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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 13, 2006

J.P. Hayes

SILVIS, ILLINOIS

TODD BUDNICK: We welcome J.P. Hayes after a 7 under 64 in the first round of the 2006 John Deere Classic. J.P., of course, the winner here in 2002, so no stranger to good play at this course. Talk about what went well for you out there today.

J.P. HAYES: Well, everything, really. I played pretty solid and I got some good breaks, I made some good par putts. Well, I made two good par putts, hit a lot of greens, and just it was pretty easy except for the two holes that I had to scramble for par. The rest of it was pretty simple.

TODD BUDNICK: You joked when you came in that it's been a while since you've come in here, but it is a course that you're very familiar with. What's the difference this year in the past few trips since your victory here?

J.P. HAYES: Well, nothing, really. I'm kind of playing the same as I have been the past couple years. I feel like I'm improving and playing better but not getting anything out of it, so it's been frustrating.

I think it's coming around. My ball striking is my driving has been great this year, and I'm usually a pretty good iron player, so it's been frustrating to get the results that I've had.

This week I feel pretty good about my iron game for some reason. Just momentum, one way or the other, I can't explain why I haven't performed better the past couple years than I have, but maybe this will turn it around.

Q. How did the golf course play with as wet as it was out there?

J.P. HAYES: It really wasn't that wet. It was a little bit soft, and some of the balls plugged, but they weren't there wasn't any casual water or anything. It started to dry out. The greens were still pretty soft but starting to dry out, so if we don't get any more rain, I think by Sunday it's going to be pretty firm.

Q. The iron play was the key to your win last time, was it not?

J.P. HAYES: Well, last time I did everything pretty well. I don't think I missed two fairways all week, and I made one bogey all week, and I drove it very well that week. I must have hit a lot of good iron shots. I don't really recall. But one bogey all week, so a lot of greens.

Q. What was the key to your round today? What was clicking for you more than anything else?

J.P. HAYES: My putting. I held the round together with a couple par saves and then made a lot of birdie putts, 10, 15, 18 feet, putts that I haven't been making this year. I make an occasional one, but I don't sustain it throughout the whole round.

I switched to a new putter, so maybe that's it.

Q. What is it?

J.P. HAYES: Scotty Cameron.

Q. You've never used one before?

J.P. HAYES: Yeah, I've used one a lot, but I haven't used one in probably two years.

Q. With both your status and your position on the Money List, do you feel you're a veteran and have been around a long time, but is it hard to avoid pressing or starting to avoid feeling anxious where you are with everything?

J.P. HAYES: No, it's really not. I don't feel that way anymore. I used to feel that way. I used to press and get anxious and contemplate what the year might bring next year if I don't play better. But I just feel like I've gotten so many other good things that I just don't worry about it as much.

I try. I practice hard, I care a lot about playing well, but I don't go to sleep with it at night and wake up with it in the morning like I used to.

Q. What changed that?

J.P. HAYES: I don't know, I think my family. I think just realizing that there's nothing that I can do besides preparing for tournaments and practicing and trying to stay healthy and doing the best I can and having a good attitude. I can't do anything more than that. It was eating at me, getting so frustrated about it. I'd get headaches. I didn't like it, so I'm not going to do it anymore. If it happens, great; if it doesn't, I can't do anything more than what I am doing.

Q. Was that a residue of winning here, raising the expectation level on yourself?

J.P. HAYES: No, I just think it was a process that I just had to get to or a point that I had to get to because I wasn't enjoying what I was doing that much, and if I wasn't going to enjoy it, then I didn't know I couldn't come to a reason why I was doing it. If I just go through the motions, then I think that would be more frustrating, so I'm not going through the motions. I'm practicing and putting the work in, I'm just maybe caring less to a point, to maybe get out of my own way. I don't know how else to say it.

Q. What is the difficulty all but a few players seem to have it when it all comes together and you win one or two events. I remember your quote a couple years ago, "every shot looked good to my eye." Why is that so hard for so many players to sustain? Why can't they just kind of bottle it up?

J.P. HAYES: I don't know, I haven't had that feeling very often. Golf, for me, it's been for a person that has had a career like I've had, it's been frustrating because I've played 400 tournaments or I don't know how many tournaments, and I've literally walked away from those tournaments twice feeling satisfied. That's kind of a frustrating way to spend your career.

I don't know, I've always strived to be more consistent, but I guess I just never got there. I guess I'm just more streaky than consistent.

Q. Should a player think of himself as doing well if he averages in the top 25 or so, or is that the wrong way for a professional to feel?

J.P. HAYES: At a tournament?

Q. Yeah, if you went through a couple seasons and your average finish was 23rd, would that be successful or would that be non professional to be satisfied with that?

J.P. HAYES: I think it would be non professional to be satisfied finishing 23rd every week. If you averaged 23rd, you might have a couple 1sts in there. You could make a lot of money finishing 23rd.

Q. That's where I was going with that.

J.P. HAYES: But I wouldn't want that. I wouldn't trade my two wins for anything. If I could finish 10th every week, I still wouldn't trade my two wins for that. Those are so satisfying and very hard to get.

Q. Somebody said yesterday that the greens were a little bit spongy and a little slow. Did they start to pick up pace yet?

J.P. HAYES: They're still a little bit slow but not from the Pro Am they did, yeah, and a little bit of firmness.

Q. What would you say they're rolling?

J.P. HAYES: Maybe 10. I don't know, I'm not very good at guessing that, but I think it's probably around 10, 10 and a half.

Q. Did the delay bother you at all or help you?

J.P. HAYES: I think it helped me because I went through some drills on the putting green that I hadn't done in a while just to waste time, and I putted consistently well all day. I don't think I would have had that confidence had I not had that time to go through those drills.

Q. You said in your opening comments that you had a couple good breaks that helped today. What were those?

J.P. HAYES: What were those? I don't really have any maybe I shouldn't have said good breaks. I guess I should have said a couple good up and downs to keep the round going. I made a 20 foot putt on 15 for par and about a ten foot putt on No. 2 for par after birdieing No. 1. So really I guess they weren't good breaks, it was just good timing that I made some par saves to keep the momentum going.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's go through the seven birdies starting with No. 1.

J.P. HAYES: No. 1, I made a probably 20 foot birdie putt after a driver and sand wedge.

No. 3, I hit a 5 iron to about four feet.

No. 6, I hit 5 wood, pitching wedge to about 12 feet, made that.

11, driver, 6 iron, about ten feet.

12, I hit a 4 iron to about three feet.

13, I hit a 9 iron to about ten feet.

And then 17, I hit driver, 3 wood just in front of the green, maybe two, three yards in front of the green, chipped up to about an inch and made that.

Q. We've got a 28 by Zach coming in. How impressive is that?

J.P. HAYES: That's pretty impressive. It's a great score anywhere. Did he make an eagle?

Q. No.

J.P. HAYES: Just seven birdies? Well, it's possible. The front nine I think would be although it's lower in par, I think it would probably be harder to make seven birdies on the front nine because there's a couple of really good holes.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, J.P.

End of FastScripts.

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