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CHARLES SCHWAB CUP CHAMPIONSHIPNovember 2, 2008Jay HaasSONOMA, CALIFORNIA DAVE SENKO: Jay, congratulations on your second Charles Schwab Cup victory. And maybe just share your thoughts. It's a long season, but you prevailed here. JAY HAAS: I guess I feel a little bit like I did a couple of years ago, when -- I don't feel like I backed into it that year. Loren missed a short putt and everything. And it's amazing it comes down to just a few points. But most of the time, when you win something, you've beaten everybody that week and everything, you're holding the big trophy and all that. So to not do that, it's just a strange feeling. But looking back on it, it's been a, it's been a tough year, I guess. Not tough, but just tough being up there. Most of the year, after I won the PGA, I got into the mix of being up there with the points and almost like leading a golf tournament or going out to a tournament and people chasing you and things like that. But I was real fortunate that nobody right behind me did what they had to do. I didn't do what I had to do. But they didn't either. So I was very fortunate. I thought when Cook got off to a great start yesterday and all the bad weather, I thought look out for him because he's obviously playing great. And he had to win, I think, to pass me. So I was more concerned about trying to get some points this week. I felt like 6- or 7-under when we started off today might be good enough to get a top 10. And so the more points I could get, make it that much tougher for somebody to pass me. But I just couldn't do it. But, anyway, when everything is said and done and you look back on it, it's like NASCAR or whatever, when the guy that's holding the big major trophy at the end, maybe doesn't win the last race. That's a pretty cool thing. DAVE SENKO: Questions? Q. How did you feel like you played? Seems like you were 6-under going into the weekend. JAY HAAS: Terrible start yesterday. Through eight holes I was 4-over. That was, I won't say that's my whole tournament. But 6-under starting off yesterday morning. And I was looking to -- I didn't know if I could catch Andy or whoever. But I was looking to shoot something else in the 60s both rounds on the weekend. But it just got so tough yesterday. And as you look back on it, it was a good decision to try to get some holes in to get this tournament finished in 72 holes. We got a nice break this afternoon. But you know that stretch of holes, I really struggled. And then made a little bit of a, chipped a little bit finishing up this morning's round, the third round, and then got off to another bad start. I missed the green at 4 and didn't get up-and-down and 3-putted 5. So I was a couple over again. Instead of going the other way I was backing up. I just tried to force things. Tried to hole it from the fairway every time and that didn't seem to work too well. But, yeah, I really -- I played a pretty nice round of golf this afternoon, the last 14 holes or so, 13 holes. And gave myself a lot of chances, just didn't convert. But I was kind of in four corners there for a while. Kept looking at the leaderboard. I saw Bernhard get to 2-under. I guess I was 2-under making the turn and he was 2-under. My vision was shooting 31 or something on the back 9, getting to the top 10. I was thinking if I think that he's certainly thinking that. I wasn't sure what 10th place would do for him, if that was 50 grand and that's 100 points, and I know he was less than 100 behind me and everything. I tried not to think too much about it and just played my game. Q. Did you have the card in your pocket? JAY HAAS: I knew there were all kinds of scenarios. I knew there could be a tie maybe if I finished 9th and somebody won or something like that. I can't remember. But I would like to say I wasn't thinking too much about it. But I was looking at the leaderboard and wondering who is going to come out of the pack. And I just kept waiting for Fred to shoot 64 or 5 or something and pop in there. And this course, what Andy is doing, it can be done. You've seen it last year with Thorpe, he just went nuts on us and the last couple of years. I was waiting for one of those guys to do it and nobody did. Q. Did it surprise you that no one -- JAY HAAS: Yeah, when you think about it, if you look at those top five guys, to have no movement at all and those -- I don't know if there will be, Fred was not in the top 10 and Bernhard was not. Cook was not. So you wouldn't expect that. Certainly, if you were handicapping it at the start of the week you wouldn't have expected no points to be had by those top five guys. So, yeah, it surprised me. Q. Do you grind as much as you might if you were vying for the tournament championship in a deal like this? JAY HAAS: Yeah, I felt like I was leading the tournament almost the whole time even though I wasn't. And so it was -- when you're leading the tournament, you're playing really well obviously and hitting a lot of great shots. So I felt like I was kind of leading but was playing not so great. So my head was doing kind of some crazy stuff inside. Q. It's kind of contrary to the way you played, 99 percent of your tournaments? JAY HAAS: It's almost like playing in a small way in a match-play tournament, whether it's a President's Cup or Ryder Cup. No matter how you're playing, you're in the last group the last day of a Major, that sensation. If you're in the last group of a Major, you're playing your butt off, you're playing great. So you're sure of yourself and all that stuff. Now, if you're not playing so great and you're in that first match on Friday morning at the Ryder Cup or something, you're in deep water if you're not playing so well. So that's kind of how I felt out there. And I was pressing a lot. Just trying to make things happen. I couldn't relax. Q. Was the money list on your mind at all? JAY HAAS: Yeah, I would have loved to do that. I knew I had to get at least a mid-top 10 to get Bernhard. I wanted to do that for sure. Q. None of the top five people, you included, in the year-long standings did much in the tournament. Just wonder, it's sort of like playing a second attempt, were you thinking about that instead of the tournament itself? JAY HAAS: I will say that I was thinking about it. I'd like to say that, no, I was just playing along. I was trying to win the tournament first and foremost. That was my ultimate goal. And all that would have taken care of itself. I wouldn't have had to worry about the other guys. But I don't know if they felt that same way. It's just -- we were just saying before you stepped in how unusual, you could have made a lot of money, none of those five guys would have made any points going into the week. Q. I guess the fact if you stayed ahead of them is okay. JAY HAAS: As it turns out, the shot of the year, if you can just boil it down to one shot or one putt or whatever, last week at San Antonio, I hit an awful iron shot into the green on 18. It's a par 3 and downslope of this grass bunker. I chopped it out of there, hit a heck of a shot to about seven feet and made it for par to -- did I finish fourth last week? Maybe. Fifth? Third. Right. And I went ahead, was it by 12 points I was ahead? So that was the whole, as you look back on it. So if you can look back like two years ago it was Loren missing the four and a half foot putt on the last hole. And it's amazing that it comes down to just that close to the end of the year. Q. Can you talk, I guess it was Tuesday, just after you arrived, you talk about would you like to win this and you said no matter what your age you're still competitive. Now you've won it twice in three years and second the other. So what does that tell you about your game? JAY HAAS: I guess, number one, my body's lasted pretty good. Getting ready to be 55 in December and physically I feel pretty good. I think that's a big part of it. Emotionally it was a little different after the Ryder Cup coming out here and kind of -- I was torn between still playing some PGA TOUR golf but wanting to come out here. And emotionally I just wasn't quite ready to do either, I guess. So I had a little bit of a let-down. But after I got a first win there at Hickory three years ago, that kind of spurred me on a little bit. But, yeah, all of us want to do this. And I guess it says I've been pretty consistent. And that when they announced me off the tee that I have 12 12 Champions TOUR wins, I shake my head and say -- I expected to do well. I didn't know how many, quantify it or anything like that. But that sounds pretty good. But I'd certainly like to increase that a little bit. And I hear them announce Gil Morgan with 25 or I think Lee won 29 or something. And obviously Hale 45. There's a lot of guys with a bunch of wins. So I'd like to get up there as much as I can. Q. How does this year compare with the previous two for you? JAY HAAS: Well, last year I probably, two years ago I really, really played well consistently all year long. And last year, with four wins, it was kind of one of those roles where everything kind of went my way when. When I had a chance to win, I did. The other guys backed off. Played well and was fortunate. And this year, you know, I missed some time in the middle of the year. My brother-in-law's wife passed away. And she was our kids' aunt. And they were real close to her. And it was kind of a -- it was a tough thing. Dillard Pruitt is my wife's brother and he's coming out here as a rules official. But anyway, missed a couple of weeks in there for that service and all that, and just being at home. I don't know, it was good, I think, to get away from it a little bit toward the end of the year. I'm still real fresh. I still feel good. I have played four in a row, but a couple of them were three-round events so I was able to get home for a couple of days. But it's hard to compare them. I guess leading the money list, I guess, is a nice benchmark. I certainly would have liked to have done that. I don't think anybody's done it three years in a row. And that's safe again. When they say that, I can't hardly believe that Hale hasn't ever done that. I guess he's only played in 20 events and everybody else has played 30 when a couple of guys beat him. Q. Do you have any good Andy Bean stories, convey his game or his personality? JAY HAAS: College, I was a junior. He was a senior. We were playing at Statesboro, Georgia at the Chris Shenkel tournament. It was on the 16th green. I was typical -- my game, you know, over here, over there, kind of just getting it around and chipping. And I was about 4 or 5-under, playing real well. And Andy 3-putted played 16 to go like 1-under for the day. I was beating him pretty handily. Or maybe not. But I ended up, I beat him that day. And he missed a short putt. He dug the ball out of the hole and he reached in and tore the cover off it with his teeth. I'd say the size, at least the size of a nickel, if not bigger, on the golf ball. This was back when golf balls, the spilota covers and all that. My mouth just dropped open. And he whipped this ball into the bushes behind the green. I followed the flight of this ball. It was like I was in a dream. I'd never seen anybody do this. And so I think I had to putt or something, and I tapped this thing in real quick and I raced over to this bush and I dug this ball out. And it was on, I had to play 17 and 18, and I just couldn't wait to get up to the green to show these guys on my team this ball. I dug it out of my bag. I said, "This guy bit this cover off here." I kept it in my bag for a long time until some mold started growing on it. (Laughter). No. But I guess that was not the first and only time he did that. That was just kind of his way to vent. But Andy is a -- I was watching yesterday a little bit of the telecast and watching his swing, whatever, 30 years ago, 25 years ago, then and now. And he was always -- he's a beautiful golfer. He hit it high and long and curved it left-to-right. I mean just beautiful. And you look at his stats, and I think I have this right, in a 10-year span he was in the top 10 seven out of those 10 years on the PGA TOUR. He probably never won more than 250,000 in a year doing that. Q. He was in top 5. JAY HAAS: He did? Q. Just checking briefly. JAY HAAS: Now take the 10-year span and put it on the PGA TOUR starting today, you'd have $25 million, you know, what he did there. And then he hurt his wrist or broke his thumb or something like that hitting a root. But I'd forgotten -- he probably has forgotten how thin he looked on that, then and now. But what a powerful golfer he is and was, and a good touch and a beautiful putter and not afraid of anything when he got in the hunt. But I've told that biting the ball story a bunch of times in front of him, too, so you can print it, say whatever you want to. I've told it a bunch of times. It wasn't the last round of a tournament. It was probably a Saturday or something like that. Q. Did you ever approach him later and say, "Look what you did to this ball"? JAY HAAS: No, I've told that story in front of him a bunch. He just laughs. Q. Looking towards next year, Jay, and you're the assistant captain of the President's Cup, do you think how much that will affect how you're playing out here, or is that going -- JAY HAAS: I don't think it will affect too much. Fred wants me to come somewhere and hang around those guys or be with them or whatever, I will. I don't know what Jeff -- I really haven't talked to Jeff a whole lot, what he's done in the last couple of years. Although, he's kind of just gotten out here now the last year and a half, two years on the Champions Tour. Fred's the point man and they'll be pulling at him at different angles. But whatever I can do to help. But, again, my role, I think, will be more that week building up to it and the first part of the week and everything and seeing how guys are playing and things like that. I think we learned a good lesson this year with Paul at the captaincy of the Ryder Cup, having the three pods, so to speak, and kind of keeping them together. There probably will be a lot of those guys on the team that played on the Ryder Cup. And if they do anything, money-wise they'll be on, obviously. But if they show just a little bit of success it will be hard not to pick them. But I'm going to -- Fred may bounce some stuff like that off of me. But he's the guy, everybody's going to be asking him. And hopefully I can kind of be in the background. I love that team stuff. The times I've played on it, there's nothing like it. Q. Like in college. JAY HAAS: And to do it in the major leagues, pretty cool thing. Q. Fred's taking your phone calls? JAY HAAS: He has. I have a text from him, congratulations. He's watching. He doesn't miss much when it comes to sports. DAVE SENKO: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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