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LIBERTY MUTUAL LEGENDS OF GOLF

April 22, 2010

Jay Haas

LUTZ, FLORIDA

DAVE SENKO: Jay, can you just talk a little bit about how you and Fred came to -- you know, he being a rookie this year, how you guys hooked up and we'll get some questions.
JAY HAAS: Well, Fred and I have been friends for a long time, and probably met Fred his second year out on TOUR, and we just kind of hit it off. We just always enjoyed each other's company.
He asked me to join him last year at the Presidents Cup as his assistant captain, and yeah, we played countless practice rounds together. We did play one match at Oak Hill in '95 in the Ryder Cup, and we got waxed in that match, but it was an alternate shot, so he doesn't have to drag me quite as far as he did in that match.
But we talked about it a little bit, and he was asking me about the Champions Tour, and he wasn't sure how much he was going to play and all this stuff. And he just said, we're playing in the Legends for sure, and I said, yes, we are.
So I had Curtis a couple years ago. We were going to play last year. Curtis had hip surgery. I ended up with Ben Crenshaw. We had a great time. But since we've done the team event, I have not had a steady partner. So hopefully after this year Freddy won't discard me or anything like that.
But I think both of our caddies get along. They're friends, so the four of us, I think, are going to have a big time.
DAVE SENKO: Questions.

Q. Jay, you know, I guess it's an added bonus that Freddy's playing so well right now on Tour. You've gotta be pretty confident in how you guys will do this week.
JAY HAAS: Well, I'm confident in his ability, and hopefully he's going to make a lot of birdies. He's obviously been playing really well. But that being said, it's definitely a two-man game. I can't just show up. I need to contribute. I need to play well also. I think both of us have to play some of our best golf to succeed in this. The scores are very good. They have been over the last two years, and you just need to make putts; you need to make birdies out there.
I wouldn't want anybody else right now, for sure, or for that matter going into the future. I think Freddy's obviously capable of doing some great things out there and has been playing well, but that being said, I think I certainly need to hold up my end of it, however four percent of it might be or whatever it is.
But I'm just excited again to play and happy for him to be playing well.

Q. Jay, in regards to your game, you know, things have been a little shaky. You alluded to that on the conference call.
JAY HAAS: Right.

Q. You are not playing as well as you'd like. And what's going on? Have you been working with anybody and does anything look like it's shaking up?
JAY HAAS: I don't know what it is. I haven't had a lot of rhythm this year in my scheduling. I played in Hawaii, were off two weeks. I didn't play twice in Florida. The weather I thought was pretty poor down there, didn't really have much to show for it, and then had a month off. My daughter was in the state championship basketball in South Carolina during the week of Newport Beach, so I withdrew there, didn't play in that event. So I really haven't felt like I've been into a rhythm of playing tournament golf.
I haven't played great, but I haven't scored like you need to score either. I think the way I've been hitting the ball, I think I'm not getting much out of it. Not playing perfectly, but at the same time I'm not stealing anything either. I'm not saving shots and things like that, not making a lot of birdies.
So hopefully -- I've been working pretty hard, though, the last couple weeks. Hit the ball decent down in Tampa. Again, same thing there, I got a couple under the second day, 4-under for the tournament, not that close to Bernhard, but at least respectable and then hit it in the water on 18, made double bogey on my 36th hole, and then we got rained out on Sunday.
So I just need to continue to work at it, and you know, it was so good -- it was good for so long that I -- I'm spoiled in the fact that I've been successful for the last three or four years and winning a couple of events. I played really well at the end of last year, and so I'm expecting that and it hasn't been happening. Still a long year, still a lot of golf left, but I'd like to see some results sooner than later.

Q. When a guy is shooting scores routinely in the low to mid 60s on golf courses that are tougher than this one, how low can you guys potentially go this weekend?
JAY HAAS: Well, again, on paper it looks great, but still, we have to hit the shots. We have to perform. You know, there's quite a few quality teams out there that if they play well, they're going to be tough to beat. I think we're one of them, but it's not just a foregone conclusion by any means. I don't think Fred feels that way. I certainly don't feel that way.
You know, if Fred's -- the round he shot at Naples, I guess in cold conditions, windy conditions or the round that Tommy Armour shot and then Fred kind of topped him with a 64, I didn't see those kind of scores coming out of that golf course, so he's been doing it on every different kind of golf course.
At Cap Cana he shot 63 or something like that. 62? Did he shoot 62? 62 with a bogey, and then he opened up with a 66 leading the Masters. He hasn't been -- I think he's played maybe two rounds over 68 all year no matter what tournament he's been playing in. So you know, hopefully he can keep a lot of that stuff up.
But you know, this is a good golf course. This course has got a lot of rough this year. The greens are firm, they're pretty quick. First year they didn't over-seed, so they're a little -- they're not as smooth maybe as they have been in the past, so putting is going to be a little bit more of a challenge, but Fred's been putting really well.
Hopefully watching him is going to help me and drag me along. But both of us need to have good runs, you know, and seems like out here tournaments are won in kind of 9, 6, 8, 9-hole stretches where you're playing 4 and 5-under and all of a sudden you're right there, so hopefully we'll have several of those.

Q. You've been very self-deprecating, but you've won out here. You've been very successful out here. Talk about Freddy maybe discarding you. How does it work with the musical chairs of guys forming teams, and I imagine Fred Couples got a few phone calls.
JAY HAAS: Yeah. Hopefully he told them right off the bat that it was too late. But I think you just kind of get with somebody and you feel comfortable. I think one of the reasons that Curtis and I didn't reunite is he just felt like he wasn't going to play as much this year.
He had been doing a little bit of TV, and he wanted to come in here sharp if we were going to play, and he didn't feel like he was going to be competing as much as he needed to, so that kind of opened the door for me, I think Curtis stepping aside and letting me go elsewhere.
But you know, yeah, I see Fred and I playing together for a while. And you know, hopefully we'll be defending next year and all that and in the future, but I don't know how it all works. There's guys that have been together every year, Lee Trevino and Mike Hill I think have played in every single one of them. Don January and Miller Barber have played together for a lot of years. Bernhard and Tom Lehman, I bet they'll play together now for four or five, six years in a row as long as they're both playing the event.
Again, you have fun. There are some funny stories that happen during the competition, and you reminisce about that in years to come, but I think Fred and I will make a good team. I think, you know, last couple years I was actually the long hitter in the group, not by much, but I can hit it a little bit farther than Curtis and Ben, and I'm kind of middle of the road off the tee, so it'll be nice that Fred can pop it out there pretty good and maybe take advantage of the par-5s.

Q. Did you have to recruit him a little bit, promise him a car or flowers or something?
JAY HAAS: Nothing like that. You know, we talked about it a little bit last year, and certainly at the end of the year when we were at the Presidents Cup together, and I thought he was going to play a couple of events in Texas right after that, but he was kind of spent. He was burnt out with the whole Presidents Cup stuff going on, and I think he wanted to be ready when he came out, and obviously he was.
DAVE SENKO: Thank you.
JAY HAAS: You bet. Thank you.

Q. Have you seen Fred play this year? And what do you think about the way he's hitting the ball?
JAY HAAS: About Fred?

Q. Yeah. What he's doing well this year.
JAY HAAS: I think he's driving the ball about as good as he's ever driven it. I think he's got a driver that fits him. I think he was always comfortable hitting a left-to-right shot, a fade, get the ball in the fairway, and I think right now he's hitting a draw. And it just -- he just looks so at ease out driving the ball off the tee and he's extremely long right now.
But also, he's been with the belly putter off and on, and it's a fairly new one, I think, for him this year, and I think it just looks good to him.
You know, you shoot those kind of scores, you have to do everything well, but especially you have to putt well. You have to make 10, 12, 15-footers. You're not going to hit the ball three feet all day long. So I think Fred's putting well, and I think that's what's -- you know, 67, 68, putting's fair, and is within reason, but 62s, 3s and 4s you have to putt well along with hitting the ball well, so those are the two things. His driving has been outstanding. I think his putting has just been pretty fantastic.

Q. What do you think about the format of this event?
JAY HAAS: You know, I think all the players, at least 95 plus percent of the players wanted to go back to this format. It's the only time we play a team event, certainly on the Champions Tour, and I think when we were on the PGA TOUR, we always enjoyed watching the guys, you know, way back at Onion Creek, I guess it started and -- is that right, the first course? I remember watching those guys in the playoff, that was either the first or second year, and how cool that was, you know, to be still playing golf, No. 1, at 50 and above, and competing in a quality event, and then playing with your friends and having fun.
You know, we were just on the practice tee and none of us could practice because we were telling stories and laughing so hard.
And I got thinking, those are the things when I'm done playing and not doing this anymore, that's what I'm going to miss probably the most is just the camaraderie and stories and just the laughter that we all can get each other going on.
DAVE SENKO: You guys okay? All right. Thanks, Jay.

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