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SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 25, 2006

Jay Haas

EDMOND, OKLAHOMA

KELLY ELBIN: Jay Haas, ladies and gentlemen, tied with one of his playing partners from today, Tom Watson, for the club house lead at 3 under par, 68.

Jay, some comments, please, on your round and if you would go through the card, please.

JAY HAAS: Okay. Well, I guess I figured that without the wind it was kind of a must to get off to a good start today. I looked at the weather forecast and I understand some pretty high winds are coming the next couple days and through the weekend. So I felt like I guess any time I want to get off to a good start, but I felt like the course was at its defense less today, it's certainly not an easy golf course by any means, but the wind, or the lack of it, may it a little easier to attack. And I played really well. I hit a couple crazy ones on the front nine, but managed to make some pars there and just had a lot of good chances.

I birdied three in a row. I parred every hole on the front nine and then birdied 10, 11, 12, with anywhere from 12 feet to 16 feet, I guess on those putts. And then 3 putted 14 from the front fringe, ran it by about 10 feet and missed it. Not a very good first putt. And then probably 30 feet on 17.

But I gave myself a lot of chances, I had a good makeable putt at 15, didn't get it.

16, didn't hit a very good drive there. Felt like that was a birdie hole, gave that one away.

I don't know if 68 will hold up. It seems like the guys, there's no wind this afternoon, so I think somebody in the afternoon might go four or 5 under. But again, I'm very, very happy with it. After seeing this course on Tuesday and the wind, and kind of coming off of a jet ride over here and everything, it was, I wasn't expecting to shoot any 68s this week.

KELLY ELBIN: Questions?

Q. So whose 68 looked better today, yours or Tom's?

JAY HAAS: Well, Tom was two over after four. He bogeyed one, birdied two, then doubled four. Hit it in the water there. And it didn't look real promising for him.

So for him to I don't know if he made another bogey after that, but he made a bunch of birdies. 7, 8, 9, then 14 I guess he bogeyed 15. He had seven birdies, two bogeys. It was just, you know, when I started playing out here and my first six, eight, ten years, Tom Watson's name was permanent on the leaderboard, so for him to shoot 3 under is no surprise to me, I don't care if he's 36, 46, 56, whatever, I expect him to shoot a good round, and he did. He played just the way he always plays to me. Hit good shots and made some putts and adds it up, he's on the leaderboard, top of the leaderboard.

Q. Did you find that Tway's advice paid off? Did you think a little bit about where

JAY HAAS: Yeah, there's some holes he points out, go at the chimney here, go at the flag here, the satellite dish on this hole, all that stuff. Yeah, it pays off. It sure does. To kind of focus in on certain points. He only went 12, 13 holes with us though, so I'm on my own on those last five. But, yeah, it certainly helped, I think. The first hole he says you just can't go left. Just do not miss it to the left there. So I kind of tried to eliminate the left side there.

2, there's a flag pole in somebody's yard up there. So I just am listening to what he told me and it's helping, I think. And he's a good cook too. Feeding us really well.

Q. Senior PGA Championship, obviously the oldest championship on the 50 and over circuit. You have had an association with the PGA of America family for quite some time. How important is this championship and where does it rank as far as the tournaments on the Champions Tour or the extended Champions Tour?

JAY HAAS: Well, I guess, not to take anything away from a couple of the other Majors, to me you got the U.S. Senior Open, the PGA Seniors and the British Senior Open, those to me are the three Majors that the guys out here would like to win. And it's, I can't rank any of them ahead of the others, but those three to me are the tops.

And we have, all of our careers we have tried to win Major tournaments. And I was unsuccessful in my PGA TOUR days, but it would mean a lot to me to, just to be in contention, obviously, but to pull this off would be great. A long way to go, but I rank this up there again with one of the top three events that we play.

KELLY ELBIN: Jay finished second at the 2004 Senior PGA Championship. Questions? In the back, please.

Q. First thing you mentioned was the wind. How much discussion did you have out on the course with your caddy or your playing partners and about the lack of wind out there?

JAY HAAS: Well, we can't ask our playing partners about that.

Q. Discussion.

JAY HAAS: Oh, just a discussion, just a casual mention of no wind. No, we really didn't talk a whole lot about it. But there were some times where the wind kicked up a little bit and maybe added a half a club here and there, but I think that we're just, all of us are aware of what can go on here and if the wind does pick up, and I think that we're just, we were just glad that it did not today, getting off to an early morning start, but I think we all expect it to come and just trying to get as many as we can before that happens.

Q. What's Bob cooking up for you over there at Chez Tway?

JAY HAAS: We had some killer ribs a couple nights ago and then some grilled chicken last night. So I don't know what we got on order. But he's got everything under control. What can we do, Bob? Nothing. Got it all done. Tammy left with Kevin, he's going to an AJGA tournament. So he's on his own. And we just come to the table and start eating. It was great. He might get tired of us by the weekend, but.

Q. With the forecast with higher winds the next couple days, how different is that going to make 18? You, Tom and Scott, all cam up short on that. Tom said he thought he remembered back in '88, hey, you got to play it a club more. How different, or difficult is that going to play with these high winds?

JAY HAAS: Tom and I were in the rough and I was expecting a little bit of a jumper out of the left rough and didn't get it. Had it almost to the top and came back down. You don't want to go over that green though, there's a huge depression in the back left of that green, which makes it almost impossible to even get it on the green, much less close. So I think that's in the back of our minds we're saying, well, short is not that bad. But it does, it plays at least a half a club up the hill and then with what wind we had, it was into us there. They did move the tee up a little bit for us, so it made the drive a little easier, but both Tom and I hooked it left. Scott hit a decent drive, but I just think he mishit his second shot. That's just a hard hole. It's a very difficult green, it sits at you at an angle, runs away from you, left to right, and so if you have the correct club to get to the middle of the green and happen to pull it, you're dead. So I think we all just know that, that at least short of the green, short in the bunker is somewhere you can get a four and it might not be you automatic, but you got a chance.

Q. Earlier in the week you spoke about how disappointed you were to miss the cut last year. How nice is it to get off to such a good start here?

JAY HAAS: Yeah, I'm playing better than I was last year at this time. Again, I loved Laurel Valley I really was excited about being there and had played there several other times and I guess we would all much rather shoot a good first round than be struggling to make the cut. One of the few events out here on the Champions Tour that we do have a cut, and so it's a different mindset a little bit. You still have, you have to start thinking ahead that it's four rounds, so have you a chance to maybe make a couple bogeys, chip out here and there, play for bogey instead of gambling. You have the extra round to make it up here.

But, yeah, just getting into the hunt early is definitely a plus.

Q. Has Bob Tway's advice to you changed with when he saw there wasn't any wind out there?

JAY HAAS: Not really. He did say that he was surprised how strong the wind was that first day. When we got here Tuesday. He said, we get to number 10, we hit driver, 5 iron to 10. Today it was driver, 9 iron. He said that's more like it. He said, usually it's a driver and a short, a wedge, eight, 9 iron to number 10. So he was just telling us what to expect if the wind did die down. But, yeah, he was kind of surprised too. He said when it blows that hard they play the back nine exclusively. They don't even go to the front. Because the front's more wide open. They stay in the trees on the back nine. He said they will just play 15, 16, 17, 18, the 18 is our ninth hole the way we play it. They flip flop nine and 18 here. So but the back nine is mostly in the trees. And he said they don't even venture out to the front nine. We probably shouldn't have either.

Q. Six of your last seven rounds were in the 60s, and you have only two rounds on the TOUR over 70 all year long. Can you talk about the consistency and where it comes from and the sense of being in the groove, maybe?

JAY HAAS: I guess I never, I don't I don't think about that. That was kind of a surprise to hear that, I guess. I knew that I obviously played well to win a couple events recently, but I'm swinging well, hitting a lot of good shots. I'm really putting well, starting at the Legends tournament in Savannah, I really started rolling the ball well and I just have confidence on the greens. My pace is really good. I guess that I know over the years and we all know that when it's going good, you got to get it. Because it's going to go away eventually. Who knows when. But you just have to get it while it's good and just hang in there when it's not. But right now I'm doing a lot of good things and hitting a lot of good, solid shots. I changed drivers, changed irons, maybe two and a half months ago, and in those, those seem to be working really well and I'm putting really well. So I guess I don't think so much about the past or my streak that I'm on, I just know I'm playing well and excited to go to the golf course every day.

Q. Do you notice if Bob's envious of you guys at all, maybe not your age, but the fact that you get to play a championship on this, his home course?

JAY HAAS: As we were walking on Tuesday and he was following us around and we were slashing it around everywhere and we were playing a little game, Curtis and I were playing Mark Johnson and who else were we playing? Anyway, we were playing this game and I think that we had one birdie between the four of us the first nine holes. And I said, man, Bob, you're just licking your chops here that this is who you got to beat on the Senior Tour, you would love to be out here, wouldn't you. I think that he would probably he had it in '88, but he was a young player, he was just coming, just out a few years, let's see, 2014 they're talking about maybe a PGA coming back here? Is that what they're hoping or something? He might be, let's see, he would be.

Q. He would be on your Tour.

JAY HAAS: Yeah, he would be on Champions Tour then, wouldn't he. I don't know if he's and I don't think he's envious, he's a pretty laid back guy. But I think he's having fun though having us there.

KELLY ELBIN: Jay Haas in at 68. Jay, thanks very much.

JAY HAAS: Okay.

End of FastScripts.

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