.P. HAYES: I am a big Packers fan. I am a diehard just like everybody up there. We love to watch the Packers. That's great to cheer against the Cowboys.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you very much, J.P. Congratulations.

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