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THE McGLADREY CLASSIC

October 10, 2010

Bill Haas

SEA ISLAND, GEORGIA

ADAM WALLACE: Nice playing out there, Bill. Obviously your solid play continued into this week, and your first runner-up finish on TOUR. If you could, please, just talk to us about your round today, and obviously that was a big eagle putt you made on the par-5 and just talk us through it.
BILL HAAS: Yeah. Very pleased. You know, with five holes left to go, I think I was maybe five back, and there was probably eight guys in front of me. And fortunately for me a few guys made some mistakes coming in, and I was able to limp in there pretty good on 16 and 17. It wasn't pretty, but made some pars.
And the eagle was huge, three-putted 14. I was in the middle of the fairway there, disappointing second shot, and then two terrible putts there, but to come back with eagle was nice. And obviously gave myself a chance, and thankfully other people fell back. But in theory I had a putt on the last hole to maybe tie it. I don't know if Heath made that putt for par or not. But knowing if I got to 14, I had a good shot.

Q. ShotLink says you had 218 into 15.
BILL HAAS: That sounds about right.

Q. What did you hit there?
BILL HAAS: Hit a 3-iron. It was into the wind, and I was only -- the front number, which I was concerned with, I thought -- I mean it's a narrow window, but at that stage of the game after three-putting, I was thinking about trying to hit it a foot, which so in theory maybe that bogey helped, because if I'd have made par there, I might have played safe and gone long and three-putted -- you know, there's no telling what would have happened. So I just hit a really nice solid 3-iron and the wind kind of held it up and it landed softly. That was one of my better shots.

Q. Did you have a sense of what was going on out there on the leaderboard all day? There was a lot of movement out there the last hour, hour and a half.
BILL HAAS: Yeah. A little bit. Pretty much I played solid through 12 holes. I missed a really short one at 11 and then made a great birdie at 12 and I was 3-under and I looked up and there was 10 guys in front of me. And I was like, well, I'm glad I played good. At least I played nice, but no chance today.
I knew it was tough coming in. I knew 16, 17, 18 aren't easy holes, and I was like, you know, I'll just see what happens. And I was surprised that -- you know, I'm surprised that I finished second, I guess, but very pleased. To play the last six holes 1-under par, and you know, tricky conditions and, you know, nerves out there, I was happy.

Q. Did you look up and realize all of a sudden where you were on the leaderboard on any of those last three?
BILL HAAS: Yeah. On 16 I knew I was -- I think I knew I was one back. I had gotten to 13, and I saw that there was three out at that time at 14, and I just thought to myself if we get to 14 here, 18 you have a chance to get to 15, which I thought was going to be the number. And hit a perfect drive there and had a perfect sand wedge distance, and I just pulled it. And it was just a bad shot. I tried not to miss it right, and it was just a bad iron shot. And that hurt because 17 and 18 are not easy holes. And to hit a perfect drive on 16 and have a hundred yards in, that was my chance to maybe do something.

Q. Bill, what are you feeling right now? The last two weeks, sometimes the second one is the toughest victory to get and maybe validates the first one. But first of all, how many more are you going to play, and do you feel like you're a threat to win every week?
BILL HAAS: I don't know if I feel like I'm a threat to win every week. I play to win every week. I think everybody out here tees it up on the first tee thinking they can win. I mean if you don't, you probably shouldn't be playing.
But I'm a little tired, but it's a pretty nice high I'm on. I'm tired right now, but I guarantee tomorrow I'm going to wake up feeling pretty good.
So I'm not going to play the next couple. I have a few weeks off. I'm committed to play in Malaysia and hopefully get into HSBC in China next week, so that pretty much takes me out of the rest of the Fall Series.
I could play Disney the last week of the year, but I'd be flying straight back from China, and I think this second-place finish pretty much secures me Top 30. That was my goal. I got it. I think I'm done with this TOUR.

Q. This gets you into Augusta.
BILL HAAS: Right. So that's -- I mean second place, it's fun. I'm not going to say it's no fun. Second place is fun out here. That's a successful week, but to qualify me for the Masters and Open, especially after last week, it kind of got misquoted saying I was in, even though I really wasn't, and to now kind of do it is pretty rewarding.

Q. David Duval once termed it this way, the first couple of years when he had a lot of runner-up finishes and hadn't won, he said, you know, there are times where you lose first, but there are other times where you win second. Since Heath was playing so well and he didn't really -- do you feel like you won second in that context? Do you feel like you accomplished something by moving up the way you did?
BILL HAAS: Absolutely. I mean, and Heath won it, like you're saying. He birdied 16 was the hole that I said was a good birdie hole today, and made -- I don't know what he did on the last hole. Do you all know if he parred on the last hole?

Q. Bogeyed.
BILL HAAS: He missed it? But to finish the way he finished, he earned it. He was tied with all of us. I think we were all tied.
No. He was one ahead. But he was tied with people at 14, and a few people backed up, and he made birdie, so he won it. I didn't necessarily lose it, I guess.
So yeah, I take away positives from playing the last four 1-under par.

Q. You can't play defense in this game; right?
BILL HAAS: Sure you can. Pars are good.

Q. No, I mean you can't go block the other guy away.
BILL HAAS: Yeah. You're exactly right.

Q. He's going to do what he's going to do.
BILL HAAS: Right. And you're not even really pulling against him. Obviously maybe I want him to maybe make 6 on the last hole so we can go to the playoffs. But he didn't, so very pleased with my week.

Q. Did you see how he birdied 16?
BILL HAAS: Hunh-uh.

Q. The 60-footer from behind the green that rattled the pin. But anyway.
BILL HAAS: Perfect. That won him the tournament, and that's the putt that he'll always remember. Last week for me I made a 30-footer on 17 down the hill, and in theory that one kind of won me that tournament. You need that kind of stuff to happen. It was Heath's week, and that's awesome playing.

Q. This puts you at 18 on the Money List?
BILL HAAS: That's what somebody was saying.

Q. That's good.
BILL HAAS: I'll take 18 every year on TOUR. Obviously we all set our sights high to Ryder Cup, No. 1 in the world and all that, but if you consistently finish Top 30 on the Money List out here, you're doing something really good, so I'm extremely pleased with my year.
ADAM WALLACE: All right. Thanks, Bill, for coming in.

End of FastScripts

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