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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 7, 2004

Jay Haas

Bill Haas

SILVIS, ILLINOIS

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We'd like to introduce Jay and Bill Haas. Jay is a nine-time winner on Tour, and Bill is the reigning college Player of the Year from Wake Forest. Both players made the cut at the U.S. Open, only the second time that's happened where a father-son combination made the cut at the U.S. Open. You've had a lot of recent success, both of you.

Jay, maybe you can start out with opening comments, and Bill, talk about playing at the John Deere Classic.

JAY HAAS: Well, I was asked just recently what were some of the reasons that brought me here, and I guess one was getting to play with Bill maybe a few months ago knowing he was going to get a spot here, and also trying to get some points for the Ryder Cup. A little bit of the reason was I had never played this course before, played quite a few years at Oakwood and hadn't been here in ten years, I guess, and just the way the schedule fell and everything, it didn't work out, but I was anxious to get here and see the golf course and get with Bill and try to get some points. But I've been very impressed with the golf course, the condition of it, the layout. It's very nice.

BILL HAAS: I'm really looking forward to this week. I only get -- I've got hopefully seven tries at it this year to try to earn my Tour card. This tournament seems to be good to the young players as of late, David Gossett winning. I've seen other -- just young players seem to have done well at this event, and hopefully the trend will continue. There's a lot of young players, guys that I play with in school, Casey Wittenberg, Brock Mackenzie, Camilo Villegas, Brad Heaven, a lot of good players that I played with the last four years, and it kind of makes me more comfortable to see those guys here, and I'm looking forward to it.

Q. Jay, you're going to the British Open, right?

JAY HAAS: Yes.

Q. How does this work in terms of preparation for the British Open? Is it difficult to play in the States the week before?

JAY HAAS: Yes and no. I've done both. Last year I went over a day or two early and I was acclimated to the time and all that, but I get a little antsy when it's time to play or when it comes time to play if it's Monday or Tuesday and I've been there for a couple days. It's just not the norm for me. I'm usually in maybe Monday night, try to practice and play on Tuesday, Pro-Am Wednesday, then I'm ready to go. So if I get there on Saturday or Sunday, by Thursday I feel like I've been there for two weeks already.

Now, would I like to be fresher maybe on Tuesday when I go to practice and all that, yes, but if I can get some rest Sunday night on the plane and try to stay up Monday, maybe play nine holes and then get some rest Monday night, hopefully I'll be ready to go.

I haven't noticed any correlation between my play over there and whether I go early or play the week before. I think it's so different over there, it's so unique to what we play in weather-wise, the firmness of the ground, the speed of the greens, things like that. Everything is quite different than what we're used to. I don't think a day or two extra will make that much of a difference. It's just you have to play very well. Usually the wind is blowing over there so you have to really be hitting it solidly.

I guess by playing, I feel like I'll be in playing mode. I haven't played for a couple weeks, so I didn't want to take three off going in there. It's just the way it worked out.

Q. Talk about the father-son relationship a little bit. I know you probably learned a lot from your dad, but are there techniques you learned on your own that maybe you try to show dad once in a while?

BILL HAAS: Techniques I've learned from him?

Q. Or anything you've picked up on your own that maybe you've tried to show dad?

JAY HAAS: The 30 extra yards that he has that I don't have, I wish I could get from him.

BILL HAAS: I don't think I show him anything. It's all a learning experience for me to be able to -- to travel with him, see how he handles himself on the course, off the course, what he does in his spare time. Those are the kind of things that I've learned that will help me. On the course every time I've had a problem or a swing thought, I've always gone to him, never gone to anybody else. Everything I do on the golf course I've learned from him, so I don't think I'm teaching him anything. He knows what he's doing.

JAY HAAS: I think Bill is a much better player than I was at that age. I had had successes, I won the NCAA and been an all-American, things like that, but physically he's so much more gifted than I was. People have asked me what does Bill need to work on, and hopefully he's not as good as he will be. Hopefully any young player out here is going to improve just with experience and learning how to play, learning how to travel, things like that, but he seems to have a lot of the physical attributes that you need to succeed out here, and to me it's just a matter of him feeling comfortable learning to manage his game.

I don't think I can sit here and tell him, well, you shouldn't do this, that or the other. You have to make the mistakes. I still make mental errors that I kick myself for later in the round; I just can't believe I did this and such. As a young player that's going to happen. He just has to learn from it.

Q. You just played the course for the first time. Whose game does this course cater to more, yours or your son's?

JAY HAAS: I think any long hitter to me has an advantage over a medium hitter, short hitter. I laugh when I hear "this is a long hitters' course." Well, name me one that's not. They talk about some shorter courses that are tighter and all that. Well, if you're a long hitter, you just hit an iron off the tee. I think length is a great gift to have.

I think just looking at the golf course, it's fairly generous off the tee, driving-wise. The fairways are not extremely tight. The greens are -- I think the whole course is beautiful. There's a couple holes that are pretty tight, and it takes the driver out of his hand maybe. You know, I don't know that it benefits one or the other, and you look at the winners of most tournaments, and the long hitters generally over the course of a year, two years, five years down the road, the long hitters pretty much rise to the top.

Q. How often did you guys play when you were growing up?

BILL HAAS: When he was home, I think we took every opportunity to go play. He never told me to go play, never told me to go practice, so I think he left it up to me to say, dad, let's go play. I think we played a fair amount.

Q. When you were younger, was it something where you were begging him to go out to the course and he was like, no, no, you're not ready yet?

BILL HAAS: I think when I was a lot younger if I went and rode in the cart, he told me before when I was real young, I didn't play golf, I played in the creeks and did other stuff while he played and he was trying to bring us along. That was when I was, I don't know, below ten years old probably. But then after that I think when I was looking forward to going to play, I really enjoyed playing with him.

Q. You said he gives you a lot of tips. Did all the tips on the course ever start to get like, "okay, just stop bugging me, I just want to hit the ball" when you were younger?

BILL HAAS: I don't think so. There were times when I was hitting it poorly and he was like, here, try this, and I would say it feels bad. That's one thing a lot of amateurs say. "That doesn't feel right." I remember him saying you can have it keep feeling right and hit it 30 yards right. When he gives you a tip, you hate to say it does work, but it looks better or you hit a better shot. I think I welcomed every criticism or every critique, I guess.

Q. Is it tougher to admit the coach is right when it's your dad?

BILL HAAS: I think it's always tough to admit the coach is right. You think you're right. It's not that tough when you show signs of improvement. It's not hard to admit it, I guess.

Q. When you're in a tournament like this together, is it hard, Jay, when you're out there playing, wondering what Bill is doing, and Bill, when you're playing wondering what dad is doing?

BILL HAAS: Is it tough?

Q. Yeah.

BILL HAAS: No. I guess I'm always hoping he's on the top of the leaderboard. When I'm on the course, I'm definitely concerned with what I'm doing, but there are times when it's slow out here so there are times when you're waiting on the tees and you think, "I wonder if he's playing well." This will be the first time we've had the same tee times, early-late. We've almost always been opposites. He's been done so I know what he shot, or I got done and he knew what I shot. Now we'll be able to see each other while we're playing.

JAY HAAS: When I'm out there over a shot, I'd better be focused on what I'm doing. I want him to do well, but there will be times when we're standing around and I might see his name on the leaderboard or something, but generally speaking, we're pretty geared to when it's our turn to hit, we're pretty focused on what we're doing.

Q. It would have to be a dream on Sunday then to look up and see the two of you in a pairing together.

JAY HAAS: Right. We came close at the Open this year. Had I parred the last hole on Saturday, I think we would have been one group apart. I would have been 4 over. Bill was at the front of the 5 overs, so the way the pairings would have worked out, I maybe would have played in the group right behind him maybe, but as it was, I bogeyed it and we were three groups apart. But that was about as close as we've come.

Yes, it would be wonderful. We were fortunate enough last week at the CVS tournament, there we played as partners and won the event, and just as partners playing together and watching him perform is an unbelievable thrill for me. I think any parent can relate to what I was feeling and how proud I was of him.

Q. An interesting time of year for you. You've got a Ryder Cup imperative and you've got a couple of big senior championships?

JAY HAAS: Right.

Q. Do you think you're going to be taking weeks off from here on in?

JAY HAAS: Well, I entered the British Senior Open, which is the week following the British, and then I had the U.S. Senior Open and The International and the PGA and NEC, and all of a sudden I looked at my schedule and I was supposed to play seven tournaments in a row, and I said, I can't do that. So I've decided not to play the British Senior Open. There's really no benefit to me on either side to play in that event, and I'm just going to take that week off and then play -- so I play this week, British Open, take a week off and then play four in a row. The third week will be the PGA Championship, and by then I'll know whether I made the Ryder Cup or not.

You know, it would be pretty hard to say I was tired just because I'm so excited about that, and I've been saying that I'm not obsessed with it, but I'm certainly driven by making that team. It's keeping me going to the practice tee and all that, and also I need my World Ranking. If I don't play in regular Tour events or majors and that World Ranking just goes right out the window, and you get in some great tournaments with that ranking, so I want to try to keep that as long as I can.

Q. Must have been hard to take the two weeks off, though?

JAY HAAS: Yes and no. This week is the Ford Senior Players Championship, too, another senior major. But again, there's really no benefit to what I'm trying to do, and does it count toward the Ryder Cup? It doesn't count toward the top 30 on the Money List. I want to play the Tour Championship. My goals haven't really changed a whole lot from what they've been my whole career out here.

You have to take weeks off. There's more tournaments and that's just part of it.

Q. When do you figure the first Champions Tour event -- Senior PGA?

JAY HAAS: The U.S. Senior Open at Belle Rive, and after that I'm not sure. I've looked at the schedule and there's a lot of good tournaments on the regular Tour, too, that are opposite good Champions Tour events. I just don't know right now.

Q. Are you looking forward to playing in the 2006 Ryder Cup with Bill?

JAY HAAS: That would be good. That would be another goal I can say. Yeah, I've just been so blessed here the last -- well, my whole career, my whole life, with a wonderful family. To have him out here is just a dream come true. I was talking to Jan last night on the phone and he was in the room and we were watching some TV, and he had to leave. Anyway, we were talking about tomorrow, about doing this and everything, and she was listening to this conversation, and he left, and she just kind of laughed and she said, boy, it sounds neat hearing you all talk about that stuff. It's pretty unbelievable that not long ago they were at Disneyworld -- she had them at Disneyworld and I was playing in the tournament and they were more concerned about going to the park and riding the rides than what I was doing on the golf course, which is the way it should have been.

Q. Will you guys warm up together tomorrow?

JAY HAAS: I'm sure we will. He's just two groups behind me.

BILL HAAS: I haven't seen the pairings, but I think I'm two groups behind.

JAY HAAS: I need a little more time to warm up than he does, but I'm sure we'll see each other. We're on the same tees, too. I think I'm No. 1 at 8:21, so he's about 8:39, something like that.

I guess I don't want to downplay all this, but at the same time I feel like this is just the start of a wonderful career for Bill, and hopefully we'll do this many, many more times. It won't be a novelty in another few months. It'll just be commonplace. I guess that's what I -- if this was a one-shot deal then I think I would feel a little differently, but to me I don't think it will be a one-shot deal.

Q. How many tournaments have you played in together?

JAY HAAS: This is our fifth, I think. Greensboro was our first one two years ago, and we played the Wachovia tournament, not this year but the year before, and then two Opens, last two U.S. Opens.

Q. You kind of came up the same time as D.A.

JAY HAAS: Right.

Q. Has he talked to you a lot about this golf course?

BILL HAAS: Yeah, I was talking to my caddie who knows D.A. quite well, and I said when this course was being built and when it was just opened or the grass was starting to come up that D.A. would show me these pictures like it was his baby, and he had this big long strip coming out, this is the 11th hole and this is 13 and everything, and you'd just see the pride showing through, and he should be, rightfully so, and I told Tommy, my caddie, I've got to call D.A. Kiddingly, I said, "I don't want to, but I'm going to have to give him a lot of credit for this place, it's wonderful." I think it's just a fabulous golf course.

Q. Bill, what do you do to get ready for a round? Tomorrow take me through your warmup from when you wake up. What clubs do you hit once you get on the driving range?

BILL HAAS: Well, I think one thing he taught me is you'd rather be waiting in the breakfast room here than be worried about getting here late in the morning with traffic. I'll be up early, get here at least an hour and a half before I go, sit there and have a decent breakfast, try to warm up about 45, 50 minutes before I go.

Q. When you say warm up, like what clubs do you usually hit?

BILL HAAS: Usually I loosen up with wedges and then I just go down the line, pitching wedge, 7-iron, 4-iron, usually 3-woods and drivers. I don't know, I usually cool down. I don't think it's good to go straight to the tee after hitting 12 drivers, so I hit a few more wedges and then putt and then go.

Q. Is it something like where in basketball you can be off, I'm not hitting any of my shots. When you get to the driving range, do you feel like, oh, I'm not hitting the club well today?

BILL HAAS: I think so. It's a game where you're going to wake up and the ball is just not going to go where you're looking. I think a guy I talked to a lot about that is his brother Jerry is my coach at Wake Forest. There's plenty of mornings where I woke up just aggravated because I couldn't swing the golf club that morning, and he would say, "You're just going to have to shoot 68 hitting it poorly." You can still shoot 68 as long as you're getting it up-and-down. There are mornings where you're hitting it great and don't score well and there's days where you're hitting it bad and you do score well.

It's all about getting it in the hole, I think, not hitting it, if that makes any sense.

Q. Jay, how important is it to get a pre-round ritual going throughout your career and knowing how to warm up?

JAY HAAS: Yeah, I think that's important, knowing how long you need. These guys coming out of college, they played one practice round maybe at a tournament site, went to -- maybe hit balls for 20 minutes and then went and played. That's kind of how you played it. In college you'd go out to the course, you wouldn't stand there and warm up for an hour and a half before you played a practice round. You'd just go to the tee and hit it. That's something that I think you have to learn, what's best for you personally.

I think that sometimes I'll go to the tee and haven't warmed up as much. In a Pro-Am -- I hit ten balls today and I played pretty well, but I wouldn't have felt comfortable doing that during a regular tournament round. I think having a system that you feel comfortable with that works for you, I think as long as you can get to the first tee and feel confident that you've done everything in your power to be as prepared as you can be, you can't have any negatives. You can't have any doubts that you're not ready. If you feel good about it, you feel like you're ready, then there's a chance you're going to shoot a good round.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thanks, guys.

End of FastScripts.

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