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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 14, 2006

Jay Haas

MAMARONECK, NEW YORK

RAND JERRIS: It's a pleasure to welcome Jay Haas to the interview room this morning. Jay is playing in his 27th United States Open Championship this week at Winged Foot. It's a pleasure to welcome him to the interview room at 8:00 o'clock in the morning.

Maybe you could just start us off with some comments about what the U.S. Open means to you as you play here for the 27th time.

JAY HAAS: Well, I didn't realize it was No. 27. I knew it was somewhere over 20, but that's I would have never thought that, I guess. This was my first one here in 1974. I was 20 years old, and I never thought I'd be 52 years old (laughter), so I didn't think I'd get this far.

It's been a great ride with the USGA, getting started here. I do remember the course being, as I've told people in the past, the hardest course I'd ever played. To this day, I say that. Condition wise, British Opens sometimes with the wind and all that, but basically we had a perfect week in '74, and 7 over par won the tournament. The greens were firm and fast, and in that era, a 440 yard par 4 was like a 500 yard par 4 today, and we had about eight of those.

I just remember being here and having the time of my life and being low amateur. I had mixed emotions when I left. That was a good thing. I got an exemption into the U.S. Am later in the year, but also realized that I shot 27 over par, and if I was going to do this for a living, I needed to improve quite a bit.

But just coming here and seeing the clubhouse and the setup 32 years later, where all this happened, it's been a great ride.

RAND JERRIS: Just talk a little bit about the golf course and maybe some of the changes you've seen from '74 to '84 to today.

JAY HAAS: Right. I don't remember a lot about '84. In '74 a couple things I remember. I made one birdie in 72 holes on No. 16. That's pretty hard to do, to play 72 and only make one birdie, finish 27 over par.

We were on the first tee on Saturday morning, and I was paired with Johnny Miller, and he had won the year before, and the USGA official on the tee there apologized that they had to move the pin slightly because they had vandals overnight, someone had driven a car on the first green. Well, we got up to the green and could not see tire tracks, no damage at all. That was just an indication to me how hard the greens were, if you can drive a car over it and not make tire tracks.

That wouldn't happen today with the rain last week. The greens yesterday, I played yesterday afternoon and they were quite soft for a typical U.S. Open. If we don't get rain, though, they dry out fairly quickly here.

I guess if I hadn't played in '74, I might think this was the hardest course this week that I've ever seen. The rough is as thick as I've ever seen, not only length wise, but just the density of it. Balls nestle down and just don't seem to want to come out.

Other than say Nos. 5, 6, and 7, that's kind of a stretch of holes where you're not hitting a long iron to the green or trying to desperately hit the fairway, the rest of them are not birdie holes, I wouldn't think. No. 11, maybe if you put the ball in the fairway. But after No. 11, the last seven holes are as tough as they get.

The condition is just fabulous right now.

Q. How emotionally taxing is it to play a U.S. Open, and do you feel on the Sunday after, is it draining? What's kind of your sense afterwards?

JAY HAAS: Well, I think as I've gotten older it hasn't been as emotionally taxing. I've learned to cope with that a little bit. A lot of it depends on how you're playing. If you're in the hunt, say you finish in the top 15 or so, then it's usually emotionally draining because every shot is so important and you're up there by the lead and all that. If you just make the cut and kind of finish back of the pack, then it's not quite as bad.

But I think, you know, at an Open, whether it's a 350 yard par 4 or a 500 yard par 4, if you don't drive the ball in the fairway, you're going to make a bogey. You're almost on edge on every single shot. So that's the difference of a U.S. Open as opposed to a regular PGA TOUR event say.

Q. Fred Funk is hitting the 50 mark, and I was wondering if you could share your thoughts on what you expect from him when he comes over to the Champions Tour?

JAY HAAS: Well, he's in a little bit of a position like I was as I turned 50, still fully exempt on the PGA TOUR. He's now exempt until he's 54 perhaps. So he's going to have a tough decision to make.

I know for me it was very difficult to leave the PGA TOUR and to focus just on the Champions Tour. Fred is obviously still playing very well and capable of winning as he won last year at the TPC. But I expect that his game to me is made for the Champions Tour. He's very straight, hardly ever misses a fairway out here, much less out there. His lack of length, that I am also in that boat, doesn't seem to hurt us as badly on the Champions Tour as it does out here.

And as you've seen or as I've seen over the years, if you can putt, you can still play Champions Tour golf. Hale Irwin is probably one of the best putters of our time. But to me, Fred will be a dominant force among the Champions Tour when he shows up.

I think this year he might end up playing four tournaments. I don't know what his schedule is like. I know he's going to play the Senior Open and then probably a few other major Senior events, but I don't know, you know. I don't know where his head is at right now, but he'll be the man when he shows up.

Q. To follow up on that question, what made it difficult for you to focus on the Champions? Is it sort of an ego thing?

JAY HAAS: That's a good question. I don't know exactly what it was. I felt like I could still compete on the PGA TOUR, and the lure of that, to have a chance to win a tournament on the PGA TOUR I think was a greater pull than a chance to win on the Champions Tour at that stage when I first turned 50.

Now I think I've decided that I'm going to play here and I'm going to play the PGA Championship at Medinah in August, and that will be it on the PGA TOUR. For me, also, I have my son, Bill, who's playing a few events, now has his card this year. That was a little bit of a goal for me. But mostly it was all I'd ever known, 29 plus years on the PGA TOUR, and the competition, the best in the world.

Yesterday, I hit balls next to Tiger, he and I were jawing; you know, I miss that. But I'm where I'm supposed to be.

Q. With the rough being as thick as it is, I was wondering if you could maybe have you given any thoughts to maybe marking your ball differently since there's a possibility of maybe losing it or being difficult to identify in the rough?

JAY HAAS: Well, I had a thought yesterday, and I hit a couple in the rough, and I said we've got to find those because if I hit it in the rough during the tournament near where I hit it in the practice round, I'd see my mark and I'd think it was the ball I'm playing.

I think everyone is going to have to be very careful of that, to not hit a wrong ball. But I think we're all in tune with that, that when you can't see the number, you can't see your marking and all that. I don't think I'll mark it any differently, but it definitely will be something that I'll be aware of. And hopefully with all the marshals out here, they can go right to the ball where you hit it in the rough, things like that. But I'm sure everyone will be on their toes to avoid anything like hitting a wrong ball.

Q. What's been your routine this week for practice? How many holes have you played?

JAY HAAS: My routine for practice this week has been I wanted to play a late round and I wanted to play an early round. I played late yesterday. Lucas Glover and I played yesterday, Jeff Sluman and Dillon Dougherty, one of the amateurs in the tournament. I think he was runner up last year in the U.S. Am, we had a nice afternoon, pace of play was good. And I'm going out at 8:50 this morning with Lucas and I'm not sure who the other two are.

I just want to see the course and refresh my memory on certain lines to hit off the tee. I think that's more important than anything. The tee shots I think will set up the possibility of a birdie here, but if you don't drive the ball well here, it's see you later.

But I'm not trying to overwork. I guess that's more a product of being 52 as opposed to 32 or 20. But I feel like I know the course pretty well and what I'm supposed to do, where I'm supposed to put it on the greens, things like that. But just trying to stay sharp. I've been playing pretty well, played a little bit at home last week just trying to not get too rusty.

Q. Speaking of the lines in the rough, you never miss the fairway, so reflect for us what you remember about the course, speaking of narrow fairways, and what you've seen this year, difficulty, changes?

JAY HAAS: Well, there's a few more a few back tees; No. 2 is quite a bit longer; No. 4, I didn't think it could get longer, but it is. Most every hole has just a few yards added onto it. The width, except for a couple holes to me, seems pretty comparable to what it was back then.

I was telling the guys yesterday, in '74, the first hole was 442 or something ,the 2nd hole was 440, 4th hole was 445, and then you throw in a 210 yard par 3. So the thought was how many over am I going to be after the 4th hole and then how am I going to somehow shoot close to par after being 3 or 4 over those first four holes.

440, 3 years ago was a 250 yard drive and the second shot was a 3 iron. Now it's a driver and an 8 iron for a lot of guys. So that's a huge difference. But I just remember this course being as long and as tough as any that I'd ever played.

No. 9, I just felt like it was a bowling alley. It's just so straight, and knowing that you've got no chance to get to the green if you drive it in the rough. To me, it's very similar to what it was, just the fact that the added length has made up for a little bit of how far the ball is going.

The only thing that's different right now seems like the greens are a little softer. But the width, I don't know, I guess it's kind of been creeping in over the years, trying to make the driving a real premium.

Q. As a follow up, with technology being what it is, are you playing similar clubs into the greens?

JAY HAAS: Yeah, I would say similar clubs. No. 12, that's 640, so that's a little bit different. Some of the guys are actually getting up on top near the green. I don't know that many will this week. Actually some are hitting less clubs in, even with the longer back tee. But then there's some other ones, like No. 14 is quite a bit longer hole now than it was in '74.

16 was two woods for me back then. That was my only birdie in four rounds, so I remember that one. It's fairly comparable.

Q. Obviously your ability to get in this tournament becomes more and more limited as you don't play on the PGA TOUR. You could win the Senior Open and get in, or you could qualify, and I know why you qualified this time around. Do you think that this is the last time you'll try to qualify?

JAY HAAS: Yeah, it probably will be. I know Monday night after I finished qualifying last week, I was pretty spent. I don't know, people say, well, why would you want to do that, to go through the pain of playing a difficult course? A lot of it has to do with the fact that I was here in '74, it was my first one and all that, a lot of history here with the Harmon brothers. Billy is like my brother. So that was a big part of this week.

Oakmont next year, I would love to be there, but I don't know that I would try to qualify. Probably the Senior Open would be the best way.

RAND JERRIS: Jay, thanks very much for your time and good luck this week.

End of FastScripts.

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