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PGA CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 15, 2006Jay HaasJerry HaasMEDINAH, ILLINOIS KELLY ELBIN: Jay and Jerry Haas, ladies and gentlemen, joining us at the 88th PGA Championship. Jay and Jerry will be here together at 1:55 on Thursday afternoon on the 10th tee. We believe this is the first time the two brothers have ever been paired in the first two rounds of the PGA Championship. Jay is the reining PGA Senior Champion, making his 27th appearance, and Jerry making his debut in the PGA Championship. Jerry is the men's golf coach at Wake Forest University. Some thoughts about playing with your bother, spending some time with him this week in kind of a unique situation. JAY HAAS: I got a text message from a friend maybe Thursday or Friday last week saying: Have you seen the pairings, but just to let you know, you're playing with your brother. I thought he was kidding. I just didn't dream that we would be paired together, just in different categories and things like that. But the PGA is known to play with the pairings a little bit and do some different things, and I like that. So for me it's a thrill, and playing with my best friend and brother. I'm excited about it. Somebody was saying earlier today, I played here in 1975, I was a 21 year old amateur, played with Nicklaus in the third round here, made the cut and all that stuff. But to think that 31 years later, my brother at the time who I guess was 11, to think we'd be playing in a major tournament here is pretty remarkable. KELLY ELBIN: Jerry, your perspective on what should be an extraordinary week. JERRY HAAS: Yeah, I was excited to see the pairings obviously. I don't get to play very much. I'm a little bit out of my element maybe. But to be paired with Jay, I think if I can treat it like just a round at Thornblade where he's a member or just one of the many rounds we've played together, I think that will help me play better. I told somebody, now he can't tell me what to do for four and a half hours. That's against the rules. He'll have to just watch. I'm very much looking forward to it. Paul Broadhurst, I believe, is about my age, 42. I played in the European Tour in the late 80s and I know Paul a little bit. It'll be a nice week. The course took us forever to play a practice round. Sorry we're late, but I was telling Jay, pretty ironic, we're hitting balls on maybe the first hole of Medinah No. 1, and almost 20 years ago I won a playoff here to qualify for the U.S. Open, birdieing that first hole. So now here I am 19 years later hitting balls on that range. It's funny how life comes back. KELLY ELBIN: Jay, some thoughts from you on the difference between this golf course in '99 to what you've seen so far this week. JAY HAAS: Yeah, tee to green, pretty similar. They've backed up a couple tees. The par 3, 13, over the water, is a good bit longer, but generally it's the same course off the tee shots. But the greens are quite a bit different. They seem to be much more subtle, maybe a bit smaller in places, but they're good. I think the 18th hole is much harder than it is. The green is a little bit more elevated, maybe a little bit more angled. I think it was maybe the green was more along ways, and now it's a bit cocked to the left. I think the 18th is a little bit more difficult, but overall the same golf course. It's in great shape. I think the scores will be good. I think they were pretty good in 99, but I think if you get some good weather this week, the scores will be pretty good. I don't think the greens are as treacherous as they can be. The speed I don't think is up to maybe where they want them just with the heat and everything. They're still pretty quick, but they're all fairly subtle greens. So I don't think you'll see too many people struggling on the greens, especially the leaders. Q. Have you played together much at all? Back in the Belleville days, for instance, you both grew up in the same town at roughly the same time. I know there's an age difference there, but have you ever been in a tournament together? Is there any history there together at all? JAY HAAS: We played one time together at the Hawaiian Open. JERRY HAAS: 1989. JAY HAAS: In the last round, and Jerry beat me. I think I shot 71, he had 70, something like that. JERRY HAAS: That was the last time. JAY HAAS: But ten years difference, I was away at college and he was just starting to play a lot of competitive golf. Over the years we haven't played just a ton of golf together, but I'd say maybe we average eight, ten times a year, if that. Maybe not that much. But with his job at Wake Forest now, and I'm traveling, we were just talking about how he thinks you get three months off for summer from school, but NCAA moves into June and then school starts the end of August. You find out I think as you get older, you don't have as much time away from your family. So it's just difficult to get together. JERRY HAAS: I think he did. I think my mannerisms and my swing are probably a little bit more like my uncle's compared to Jay's. Jay was gone. He was already on the Tour at 24, and I'm 14 and my uncle had a range. I worked for the range and hit a few balls there and picked up balls. I'm very thankful to this day, and I'm sure Jay is, too, every time I compete or play, I think of my uncle teaching us proper grip and proper etiquette and how to love this game of golf. He spent a lot of time with us playing in the afternoon and working with us on a swing. He would tell me something to work on and then he'd leave for three weeks, and I couldn't wait until he got back to show him what I had worked on. I remember one time he told me to keep my right foot on the ground longer, and I misunderstood him and played just awful for three weeks, and he came back and said this is not working. So I showed him, and he goes, no, no, no. I had it totally wrong and I worked on it for three weeks. And as soon as he showed me the proper way, I was on my way. He's been a great influence on my life, for sure. So has Jay. He's been certainly like a brother and a father figure and someone I respect very much. I love when people say, boy, your brother is sure playing great lately. I want to say, "Lately? He's been playing great since he was 23 years old." It's nice. I'm a big Jay Haas fan, no doubt about that. Q. Jerry, do you miss playing, and how fulfilling is it to be on the coaching side of it? JERRY HAAS: It's very fulfilling to be on the coaching side. I told somebody once when the team does well, I feel like it's five times the adrenaline or five times the rush. I'm very competitive still, not maybe golf wise, but I like to have a team every year at Wake that's very competitive and has a chance to win tournaments and be one of the top teams. We finished third this past year, only lost by four shots, and it really felt like it was going to be our time to get one. It was very close, but if you get there enough times, you will get one. I played in the Club Pro Championship to get in this event, and I was just trying to make some money, to be honest with you, as a club pro. And I finished, and they said, "Congratulations, you just qualified for Medinah." I said, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. First time playing the course, I probably shouldn't say this, but it didn't play quite as long as I felt for 7,500 yards. I think it's a very playable, very fair course. A few of the greens are tough, but for the most part, you can make some 20 , 25 footers and it's not too penal around the greens. If you miss it in the right spots, you can get up and down. Wonderful, wonderful course. It's going to be a great championship this week for sure. Q. Jay, the expectations are a little different this year than a couple years ago. The Ryder Cup is not at the forefront of your mind. What are your expectations this week, and talk about playing with your brother a little bit. Will that maybe relax you? JAY HAAS: Yeah, it is certainly a different feeling. Just looking at the Ryder Cup list here wishing I was on it and wishing I had a chance and all that stuff. But I guess I have moved on. I feel like I've turned the page now. I'm a champion's Tour player, but I still love to come out here. Most of these guys I've seen today, and it's just fun seeing them, being on the range with them, playing in a major championship again. I guess my expectations are that I could play well here. I have played well in the past and seem to like this golf course. I like it off the tee, I like the way it looks to my eye, things like that. And if I play well, I think I can make the cut and contend and things like that. But I have to play awfully well and I have to do most everything perfectly almost to be up there like I was last time here. But it's just fun being here. Again, it's exciting to see how alive this place is and be amongst the best in the world. This is pretty neat stuff. Q. When you play together in a tournament, do you ever have a side bet? JERRY HAAS: I think we have that bet where you bet but you don't pay (laughing). I would never win off him probably, but if I did, he wouldn't collect. I can't remember the last time we probably played for beating anybody out of money. JAY HAAS: I think that for me, as he said, he's my biggest fan; I'm his biggest fan. I'm that way with my boys, and I've never had any kind of we'll give each other the needle a little bit, but never I guess my feeling is if I'm lowest or whatever, then I'm not going to brag about it or give him a jab about it or anything like that. I hope he beats me this week. I hope he plays great. JERRY HAAS: I told somebody, if I beat Jay this week, or if I'm right around Jay, I'll be doing all right, I'll be playing okay (smiling). KELLY ELBIN: When you play together in a practice round, do you watch each other's swing, offer tips to one another? Is that an ongoing thing? JERRY HAAS: I think so, yeah. Jay was a little stiff today starting off. JAY HAAS: It's called old. No, I think what Jerry said earlier that I can't give him any advice for four and a half hours on the course, that was a little jab at me, that I tell him what to do too much. Yeah, I just try to I might see something in his swing or something that he might not see, and he would do the same to me off the course obviously, but maybe on the phone or something, see something on TV; "why don't you try this." We each have our own different ways, different systems. Golf is individual. Most of the time both of us are pretty stubborn, too. We don't like to listen to people and their advice, especially a brother. Q. I want to make sure. You said ten years separated you guys? JAY HAAS: Almost ten. He'll be 43 in September, I'll be 53 in December. That sounds old, doesn't it? JERRY HAAS: It does. JAY HAAS: Thank you all for having us.
KELLY ELBIN: Jerry and Jay Haas, thank you so much.
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