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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIPFebruary 21, 2012Bill HaasMARANA, ARIZONA MARK STEVENS: Like to welcome Bill Haas. Talk about your thoughts coming in this week after your win at the Northern Trust Open last week, and then we'll have some questions. BILL HAAS: I'm excited. It's my second one. Lost in the first round last year. I feel like I'm doing a lot of good things on the golf course. Golf swing‑wise I'm still working, even after my win last week, I still feel that there's stuff to work on in my golf swing. My putting is the entire reason I was in that playoff. And then it was fitting to make that long putt like that, because that was the whole reason I scored any good is because of my short game last week. I think if I can get a good swing thought going for this week, it could be a lot of good things to happen. Q. I've lost track of how many playoffs you've been here lately, was that your third one? BILL HAAS: Fourth. Q. Hope and whatnot. Is there any similarity to that and match play, other than I guess the playoff, it's finality right now, but I guess there would be some parallels? BILL HAAS: Yeah, a little bit. You lose the first three holes in match play, it's not over. You lose the first hole in playoff, it's over. I think you still have to go play the golf course, in my opinion, make as many unforced errors. The guy you're playing is one of the top 64 players in the world and he's not going to make them. So you've just got to go out there and make a lot of pars and sneak in a few birdies in there. If he makes more birdies than you, you tip your hat to him. I think that's how it works in this format. Q. Two things. Were you surprised that you were the only one that used a driver on that playoff hole? And No. 2, how good a playoff hole is that? BILL HAAS: Yeah, it's a great playoff hole for me. I'm saying that. I guarantee you Phil might be saying something different, but just because he hit a nice tee shot and then really didn't have a chance to hold the green. He had a heck of a second shot. When it was in the air, I said to my brother, who was caddying, I said look at this shot he just hit, and it still rolled off the green. In that sense it's maybe a little bit unfair, but then again it just yields to an exciting finish. An unbelievable up and down is probably what's going to ends it there. I hit driver because I'm not as long as those guys. I think their 3‑woods would go far enough. I think that ideal position to that pin is far up into that first bunker. Like Keegan was in the bunker, but he was in the front of it. He got a bad break to just trickle in. And he had a heck of a shot to have 12 feet for birdie. I think they were both thinking I can get it up in the bunker with 3‑wood and driver would go too far. I pulled my drive. I didn't hit it like I wanted. And so if I were to hit a nice driver, I don't think I can get over that front bunker, is what they were thinking. Q. When Peter Kostis grabbed you after you finished 18 he asked you what you expected. And you said you expected them both to make birdie. And obviously that's what you‑‑ the attitude you'd like to go to the range with. So when you heard those two roars, was there any raise of your adrenalin level, and how long did it take you get it back under control again? BILL HAAS: I don't how to explain my inner feelings and my adrenalin. You're on the range hitting balls, going there's probably going to be a playoff, but when there is a playoff, it's a different feeling. You're saying, all right, let's go, there's more golf. I need to hit a good drive on No. 18, here. And so really when‑‑ my experience in playoffs, all I'm thinking about is my next shot I can hit. You can't hit your second shot until you hit the drive. Really hit some nice, hard cuts on the range and I felt like I did that in the playoff. I hit a nice drive to start. In a sense I felt like I prepared myself on the range for that moment and hit a nice shot. Q. Coming out of college obviously you were marked as one of the up and comers, it took you a couple of years to get the training wheels off and now look at you. What's been the big change for you, is that a simple dumb confidence answer there or is it something more complicated than that? BILL HAAS: I don't know. It's easy to look back. I still look back and say, man, back in college, when I could really play, just because I had a lot of success in college. It's a totally different level. I kid when I say that, just because when you get out here and I learned‑‑ I wasn't completely ignorant to how good everybody is out here. Even as a senior in college, I couldn't beat my dad. So I knew if I couldn't beat him, I couldn't beat the rest of the guys out here. Deep down, I came out saying I was disappointed not making it on Tour. But deep down I knew it was not the easiest thing to get out here and play, much less win. I think I know more than anybody how special it is to win any golf tournament. Everybody out here‑‑ I don't want to say I know more than anybody, but I definitely don't take it for granted, any kind of win. Or even a nice finish, a top‑5. Guys like Tiger and Phil, even some of the young guys, stars, your Rory McIlroys, they're not saying that because they're really, really good. And I'm trying to get there. I think I can get better. And maybe be up to that level. But, yeah, I don't know if there's any why to why it took me five years to win. That was my goal every year was to see improvement each and every year. Whether or not that's just experience doing that or maybe I'm physically getting better, I don't know. But there's always something you can work on. Q. In amateur golf or college golf did you have a walk‑off moment equivalent to making this putt in the playoff? BILL HAAS: No, I said the other day, that was probably the best putt I've ever made in my career, because of the length of it and the type of putt it was. If you miss it a foot left, it goes almost off the green, maybe in the bunker. I was thinking don't putt this in the bunker. And if I miss it, if you get it a little right it doesn't break, and it stays right. It was just a hard putt. In that situation I ranked that as my best putt ever. Now you look at the Tour Championship and what that was for, and the last four‑footer, that one I'll always remember, that putt. I don't remember even in college, any kind of winning a tournament with a putt like that. It was pretty cool. Q. That would have been a bad luck if I putted it in the bunker? BILL HAAS: Yeah, that would be bad. But you could do it. It probably would have stayed on the fringe maybe. I had a putt for about ten feet earlier in the day from‑‑ like underneath the hole, I was putting this way in the playoff. When I putted this way, I barely touched it and it rolled and rolled and rolled. I knew if I hit it any harder, going left, towards the back bunker, like Phil's chip, it trickled and rolled, rolled, rolled. I was thinking don't hit this thing next to Phil. Q. Before The Presidents Cup how much match play had you had? You had basically a Wednesday here last year. And I can't remember if you were old enough to play in the Hooters events in college? BILL HAAS: Yeah, Hooters at Bulls Bay. I think I played one of those. I don't even remember how I even did in that. But I do believe I played in one of those. I played in the Palmer Cup, which is a college equivalent to the Walker Cup twice and I played in the Walker Cup. So I've had some. But they've all been team events. This is individual, one match. And it's a little different, maybe. I went one, three and one at the Presidents Cup but the team won. I remember afterwards feeling really good. If I go‑‑ if I win one match here, I'll be pumped about that, but you keep losing matches you don't feel as good. Q. And you're out there five days. BILL HAAS: Yeah. So it's definitely different. I don't have much experience. But just being in this event is a goal reached and a positive thing. So I think I just try to appreciate it and hopefully go out there and play well. Q. Two part question. It seems to always be a burst in confidence after you have a win. And I'm wondering if there's more of a burst in confidence given the circumstances of this playoff and given the circumstances of this playoff that it was Phil and Keegan, do you feel like you got your due out of this victory? BILL HAAS: Oh, I don't know. It was like a caricature I saw. My wife showed me she found on somewhere, me dressed as a thief with the trophy, and them looking at me like I stole it from them in a sense, which was kind of funny. I understand where that came from, that's kind of what happened. I made a 40‑footer and all that. Granted they made birdies just to get in the playoff. So in a sense if they'd have won, I could say they stole it from me. But I don't know if I got my due or anything like that. I don't know if there's extra confidence. Anytime you win or even play well, shoot a good number, if I had shot 69 or 68 on Sunday and still lost, I know I would have had a good number on Sunday under the gun and I would have used that as confidence, as well. Q. The numbers would say you and your old man are probably the most successful father‑son tandem, and most of that's been on the sons. There haven't been a lot of sons that have done really much of anything, much less multiple wins. Is there an easy reason for that that you can see? Is there maybe something that's not beneficial to be the son of a pro and maybe not having the same fire in the belly, perhaps, or the economic advantages work against you versus say Trevino, who didn't have anything and wanted to take down everybody he could? BILL HAAS: No, I think that's a huge disadvantage for Lee Trevino, to be able to go play and have the means, the golf courses, I would never say that. I think he‑‑ that's just a testament of how good he was and his drive and all that. I don't know. I think it's just solely on the numbers. How many guys play on Tour. Well, the numbers say there are only so many out of the whole world that can play and the odds are that two of them will be from the same family or a father‑son is very slim. There's been many times I've called my dad and said, hey, I wish you could play for me, I don't feel very good. You can't do that. Everybody has to earn it yourself. It doesn't matter who your dad is; it's all on the player. And that's the most rewarding and the most challenging part of this game. There's no team involved. So I think that's the answer. It's just solely on the numbers and the odds are that people from the same family can do it. And I think the Haas family, my uncle, Jerry; my dad; my uncle Dillard, my mom's brother; my great uncle Bob Goalby, all of us, we understand how cool it is that all of us as a family have been able to play on Tour and have had success on Tour. We don't take it for granted, I think we understand it's very difficult to do it. Q. So does it get into the gene pool? BILL HAAS: I think to be able to go to those people and say, how did you feel when you won? You actually have people‑‑ Q. Sounding board. BILL HAAS: You have people that genuinely care about how you do that also get what's going on there. I have friends that say, man, why don't you do this or whatever. They don't know. They've never experienced it. But a lot of people in my family have experienced it. And so that's a huge‑‑ that's the biggest, I think, bonus for me, as a Tour player's son is the experience you get from people that actually care how you do. MARK STEVENS: Thanks a lot, Bill, good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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