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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 5, 2006

Jay Haas

HUTCHINSON, KANSAS

RAND JERRIS: Jay, it's a pleasure to welcome you to the interview room this afternoon. Jay's playing in his third United States 2006 U.S. Senior Open championship this week at Prairie Dunes. Jay, earlier this year you had your first, notched your first Major championship victory at the Senior PGA Championship. Would you talk a little bit about what that means? Does it give you some extra momentum, extra confidence as you come into your next Major?

JAY HAAS: Well, I think it can only help me knowing that I've accomplished that goal. Certainly it was one of my goals when I started playing Champions Tour golf, Senior Tour golf, was to contend and possibly win a major or two.

So it was an unbelievable boost for me to do that. I feel pretty good coming in here this week. What a great place we have got to play here. I think to a man -- I don't think anybody's ever said a bad word or a bad comment about this golf course here.

So to be playing well coming in here is something that I've looked forward to, and one of my goals this year was to do well enough on the Money List, lead the Money List, or contend for that. So far, so good there. But there's still a long way to go.

And this would be a big step toward that to continue playing well. And I guess my goal this week is to be in contention coming down the stretch.

RAND JERRIS: We had the pleasure of seeing you a couple weeks ago at Winged Foot on what was obviously a difficult and challenging golf course. Are there certain things about the set up at Winged Foot that you see here at Prairie Dunes?

JAY HAAS: Very much so. I think the rough, although we don't have the -- I guess they had like a transitional cut and then the main cut or whatever. We have a first cut and then some pretty deep rough, and then the lost ball rough here. So instead of trees we have weeds up to our hips.

So that a little bit different there. The course is not quite as long as Winged Foot, but it plays very similarly. The greens are not lightning quick, but yet probably some of the toughest greens to putt that any of us have ever seen.

Very small, trying to figure out where the pins are going to be and how tough they can be and things like that. But there are some similarities, and the main one is you must drive the ball in the fairway here. Although you're not going to have 200 plus yards into a lot of the greens, they're so small, they play so small, that you just need to be in the fairway at all costs.

RAND JERRIS: Thank you. Take some questions, please.

Q. Tom Watson mentioned about the importance of driving the ball well. I know you always have to drive the ball well against a field like this, but do you think driving will be a greater premium this week than, say, any other Major that you're going to play?

JAY HAAS: It's hard to say because, again, every Major that we play, usually the rough is very high. It's a premium on driving. Here, with the wind, I think that makes it a little bit more difficult. The wind is now apparently an opposite direction of what it usually blows, so some of the holes that are driver and 5-iron -- like No. 9, say. If the wind turns around it could be a driver and a 7-iron or an 8-iron.

So we just don't know exactly how the course is going to play. There are certain holes that you kind of have to go over the corner. You bite off this much today and maybe tomorrow you can take it off even more or whatever.

I won't say that this course you need to drive it any better than any other Major. But, again, no matter where you are, PGA, U. S. Open, British Open, you got to drive the ball in the fairway.

And again, as I said, the greens are so small and they play so small, I don't know if you've been out there, but there are so many roll offs and so there's really no fat side of the green almost. You have to put it in the center if you're in the rough, or try to run it up on to the green, which is very difficult here. A lot of the front fall off one side or the other, so that in itself makes driving all that much more important.

Q. With distance not being a concern as it might be out on like the PGA TOUR, does that open the possibility up that more players have a chance to contend?

JAY HAAS: I think, yeah. I don't think distance is of the utmost here. Now, there are a couple of par-5s that are certainly reachable with long drives. But at the same time the penalty on hitting, going for those greens, if you happen to miss those greens, on number 7 and in then I guess 17 is the other five. It almost negates the fact that you can hit it a long way.

But, yeah, I think that the lack of distance -- say there's a lot of lay up holes, a lot of three woods off the tees and things like that. Yeah, I think it's a wide open tournament here and it's -- I do think though that the guy who hits the ball the best from tee to green will certainly be a factor if he doesn't win, I don't think you can fake it around here for very long.

Q. That being said, the fact that this it's a field event, does that take some pressure off you considering you might be one of the contenders where maybe you could maybe sneak in while there's more people that might be on the board that other people might not know about or be familiar with?

JAY HAAS: I guess I don't think about it. I feel pressure no matter if I'm one of the favorites or one of the guys who they pick to finish last. I feel pressure for myself just to perform up to my standards or what I think I can do.

So I guess I don't think of it in those terms. I just know I have to play very well to be a factor, and that's my first concern. I'm not really thinking too much about who else has a chance. I just got to worry about me.

Q. Have you talked to Fred Funk at all about his first event on this TOUR and his mindset? He was in earlier saying that he still wants to play on the PGA TOUR, and he's playing very well on the PGA TOUR. Is there a mental thing that you have to overcome to say to yourself that now I'm a Champions Tour player?

JAY HAAS: Well, first of all, we told him he's not allowed to practice when he gets out here. He doesn't know that. That you can't hit balls after your round and all that stuff. That's illegal.

Everybody's different. It was difficult for me to say, okay, now I'm going there. I didn't just turn the page and say, okay, that's done now I'm going to the Champions Tour. It didn't happen for me, and it probably won't for Fred. He's still very capable out there.

If he goes out and has a good British Open, say, or a PGA Championship, I mean he's still got a chance to make the Ryder Cup team. He's still a guy -- J.J. Henry last week went from 26th place to sixth place with a victory. So that's in the back of his mind. I think he would like to do that.

Now if he goes and does that or continues to play well, it's just hard to let go. For me it was. It was hard to just say, I don't want to do that or I can't do that any more. If you ever say that, then obviously it's time to shut that door and go on. But everyone's different, and from what I've seen, it's going to be difficult for him because he's so capable at any tournament, that I would say that he would be the No. 1 favorite at this tournament just because two reasons: He's playing well on the PGA TOUR, he's still very capable out there, and he's probably the straightest driver in the field here.

He's not ultra long. I don't think he would mind if I said he was a short hitter. But that's not a factor here. So he is focused. He is one of the first ones out here. But I can recall like the PGA seniors at Valhalla was my first senior event, and I was as nervous as I've ever been on the first tee of a golf tournament when I was teeing it up there.

I didn't know where it was going, and I ended up playing a good tournament and finished second. But I think he'll be -- he's the guy to beat this week. But Gil Morgan began playing well; Dana is starting to play well; David Edwards. I mean you can just tick them off. There's 15 or 20 guy that could be considered the co-favorites.

Q. You talked about a goal of yours to be at the top of the Champions Tour this year. And I'm sure another goal is to win this senior U. S. Open. Talk about where that ranks in one of your goals that you want to accomplish, as well as maybe talk about the Francis Ouimet.

JAY HAAS: Well, I guess my goal of leading the Money List or winning the Charles Schwab Cup championship and points list, kind of goes hand in hand with winning tournaments out here and contending each week and things like that.

I guess I specifically haven't said, well I want to win the U. S. Senior Open or the PGA seniors or anything like that. I guess I didn't, I have not written them down or verbalized them out loud to anyone, but I guess that -- I know how difficult it is to win any golf tournament, to peak at the right times, to be able to all of a sudden call your best game forward and just say, okay, now I'm going to start really playing. I have never been able to do that. So I guess I have never been one to point toward the Major tournaments because I, I don't know, I guess felt like I needed to play well every week that I went out. And to keep my card or whatever. I've never been -- I've never done a Wednesday afternoon press conference before on the PGA TOUR. Being a favorite or a possible favorite in the tournament. So it's a whole new game for me in that respect.

The Major tournaments, they're very important to me out here and obviously to, as I said, to have a chance at a place like this would be extra special.

Q. What is your history with Prairie Dunes? How many times have you been here and played it?

JAY HAAS: Zero before this week. I played last two days and I just love it. I think it's -- I heard nothing but good things about it throughout my career. People talk about Prairie Dunes, oh, you got to go play there, you would just love it. And it's very unique, it's kind of a mixture of Shinnecock and I don't know, it's just different than what we're used to. The dunes and things like that. The smaller greens. It's just a gorgeous golf course. And Ben Crenshaw being a historian, I mean, he's always raved about it and it's probably his, one of his top two or three favorite golf courses in the world. But it is everything it's cracked up to be. Just fantastic.

RAND JERRIS: Well, Jay, thanks very much for your time this afternoon. We wish you success this week.

JAY HAAS: Okay. Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

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