WACHOVIA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 4, 2006

Bill Haas

LAURY LIVSEY: We're here with Bill Haas, who shot an opening 68. You find yourself tied atop the leaderboard. What are your general thoughts about the day?

BILL HAAS: It was a nice finish. I got off to a I hit some good shots on the front nine, just didn't really get much out of it. When I hit bad shots I was penalized. I was a couple over. Parring 16, 17 and 18, if I can do that all four rounds, I think I'll gain three or four shots on the field. That was a booster, just going into the front nine.

I was not expecting 30, but hitting it okay, and I got lucky, I chipped in on 5 and some putts fell for me. So there you go.

Q. Just for the record, you were born here. How long did you live here?

BILL HAAS: I think just two years. My dad actually took me by the house Monday maybe Tuesday night, and I did not remember it. I was hoping I would. Too young.

Q. How far from here?

BILL HAAS: From here? The house was probably 15, 20 minutes. I couldn't even tell you.

Q. What's it like, kind of the whole family here at the tournament? What's that like, considering how you played?

BILL HAAS: That's really nice. We've commented all week on it, my brother getting in this week. My mom hasn't been here. She's driving back and forth. She's still got a young daughter at home. One of my sisters is still running around school and doing stuff, so she's not been able to come out here all week. But yeah, a lot of friends and family are here, and it's a pretty cool week. Hopefully I can keep it going for them.

Q. Does this round surprise you at all, or did you sort of feel this coming?

BILL HAAS: You know, no. It's only 68. It's only 4 under. If it was 64 coming off the year I've had, that might surprise me a little bit. I missed the cut in Houston, but I shot 68 the second round, and the first day was just a lot of bad things kind of went wrong and everything kind of accumulated. But I actually played well there.

Then last week shot 66 the last round. There were a lot of good scores that day, but just to do that, make some putts and see a low number go up, I'm riding on a little confidence. I'm not surprised by a 68. I'm happy and I'm pleased with it. It's better than 69.

Q. Are you surprised that 68 is leading right now?

BILL HAAS: Yes. You know, there's the afternoon, and there's no wind. Maybe three to five miles per hour breeze at times. It's just hard. The rough is I heard three inches. That's a lie. I mean, it's five at least, I think. The greens are hard. They're very fast. It's just tough.

But I would expect somebody to be lower. It's perfect conditions out there, and I think there will be someone by the end of the day. That's my bet.

Q. Your pro career has not gotten off to the kind of start you would have liked it to have, especially given your college career. Does a day like this on a course of this difficulty reaffirm in your mind this is what I envisioned and this is what I expected when I got out here?

BILL HAAS: Yeah. I mean, it's only one round. I don't mean to throw it back in your face, but I'm not that disappointed with the way my career has gone. Obviously you have ambitions, you want to win, you want to be top in the world when you get out there, but everything I've done as a professional has been gradual progress so far. Granted, this year hasn't been wins and wins, Top 10s and all that stuff, but overall I can't say I'm terribly displeased with my professional career. It's only two and a half years old. I want to improve, and I think I'm trying to do that. I'm working hard, working harder than I ever have, so hopefully I can keep doing that.

Q. Do you and your brother have any side bets?

BILL HAAS: No, not at all. He's staying with a buddy this week. My dad is staying with a friend. I got my own place. We're not all in one little house and talking all the time. We've gone to dinner the last two nights, the family, my dad and my brother. We don't really talk about it. We're all hanging out and we're happy to all compete and play during the day. But there's no bets. I hope he plays well. I hope he beats me.

Q. What was last year like for you? You kind of had some exemptions out here, and then playing the Nationwide, what was that kind of like for you or what were the learning constraints, I guess?

BILL HAAS: It was tough, but I felt like I gave myself every opportunity to continue out here. I played a few events there. If you play really well one week, you keep going with it. I played I don't know how many events on the Nationwide, 22 events or something like that, maybe more than that, around there, 22, 23, and that's plenty to get it done.

But I think every round, every week is experience that you didn't have prior to that week. If I can gain some more experience, you never know. Hopefully I'll improve and all that.

LAURY LIVSEY: We'll go through your card. 2 over on the first nine and then a pretty nice 30 on the final nine.

BILL HAAS: Yeah. Like I said, I did not expect 30, but bogey on 12 was from the middle of the fairway. One of the hardest fairways to hit, I think. Just pulled it left of the green and actually made a good two putt from the fringe from 40 feet for bogey, so that was good.

Then 15, the par 5, hit a terrible drive, was kind of underneath the tree, chunked it into a bunker and hit that up on the fairway and knocked it to 12 feet and two putted. It was a pretty good 6. My bogeys were pretty good. They were terrible holes.

Then I just had pretty solid holes 16, 17, 18.

Up and down for par on 1, hit a close one at 2 and everything kind of clicked from there, hit some good shots so I didn't have to scramble much from there.

Q. How many fairways did you hit?

LAURY LIVSEY: 10 of 14.

Q. That's what everybody says is the key out here.

BILL HAAS: If I can hit 10 fairways out here, I'll be pleased. And the back nine I hit maybe half. I think I hit 4 of 7 on the front, 2 over par. That's probably right. Then the back nine I probably hit 6 of 7. Not saying that's the total key; you've got to hit iron shots and you've got to putt, but that helps.

Q. Have you had much experience around this course?

BILL HAAS: A little bit. You know, we moved to Greenville when I was here, or Travelers Rest, South Carolina, been in Greenville ever since, so obviously when he first turned professional he was out here for a little while. Ever since I've lived in South Carolina I've played out of different clubs out there, and now as a professional when I'm off on my off weeks I like to go home, and it's tough to get up here and practice too much. I've played here, not including the last two tournaments here, I've probably played here 20 times. I don't know if that's a lot. Probably not as much as people think over 22 years, but I feel comfortable here. I like Charlotte itself. Just the whole city is comfortable.

Q. When you came out of college, you played pretty fast and had to kind of slow down your game. Has that been one of the things you've had to work on the most the last two and a half years?

BILL HAAS: A little bit. I don't feel like I personally slowed down, but you have to. You hit and you wait. Today it had to have taken five and a half hours. That's the best players in the world in perfect conditions. That just is slow. Granted, we're playing for paychecks so everybody is grinding and taking their time. But yeah, you've got to slow down out here, but I don't think I'll ever be slow.

Q. How was your round today?

BILL HAAS: It was good. I'm pleased. If I can count four of those tell me I have four of those right now, I'll quit and take it. I'm very pleased, fortunate on the front. I chipped in. I think that was one fortunate thing, and I hit some good iron shots in the last three holes, and I'm going to hopefully build off that tomorrow. It's nice to get off to a good start. In Houston I shot 77 the first round, and you're climbing out of a big hole there.

Now I feel like I can build on something instead of recover from something.

LAURY LIVSEY: Thank you, Bill, appreciate it.

End of FastScripts.