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GINN CHAMPIONSHIP HAMMOCK BEACH RESORT


March 27, 2008


Fred Couples

Jay Haas


PALM COAST, FLORIDA

FRED COUPLES: Well, I got the announcement, not only are you No. 1 Senior Tour players, but you're my No. 1 pick for my assistant captain. So I talked to several of the guys who are going to make the team or make every team, and -- the only thing that happened, they were more excited than they were when they heard I was going to be captain. So it kind of hurt my feelings a little bit, but I'm okay. How are you?
JAY HAAS: I'm great. I'm really looking forward to it. I appreciate you thinking of me. I know we talked about this maybe at dinner in Ireland, do you remember that, at the American Express tournament.
FRED COUPLES: Yeah, yeah.
JAY HAAS: And I remember you saying you wanted me and Robin Williams and Michael Jordan. So I appreciate at least picking me. That was very cool.
FRED COUPLES: I think I put your name first, though, because I knew I could get in touch with you. I knew how to find you. But we'll cool down on the Michael Jordan, Robin Williams. I'm tired of people thinking they're going to be out there telling you and I what to do. They'll have fun, and hopefully they'll come. I know Michael is going to come.
I'm thrilled to death, and I wanted to get it out there, soon. I don't know when the captains usually pick them. But you're right, we did talk about it. And we also talked about Tiger at the table and asked him what -- that was quite a few years ago, and I think he was talking about playing with Furyk at that time. And that's kind of how that pairing developed. So it's always fun to sit at these dinners.
And now several years later it was shocking to me in LA to have Tim ask me to be the captain. And you're the first guy that came to mind. I'm thrilled to death.
JAY HAAS: Seems like a long time from now, but it will be here before we know up it. And you'll be 50 before you know it.
FRED COUPLES: My next tournament is on the Senior Tour after The Presidents Cup. So I'm looking forward to that. But, again, I appreciate it. I know you've got a lot of things going on. I'm just glad you accepted it.
JAY HAAS: Glad you asked. Like I said, I can't wait. It's going to be a ton of fun when it gets down to it. I'm just excited that you've answered the phone when I called you a couple of times.
FRED COUPLES: Right. I know. And I'm excited that when I come down with laryngitis you'll be giving all the speeches in front of everybody. I don't know if it can come on that quickly, but weirder things have happened. We'll have dual speeches.
JAY HAAS: I think you can't get it spontaneous there. It goes away quickly, too.
FRED COUPLES: Don't give me that. But that's -- yeah, I did answer a couple of times. Pretty remarkable, isn't it?
JAY HAAS: I'm going to vote for getting rid of carts, because you can't be riding a cart when you come out here.
FRED COUPLES: I won't get near a cart, I can promise you that. That you've heard right here today.

Q. Fred, what's the thinking going with the guy from the Champions Tour versus a younger guy? I'm sure, you and Jay must have talked about that, since he's been out of the loop for a couple of years.
FRED COUPLES: Well, we did. And my thinking on that was Jack Nicklaus was the captain who wasn't on the Tour much and he had Jeff Sluman. And my thinking is they're -- I won't kid you, there's probably two names that popped into my mind. The first one was Jay. And then the second one was Davis. And Davis I want to be on the team. So what I felt like was I needed to make a decision and I don't want to make it sound like it was a gut wrenching decision, because, again, Jay was my No. 1 pick, and of course Brad Faxon was another guy I played several matches with. But I still think that when you go doing it, I'm going to hopefully have Jay play in a tournament next year, where we can both play. I'm going to be out a lot and he can bump into guys.
But I think once you get in there Sunday night -- Jay knows, he's been on teams and he sees guys. They were really excited, Tiger, Furyk, Mickelson, they all lit up. I'm not saying anything bad for anyone, but I think Jay Haas a lot of respect and I've known him a long time and he's a very good decision maker, and he'll be 60 percent of a captain, I'll be 40, but I have more authority to nix some of his decisions. But that's really not an issue, I don't believe, at all.

Q. Could both of you address this? This isn't exactly a couple of drill sergeants out there running this team. But are these guys you don't have to worry about cracking a whip over to get motivated to play in these events?
FRED COUPLES: I'll let Jay answer that first.
JAY HAAS: Just what I've read in the past, the way Jack has handled the team in the last couple of times has been semi-hands off, is from what I gathered, and just go out there and have fun, and who do you want to play with. One thing that Fred, I remember saying at this dinner we had back in Ireland, that has been -- when was that tournament, four or five years ago -- that on all these Ryder Cup teams, he'd say I want to play with Davis, I want to play with Davis, and the captains are nodding with their head. And when the pairing came out he wasn't playing with Davis.
So I think what I've seen that Jack has done is more or less kind of guide them, but not force them to do anything or be any kind of drill sergeant, as you said. I think these guys all know how to compete and how to handle themselves on the golf course under all kinds of pressure situations. I don't know, I think that -- obviously you need some kind of structure in practice rounds, things like that. But I don't think either one of us are going to be stubborn about who plays with who or we've got to have it a certain way.
FRED COUPLES: Just to finish up, I think Jay is exactly right. I think that when we go in there, all the guys will -- so far everyone, the younger players want to be on the team. It's a Ryder Cup year but they don't have to go out of their way. And I think what Jay is trying to say is when we get there the structure will be they all know what they need to do. I don't post a practice round at 8:00. That's pretty much the PGA TOUR, when we go. And they need to be up and they need to go and if they're screwing up, one of us will say, hey, we didn't really like what you did here today. There's never, ever been -- I've never had a problem on any team.
As Jay said, Nicklaus was phenomenal. In asking who you want to play with, if I can pair you against someone, who might that be. He went out of the way in that. But as far as being a drill sergeant, he was as far from any captain -- I think I had him three times -- as any captain ever. And it was just a lot of fun. It's a very relaxed event, first of all, and the guys seem to love it and what we could do is basically get in their way. That's the problem you have, is just trying to tell people what to do and they've been doing it for 15 or 20 years.

Q. Fred, what in your mind is the significance of Jay's role, how much impact can it make? I know you said you wanted to cool down on the Jordan/Williams talk. How did you approach them? You said Jordan will be there, clarify what their role will be?
FRED COUPLES: That's a great question. Jordan I talked to. He is in. And Robin Williams I saw watching Billy Crystal play baseball, so I'm sure he's busy. I've not spoken to him nor do I know anyone who knows him. And that's something if he's heard, he might have gotten a chuckle out of it and he can come help the team stay loose and have fun. That would be his role in that. Certainly not to walk around the course.
And then with Jay, people who know Jay, he's not a drill sergeant, but Jay's probably played 32 years on both Tours, besides everyone -- I latched on to him early, spent time at his house, with his family. We've had lots of talk and lots of fun. And I think when you pick this, it's just someone who will get along with not three or four people but all 12 people, including myself. And I think it's a no-brainer. Everybody likes Jay. And in that -- my big decision is not do I like Jay, he's one of my best friends, but basically I looked at the 15 or 18 guys that may make the team. And besides the younger players who I will try to spend a little bit of time with the Nick watt in his, and the Hunter Manns and the J.J. Henrys, but those guys will look up to any older player, and my main thing is how consistent Jay it and he's very savvy, and when you get guys that know what they're doing, it's just an easy thing. And there's not any question that I would have in saying, well, maybe I need this guy or that guy. And again, we all know my friendship about Davis, but there's no way I could pick him and he's going to make the team or be very close. So that was my next guy after Jay. And Jay was my main pick besides some of my very, very good friends it would be the same situation with whoever I chose after Jay, if Jay couldn't do it.

Q. Fred, in comparing Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, it appears at least in recent years the guys who play The Presidents Cup are loose, they're confident, they perform really well. Ryder Cup they seem to be tight, sort of insecure, and they don't perform as well. Basically they're the same guys. Can you explain that?
FRED COUPLES: I've been on four or five of each teams. You know, I really can't. I can throw something out there, maybe Jay can, too. I just feel like we have a great -- such a new tournament, comparatively speaking to the Ryder Cup and our record is phenomenal. So if you had the Florida Marlins come in and win two world championship World Series you would kind of chuckle at that, but they've done it.
In The Presidents Cup we start out with a ball of fire, and if you go way back, of course, we won every Ryder Cup, but the last 20 years it's tense because I think we know it's tense and it's a different crowd. Whereas at the Presidents Cup pretty much the crowd is the crowd and they know the international players as well as the U.S. Players and most international players play our Tour. Whereas in the Ryder Cup every now and then you get a few people that basically don't play both tours, except for a handful of events and you don't know much about them and people make a comment or whatever and it kind of gets a little edgy.
Whereas The Presidents Cup very rarely does that, and when it does it's under the table in about an hour. That's my take. I don't know what Jay thinks.
JAY HAAS: My answer isn't very intelligent, other than you basically have the history of the Ryder Cup involved. The old guys, the era beyond me would say, well, you just go out there and play, it doesn't matter who plays, just go out there and play. That's kind of the way they used to do it back in the '50s and '60s because the European team or the great British and Ireland teams back then had about three or four guys who were competitive with the PGA TOUR guys, and the rest of them were just kind of probably they just didn't -- they weren't as competitive. It just was a matter of fact that by the end of the week it was going to be a foregone conclusion that the U.S. Team was going to run away with it.
So I think the No. 1 thing is these guys are very, very good. And there is a little bit more -- they still have the idea that they're the underdogs, the European team I'm saying, they're the underdog, and they play that role to the hilt. Now I would think that in the last three or four Presidents Cups the U.S. Team has been, on paper, the underdog. You go down the list of international players, and they're fabulous. So on paper we've been, in theory, the better team in the Ryder Cup, which I don't think the players agree with that. But I just think that it's so even, anymore, either match, it's a coin toss.
And you get going one way or the other, it's just like Freddie mentioned a baseball team, there, you look at the Celtics and the Rockets playing, or whoever. These teams can go play ten games and each one win five, maybe. Or then they might go a ten game stretch and one of them win eight or nine of them. I don't think there's any definitive answer. But I think that all the stuff that I read about the U.S. team's not emotional enough, they're not passionate enough, they don't care, and stuff like that, I don't go along with that, Freddie can attest, the teams that I've been on, we have a ball in the team room. And you get around guys and just have as much fun as you've ever had in any kind of golf environment. So the guys are just very, very good players now.

Q. Fred, I'm just wondering, do you have any preexisting philosophy on captains picks yet? Would you be more apartment to pick somebody with personality, stated that you want to keep the team loose, a guy like Woody Austin or Calchevichia, even if they're 15 or 16th in rankings?
FRED COUPLES: That's a great question, and since time where I've been picked I've looked at a few previous lists I've received and there was guys from obviously 11th through 30th. I think there's a lot of ways you can do that if you want to be chastised, you can pick guys and worry about it that don't play well. It's a one week thing and you can easily say, geez, there's a guy that's played great five of the six weeks and I chose him because of that and he goes there and he doesn't play well. And you had all these other guys to pick.
But I think chemistry, I would talk to Jay about it, we haven't yet, but my take, and he may sit down -- I think The Presidents Cup is a very easy thing to pair people. Everyone plays except for one afternoon. So you don't have 12 great players that you've got to sit four guys at all times. It's an easy pairing. I think we won't mix a lot of pairings. But answering that question by saying that, I feel like we need -- the two guys that we pick certainly need to immediately go with the other pick that we make and be a pairing or they need to go right in with somebody and not just pick two guys because maybe they're slightly better at the time or someone else. You look at the pairings and let's just say it was Jim Furyk who was 11th, who would still be phenomenal play. You would pick him in a heartbeat. But if Jim Furyk was 23rd, you still might pick him in a heartbeat.
It's so far from now to worry about, but that's my take on it. I want to get someone that's right there. And it would be easy for Jay and I to have a very, very top player be somewhere in the 11th to 20th category, and there wouldn't even be any hesitation at all. But if it doesn't work that way, then he and I will sit there and I'm sure we'll have other people help us, too, and we'll figure out two guys.
JAY HAAS: Fred, I misunderstood, when you called me I though you and I were going to be the pick.
FRED COUPLES: I threw you under the bus. I said Azinger, if you pick me for the Ryder Cup, you're in for the Presidents Cup. But we could do that, as well as you're playing, we could pick you and one of your buddies on the Senior Tour, and that would really spice things up. I'm sure that would really go over well.
JAY HAAS: Yeah, that would fly, wouldn't it?
FRED COUPLES: Yeah. I don't know, Jay and I, we're very -- we get adamant about a lot of things and we like to pick on each other. For people who don't know, we'll play practice rounds and I like to stir it up and he continues to like to stir it up. And we get very stirred and by the end of the day we laugh about it and it's all fun. But it will be a fun evening or couple of days, I don't think a week, but it should be figured out pretty quickly.

Q. Fred, a couple of quick things. Given that Jay is on the Champions Tour would you go out of your way to see more PGA TOUR events than if you had chosen an assistant captain on the PGA TOUR? Unrelated, you mentioned that Jordan is in. What exactly role do you see him filling?
FRED COUPLES: I think he's maybe one of the greatest, there's several of them, but one of the best athletes of all time. He is someone that if I was going to make a team and someone said, wow, Michael Jordan might be around, my eyes would light up. And I've been saying it ever from the beginning because he's at -- I believe he's been at every Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup I've ever played in. And I thought that was kind of neat. And this isn't like charity and say, wow, Michael, thanks, go ahead and I'll have you. But what he'll bring is Jay coming out and Jay can tell Tiger that Phil just hit a 4-iron here and was on the back edge. Michael can just be out there and in full spirit. I could see him saying a couple of things that would help out. What I'm trying to do is, again, The Presidents Cup flows really, really well. The last one I played in Jack Nicklaus wasn't around a night and a half, he had things to do, so Sluman ran one. And Jay is there. There's no rah-rah speeches, no nothing. So that part of it for Jordan.
The first one I'm confused whether I'm going to play a lot of events next year?

Q. Not play, but be out there and see the younger players. Jay obviously is playing a different Tour, he won't see as many as if you had chosen Davis or someone on the PGA TOUR.
FRED COUPLES: As soon as I walked up the hill on Riviera when Tim asked me to do it, and I just felt it would be awkward -- again, if Jay would say no, to be honest with you, I don't know -- I wouldn't want -- Davis Love is the obvious choice to probably everyone there. Davis Love has played on every team forever. I just felt like it wouldn't be the right thing to do.
Now if Davis doesn't make the team and I say, hey, Davis, can you come out and just be there and show up, he would probably come out and do that. But Jay is my guy, obviously, and he'll come out, I'm hoping he and I and his son, Bill, can play a practice round. We were thinking about Memorial, because that's always middle of the year and people -- we have meetings and stuff, so that's one. And Jay Haas said that would be great.
As far as me, I've already played quite a bit with Nick Watney, hung around with Hunter Mann, played nine holes at Bay Hill. It's irrelevant what we do right now. I just want to show these guys that, hey, I'm kind of watching you and I like the way you play, and obviously way back when when I played, and I was a young player, everyone said, wow, you'll be on this team forever. And that's kind of how it happens. And the J.J. Henrys and the Hunter Manns now will start to be on these teams. I don't know them that well, although I know them. But next year I'll play with some of the young players, J.B. Holmes or Bubba Watson, just to see what they're like. If one of them is close, and they can hit it 340 yards and you can pair them up with a dicey wedge player, I don't know how that wouldn't be a good team. There's so much to do so much to worry about that for me playing, knock on wood, I'm hoping to be playing next year, so I'll be out. I can cover that. And Jay is a huge mainstay. He doesn't need to be around them, there's no -- like I say, Jack Nicklaus was our main captain. He was never on the PGA TOUR, and he was captain, I hope I'm right, three years in a row. So it's not a huge deal. Jay and I could actually show up the week before and say, hi, you guys, we're ready to go. And they'll be ready to go. I would think so, don't you, Jay?
JAY HAAS: That's a good point about Jack. He's pretty far removed from the PGA TOUR, yet he seemed to have pretty good success. So following in his footsteps with that.

Q. Fred, I've been looking into some information about a story I'm doing on Amen Corner at Augusta. And of course you had the fame to have shot there in '92 at No. 12. Is that area anything like anywhere else in golf, meaning three holes kind of a separate course within a course?
FRED COUPLES: Well, I would say that there's a tournament coming up in May in Jacksonville with 16th, 17th and 18th are about as wild of a finish as you'll ever see, and that's sometimes you'll see consistent golf. Sometimes you'll see people go eagle, birdie, bogey or par or whatever. But Amen Corner has just got the rich history. And my ball stayed up on the bank, it basically -- several things happened. It was a huge sigh of relief. I played rounds of golf there where I'm on the third hole and I've got a little 8-iron in my hand to that green, and I'm thinking about, unfortunately, the 12th hole and the same shot. I don't know if that's good or bad. But the 13th is a par-5, which to be honest I've always struggled with. And 11, it's not one of my favorite holes, either, although it's more now because it's much longer. I don't know why that is. The last couple of years I've seemed to play better at 500 yards than I did with hitting a green with a 7-iron and 3-putting half the time. But that's one, the stretch there at TPC, and I'm sure there's others. But it's a unique spot where now length on 11 and then a little accuracy on 12, and then of course 13 has been lengthened, that not nearly as many people go for the green. It's a little different hole, 13. But the rest of them, 11 and 12 are certainly thrilling shots and fun for the gallery and for history, too.
And the same at TPC, the last three holes, a lot of memories. I had one of them where I went through there and won in '96 with an eagle and birdie. I believe I parred 18. But I'm sure there are others, too.

Q. I'm wondering if you ever had -- do you think there might be a time when captain of a Presidents Cup or captain of a Ryder Cup that they'll ever change the thing where you had to win a Major to be one of those? Do you ever think that you would like to try to be a captain of one of those teams or maybe lobby for it, if things go pretty good next year and you've decided you like this?
JAY HAAS: I think some day perhaps that would be changed. It is kind of an unwritten rule. But you look at a guy like Jeff Sluman, who won the PGA -- guys have won major tournaments that played on Ryder Cup teams and were not Ryder Cup captains. So now with the Champions Tour you've got to look at that window where Freddie is. Freddie, are you 48 yet?
FRED COUPLES: I'm 48, yeah.
JAY HAAS: A guy who's in that area that may be not playing as much on the PGA TOUR, but still wants to play on the Champions Tour, does a guy 50 years old want to give up, and he's going to be the captain at 52, I think The Presidents Cup is maybe -- I don't know, just from what Curtis has told me, maybe less of a commitment than the captaincy of the Ryder Cup. And I don't know, but I just remember when Curtis was the captain, he was fielding 25, 30 e-mails a day a year out. So this is a huge commitment.
Now, do you really want to give up two of your best years on the Champions Tour? I think that's an issue, right there. But I think there's plenty of guys that qualify on both counts that are major winners and Ryder Cup players. Now, if Tiger keeps winning every other major there's going to be a gap there where there's not going to be any of those players anymore. If you get some International winners, so there may be a time where there's a guy who doesn't qualify, in theory, or unwritten rule, that he's done both. And there may be a guy that's just a great leader, that the guys gravitate to and everybody would kind of campaign for him. I would never do that, and I would never say that is something that I'd really love to do.
I guess I never gave it a thought and I'm kind of like what Fred said about Davis, you would think, boy, he'd be a great Ryder Cup captain. I think Davis's situation, I think he's coming back off an injury, he wants to get back to where he was player-wise, and has no thought at all right now of being a captain. So I certainly would not campaign for it, but to me there's plenty of guys that fit the bill that would deserve it more than someone like myself.

Q. (Inaudible.)
FRED COUPLES: Well, I love Augusta, because everyone wants to get in the event. The first year I got in the event I just fell in love with the place because it suits my game or I thought it did. I think '83 was my first year and I believe I might not have been in one of those years, '86 or so. But after winning in '92 I played every year but one because of my back. And this cut streak is just a very, very nice thing. I am looking forward to playing this year and trying to keep it going. But last year I kept it going by showing up and playing and that was probably a bigger deal than going in this year.
This year I'm certainly looking to do more than just play on Saturday and Sunday. If something happens it certainly won't be because of not liking the course and not playing. But there were other years I remember making a long putt on 18 for birdie to make the cut on the number. And other years being right near the lead. So it can go both ways. But to have a streak, you know, I mean it's a very nice thing. I don't think it's one of Augusta's great, great records to have. That would be winning this thing with O'Meara won or Phil won, two Masters jackets would be a lot better than making these cuts.
But as they say, in a very positive way it is what it is. And I've felt very good every year I've gone there, stepping on the first tee. It is a place that I've really, really liked. And I like everything about it. So that's very positive for me.

Q. This week, Ginn Championship you've come in here, you've had sort of an interesting year thus far with four official starts and not out of the top six, but yet to get a win. Talk about your year thus far and how your game is coming into this week's tournament?
JAY HAAS: I really feel good about the way I've been playing. I obviously had a great start and had a couple of very legitimate chances to win tournaments, and I'm disappointed that that has not happened. But that's the nature of golf and championship golf, when there's a lot of guys trying to win tournaments out here. I just enjoy the fact that I've been there and feel like I'm not far away from closing the deal one of these weeks. That being said, this course beat me alive last year. And today was no different. I didn't play very well in the Pro Am today, but it was a Pro Am, so hopefully tomorrow will be a little bit better.
It's a difficult golf course, I think, and seemingly a little bit harder than last year. Although the wind blew last year, we didn't have much rough. And this year they've over seeded and they've moved the fairways in in certain places. I'm not too sure that it's, even with good weather, I think the score here is not going to be that great. But that's looking from my perspective and somebody who hasn't shown a lot of low scores here yet.

Q. (Inaudible.) My mindset is that I've really got pile it up between ages 50 and 54, because I thoroughly expect a drop off a year after.
JAY HAAS: I think somewhat, that was in the back of my mind, maybe. And although I was slow to come out here, kind of in the Fred Funk mode, where I was exempt on the PGA TOUR and wanted to play there. But I think from the last few years and onward what you're going to see is a lot of guys playing well into their late '50s, early '60s, taking better care of themselves. The guys on the PGA TOUR that have done that for a long time now with the fitness advance out there. I think the guys are in better shape, there's no doubt about it. And with the Champions Tour being as lucrative as it is, you know, guys are looking, I can play until I'm 65 if I take care of myself. So when you're looking at it -- I think guys 35, they don't ever think they'll be 50. They think that's not even for them.
Then all of a sudden they're 45 and they go, this is not that far away. So then they start focusing a little bit more. And what I have said all along is that guys have changed their whole thinking that 30 years ago, 40 years ago, you got to be in your early 40s, you game started to go down a bit, you started looking for something else to do, just because there wasn't any money out there.
If you finished 100th on the money list in 1970, I bet you didn't make ten grand. Now a hundred is 800 grand. So you could kind of struggle or just get by for a few years, and still make a great, great living, whereas back in 30, 40 years ago, you could not do that.
So guys are taking better care of themselves, again, and leading on to the Champions Tour. I just think that, sure, the majority of the guys, they're going to do their most damage between 50 and 55, I think that's just a fact. But look at Hale, still competitive, still capable. Jim Thorpe last year won the Schwab Cup, he's 59 or 60. So you look at guys like that, you go, that's for me.

Q. Back up to what we were talking about before. You mentioned The Presidents Cup versus the Ryder Cup. I seem to remember DiMarco telling me one time that when you guys were teeing off you had this great strategy all mapped out and he was supposed to go first, this was Detroit, and you were going to go second. And he got up there and basically needed to make a diaper change. And everything went right out the window. What was your version of that story?
JAY HAAS: We played practice round a couple of days, and they said you guys are looking like a great team. And I love Chris's rah-rah attitude. And almost like he's still a college football mentality out there. That charges me up, I love that. We kind of went through the course and the first hole at Oakland Hills, you can hole a little drive out there. And Chris likes to play left-to-right. And then the second hole, kind of a draw drive. And the fourth hole definitely draw to hold it in the fairway. He went through the front nine and he said the odd holes are perfect for me, I just love the odd holes. About ten minutes before, and we were on the chipping green over on the other course there, he says, that pin on 3 is way in the back left, and that just doesn't suit my cut. He said I just can't do it. I can't do it. I said, well, okay, I'll go off the first tee. So it was kind of a good thing for me, because I didn't have to sleep on it or even think about that until the time came.
And I just remember that bank of grandstands, most of them red, white and blue, and chanting go USA, and go Jay. I remember gripping the club and saying you've done this a million times, maybe this one will not be a top or a whatever. And then it was a pretty good drive. But I think that was what the pressure of team competition is, especially the Ryder Cup can do to a guy.
And I don't know if you've ever heard the story, you guys might want to turn off your tape recorders on this one, we were playing with Sergio. And I could really elaborate this, and I do in a -- but Sergio thought that Chris was getting a little bit too excited and just said, calm down a little bit. And Chris said, this is a home game, basically. So deal with it. And then we can elaborate that. And like I told people, when I tell the story, I don't know that's exactly what he said, but it's a great story.
But, anyway, yeah, it's -- like we said, we had it all laid out there, Chris was going to drive on No. 1. And it was going to be perfect. And he couldn't do it and didn't like the third pin.

Q. (Inaudible.)
JAY HAAS: No, I don't think -- I think what you see now is the young guys, like Hunter Mahan last year and Lucas, Lucas was great and we talked all about that. He was so excited about that. He never played on a team, I don't care what kind of team it is. And you're in that room with Tiger and Phil and Jim Furyk and those guys. You look around and you go I'm one of these guys, that means a lot. And that's kind of to me, when I said, I won't say made it, but Curtis and I were on the first Ryder Cup team in '83, and Jack was captain, and there was Tom Watson, Gil Morgan, and Lanny and Calvin Pete and Fuzzy. And wow, I'm one of these guys. This is pretty cool. As soon as you play on one of those teams you can't wait to get back on it. I think that's what's so pressure-packed is you want to do it, after you've experienced one time you've got to do it again, that's what's so hard for most of the guys to get on it. And I think The Presidents Cup is becoming that. It doesn't have the 70 year history or whatever the Ryder Cup has, but if we keep winning pretty soon it's going to be, you know what, the Internationals are tired of this, we're going to win this thing now.

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