U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 19, 1999

Hunter Haas

HUNTER HAAS: Good one. It was a good day. I started hitting the ball a little better than I was late yesterday. I hit it all right this morning and scraped it around. Played a couple of grinders.

HUNTER HAAS: 1-up and 2-1. Actually, I had a lot of opportunities to -- this morning to have Rob down. I didn't take advantage of them. I was fortunate he couldn't capitalize on that. And Bob this afternoon, I knew I was going to have to play a lot better. Actually I did. I was even-par on the front, with one birdie. And I was 4-up and I had a chance to go 5-up on 10 and 3-putted, and just kind of -- I had a few bad tee balls and it slipped away.

HUNTER HAAS: Missed a short birdie putt on 12.

HUNTER HAAS: Uh-huh, to win the hole, to go 5-up, I missed that putt.

HUNTER HAAS: 7, 8 feet, a short putt. I don't miss many of those. And then I missed a real short putt on the par-5 to go dormie. And then I lost the next hole. Instead of being dormie, I flip-flopped the match, and took it a few extra holes than I needed to.

HUNTER HAAS: He conceded -- this morning he conceded a birdie on 9, but I was 40 feet away.

HUNTER HAAS: Yeah, par is really, really good. Par is good. I'd take 18 pars tomorrow and take my chances.

HUNTER HAAS: Yeah, pulled my knee out of place jumping up. I had no green to work with. Had a long distance to carry it, and I knew I couldn't put enough spin on it and couldn't hit it high enough to stop it. I knew I had to land it in the collar and let it trickle and bounce. And I didn't have that much pressure on me to really pull it off. It was either -- I either pull it off, or I go to the next hole, or I make a 15-footer from across the green. But I practiced those shots before, and it's not easy. You've just got to really work your body and your hands to get the ball to do that.

HUNTER HAAS: Tough. Rob Long, some guys on the team were calling him Tennessee Jack or whatever. The guy wore a South Park cartoon hat. He's one of those guys; wore shades that looked like came from a truck stop. I've dealt with that before. I know those guys are good. I know they can -- before I even saw Rob's game this morning, I knew he was going to be short. I knew he was going to be in the fairway. By that I knew that I was either going to -- if I wasn't hitting it good, I was going to have to hit iron off the tee and play to his length. But he's a really good player. He's got half a bag full of woods. And Bob, that's a different story. He's a tall fella, long; he's not a short hitter.

HUNTER HAAS: Before, when I was eating lunch, I was thinking about what I was going to do, my game plan for this afternoon. I knew Bob is a slower guy, moves slower. Sounds like I'm sizing him for competition. But I knew it was going to be an afternoon round, and it takes its toll. I'm tired right now; so I imagine what he is. But really, he didn't really crack coming down the stretch. I'd say it does take a toll on the older guys. It's a lot harder for them to pull through on these long days. They refer to us as flat-bellies and everything.

HUNTER HAAS: I met him and played in tournaments with him before. He's a real nice guy, couldn't hurt a flea. He doesn't have a bad word to say or anything negative. He just goes along.

HUNTER HAAS: He goes: "Great shot, I'm going to make you putt it, though." Earlier in the round on 6, I hit -- I hit a lob wedge and I threw it in there pretty close. As I was walking up, he was going to chip to his third shot, and I asked him if it was good and he kind of chuckled. We got along. You don't talk a whole lot -- I don't talk a whole lot when I'm playing. But if I do have something to say, he'd be a good guy to play with. I enjoyed it.

HUNTER HAAS: It depends upon the personalities. I'm not going to strike up a whole lot of conversation. I might talk to him about pin placement or something, or if he hit a good shot, I might compliment him on it. I'm not going to talk about politics or anything walking down the fairway.

HUNTER HAAS: Sure. This has helped it, but my confidence level has always been pretty high. It's just a matter of succeeding at something, and knowing that you can do it, versus being confident and it not happening. There's always times when people play great and are a hundred percent confident and they lose the tournament. Just someone beats them out; plays a little better that day. But it does help in match play. Helps out a lot.

HUNTER HAAS: Pretty helpful. We played our practice rounds -- he's caddied out here a lot. He knows the greens; knows where to hit it. I'll hit a drive or tee ball and he'll say, "It's fine," and it looks dead from the tee. He says: "It's in the fairway." And we get up and it's a foot from the primary cut or the secondary cut. He knows the course pretty well. I'm really struggling on the greens right now, my speed was off this morning, and I got the speed down this afternoon. But I'm just not rolling them in the back of the lip like I was at the Public Links or the Porter Cup. But then again, we're on the edge of the ocean and the greens are breaking one way, and they're looking the other way, and it's kind of difficult. He helps out a lot. He says, "Ball out to the left," and it looks like it's going -- he'll say, "Ball out to the right" and it looks like it's going to the right, but it's going left. You have to have somebody like that and trust them. It's just like driving in the dark with no lights on at sea level, my yardage is probably five or ten inches short. And I've come up most of the time short on my approach shots, and I've kind of struggled on that, and I adjusted.

HUNTER HAAS: I don't know. Like I said before, it would be an honor, and I'm not expecting to be on the Walker Cup. I'd really love to be on it, but it's not in my hands. I don't have control over whether certain individuals won. But I know if I was on the team, I'd play with my heart and play for my country.