THE HONDA CLASSIC

March 11, 2000

J.P. Hayes

J.P. HAYES: Okay, No. 1, I hit a fairway bunker shot from about 80 yards to 20 feet, made the putt on that hole. No. 6, I hit a poor drive and had -- did well to get it just short of the green and hit a bad chip, missed about an 8-footer. No. 10, hit a pitching wedge to about 20 feet and made that putt. No. 12, I hit a pitching wedge to about maybe 25 feet, then made that. No. 16, sand wedge to about 25 feet, made that. Then 18, hit a 7-iron about five feet there and made that one.

J.P. HAYES: Well, one less shot is always nice, but I don't think it really had anymore importance than that. I had made a lot of long putts. I told my caddie coming down 17, it would be nice to at least knock one close and make one so it doesn't look like I was draining them all day long.

J.P. HAYES: It can't hurt, but I don't think that they are looking at me as someone who really is intimidating or a guy who knows how to win. I think we are pretty much all in the same boat. I am fortunate that I have won before, but I am sure they are going to come out looking for their first tomorrow. And I don't even know who I play with, actually.

J.P. HAYES: I try not to really watch that, but just from this year you have seen what can happen, you know, 5, 6, 7-shot leads can be erased with nine holes, so anything can happen and it is not necessarily that those players choked or played that poorly. It is just that somebody has gone out there and taken advantage of the circumstances. Anything can happen and I am certainly aware of that. I am not going to try to fool myself. But if I play like I have all week and like I have the past few weeks, then I think I will be fine.

J.P. HAYES: Well, I don't think it is going to be difficult. I think I have kind of crossed a hurdle in my career where I am not afraid to win and I am not afraid to fail. So I think I am really going to be comfortable with it and like I said, whatever happens tomorrow it will be a great experience and it will be a lot of fun.

J.P. HAYES: Yeah, I probably will. I have found that it is harder for me to not look at them, to keep telling myself not to look at it and -- that is almost more of a distraction just say, yeah, you want to look at it, just go ahead and look at it, but don't dwell on it, but I think it can be helpful at times. As long as -- it is only natural, really, I think, to know where you stand, to want to know where you stand as long as you don't change your game plan because of it.

J.P. HAYES: Obviously he is a great player; I don't even -- he must have played well today I take it?

J.P. HAYES: So, yeah, I don't know. I don't think it really, really matters. He is a great player, but, you know, there is a lot of great players out here and they are all waiting for their opportunity to do the same thing.

J.P. HAYES: Yeah, it certainly would mean more. Although, it was pretty -- well, it was obvious when I won last time that that was going to be the final round, so it wasn't like I stumbled into it on a Saturday lead. We didn't get to play on Sunday. But it would be nice to play 72 holes and get it done that way too.

J.P. HAYES: My father's name was John and people started calling me Junior after I was born and they didn't want any of that, so they went by J. P. and I have been J. P. all my life.

J.P. HAYES: It is a lot of fun. It is becoming a lot of fun and I am not sure if I should be more -- taken the stance that it is nerve-wracking, but it is becoming a lot of fun. I think I am going to be comfortable tonight and I am going to be comfortable tomorrow. If it was the U.S. Open it might be a little different story, but I am sure I will be nervous tomorrow. There is nothing wrong with that. I would say it is more fun than anything.

J.P. HAYES: No, boy, I hadn't won $15,000 -- that was in June, I think, so there was a lot of the year left, but I hadn't won $15,000, I think, up 'til that point in the year. So at least needed to play well to get in some tournaments that I probably wasn't going to get into as a Tour School guy and then the win, you know, I think if I had finished second I would have secured my card as well. But the win was an extra year.

J.P. HAYES: Well, it didn't change my life. It changed my career quite a bit. It just gave me a lot of confidence and I proved to myself that I belonged out here and beating a good player, that made it very special. I was able to set a schedule of tournaments which I have never been able to do.

J.P. HAYES: We start off in the rain and then looked like it was going to rain all day, but it blew pretty hard through probably 15 holes and then on 16 as the sun started to go down, the wind kind of died down too. Then on 18 it was really pretty nice.