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BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 25, 2005

Jay Haas

LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA

JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome Jay Haas to the interview area. We appreciate you coming in today. You've had some success at this tournament. Obviously you enjoy the format. Maybe just talk a little bit about your recent successes here and the state of your game right now.

JAY HAAS: I think these courses set up good for me. None of the courses are real long golf courses, the greens are beautiful. I think the start of the year I'm always pretty fired up about playing. My energy level is high. I like playing with the amateurs, I know the golf courses. You know, with four golf courses here, for some of the younger guys, they haven't played that many times here.

I think this format, it takes a while to get comfortable in. I've been on the last few years here, had chances to win in 2002, 2003 and 2004, and looking for more of the same this week. I won't say I'm playing as well as I was last year at this time, but I think when I showed up here, I really didn't know what to expect.

If I can putt well -- the greens are magnificent. The courses are all about as good as I've seen them, so much grass with the rain we've had here recently. I'm expecting the scores to be quite low this week, as they always are.

Q. Obviously the last three years going into the last round you've had every opportunity to win three times.

JAY HAAS: Right.

Q. You look at those now, are you still disappointed or do you feel like, well, this just shows that I'm still playing well at 49 and 50?

JAY HAAS: Well, I think I've looked at it more the fact that I'm still playing well and have a chance to win rather than I've given away chances to win. I'm not one to dwell on bad shots or bad tournaments. I know that I've had thousands of bad shots and hundreds of bad tournaments. I mean, it's just part of it.

I guess I try to think of the glass half full, not think about what should have been, could have been, but just that I'm playing well enough to be in those positions, so that's the way I've looked at it. This is a good week for me and I'm anxious to play.

Q. Obviously last year you played well, TOUR Championship, Ryder Cup, the whole thing. Is this playing the same for 2005 as it was for 2004?

JAY HAAS: Pretty much the same. I think I would maybe play a few more Champions Tour events. Right now that's kind of my plan, maybe six or seven Champions Tour events and maybe 20 or so Tour events. Last year I played 30 or 31 weeks, and as early as maybe 2000, 2001, I said I need to cut back; I'm playing too much golf. This is a time I need to start playing less, and I've actually added a tournament or two each year for the last three or four years. I think I want to go back the other way now, start playing a little bit less again. I got in the Ryder Cup, got in the Presidents Cup, got in Tiger's tournament, Sun City, places I really couldn't pass up going to almost. Most of my career I was never invited to those types of events, and if I was, you'd go to Japan, 25 years ago they'd give you an air ticket and $1,500. Well, it's a great deal, but I spent most of my year traveling here in the States and so I wanted to be home with my family. When they're giving you airfare and $150,000 guaranteed, then for me it's a different story.

Q. You mentioned you like playing with the amateurs. Do you go into those tournaments with a different mind set than without the amateurs playing?

JAY HAAS: A little bit, but I think early on in my career in this event I was always worried about them having a good time and maybe spent too much time with them or didn't think about my game enough, and I think maybe six or eight or ten years ago, I said, you know, I can still make them have a good time and focus on my game, too. It's a little bit of both.

I've learned that it takes a little while to play. You know, the amateurs are going to be a little bit slower perhaps, but I haven't let any bad shots, anything bother me as much as maybe it did early in my career. Most of the guys say they have a good time playing with me. I enjoy playing with them, help them read their putts, and I try not to worry too much about -- I don't know, just the way things are going. I just try to focus on my game and entertain them at the same time.

Q. Historically you seem to kind of come on pretty strong at the beginning of the season. What kind of preparation do you do in the off season and do you like the early part of the Tour?

JAY HAAS: I don't think my attitude about the start of the year has ever changed in 28 years. It's always been a little bit of apprehension when I come into the season. I'm zero dollars, I don't know what's going to happen. I had a good year last year, I've got to do it again this year. That's the way I feel.

So I don't ever feel like I can relax in the off season. I feel like I need to practice, I need to be in shape, and even more so as I've gotten older. The last few years I've just gotten to the point where I work pretty hard working out, things like that, doing stuff for my body and take a little time off from golf but then get back into it pretty soon.

I guess I've told people I realize this is not going to last very much longer, and I need to take advantage of it while I can. So my energy, as I said, is high when I come out here to the West Coast. I'm ready to go, I feel like I want to play, I'm not tired, so it's just --

Q. Less pressure as you get older, too?

JAY HAAS: Less what?

Q. Less pressure?

JAY HAAS: I wouldn't say less pressure, but I guess a few years ago, I came out with the attitude that when I was 49, that if I didn't play well for the year, the Champions Tour was there, so I almost felt -- I wouldn't say no pressure, but a lot less pressure that year. But last year I felt like I did it when I was 49, now I've got to do it again when I'm 50. So I kind of feel that way again this year, the pressure personally on me to perform at the level that I have been the last couple years.

Q. This tournament this week, I've got Jacobson who is exempt from having won when he was 49; Stadler, who's exempt from winning at 50 --

JAY HAAS: Did he win here?

Q. In 1980, 25 years ago. You're here, Wadkins is here, Peter Jacobson, Kite, who's coming back to the Tour, and I think McCumber is the other one, so six guys over 50. What have you wrought here? Do you feel like a godfather?

JAY HAAS: A little bit. Someone just asked me that, do I feel like I'm the trailblazer for some of these guys. I guess I've always thought that if there were no Champions Tour, that a lot of these guys would still be doing the same thing. 25 years ago you didn't see it because you couldn't survive if you were finishing 100th on the Money List. You made about 25 grand for the year. If you had a family at home and a house there, you couldn't make enough money.

Now you finish 100th on the Money List, you make $800,000, $900,000, so you can hang on not playing your best and wait for the Champions Tour. I guarantee you if Hale Irwin was playing a full schedule on the PGA TOUR the last eight or nine years, he'd have won five tournaments at least. Certain places he can still compete at 60, I think.

You know, Sam Snead did it, he was kind of a freak, but he did it when there was nothing else to play and he just loved to play, so he was active.

Q. So I guess the question then would be, is there a danger that if Kite and you and Jacobson and people like that all play full schedules out here, 15 to 20, whatever it is, does that start to blur the line so much that the other Tour becomes concerned?

JAY HAAS: Well, I think that the mindset is that it's good for that other Tour, for the Champions Tour, the fact that these guys can still play. If I come out here and compete and finish 27th on the Money List and I go over there and I don't win tournaments, then you would think that if the guys in the Top 30, he would go over there and win every single week that he plays. Wouldn't you think that?

Q. I understand.

JAY HAAS: It's almost like a guy going to the LPGA TOUR. Would you think he would win every week? Well, he probably wouldn't. That just shows you the level of the Champions Tour, and I think that if this many guys can still compete out here, I think it brings the perception of play on the Champions Tour up.

Q. Bill played well last week. He's here this week. Talk about how excited you are to see how he can do for a full year between the Nationwide Tour and jumping back and forth here. Are you looking for a payback from him clipping you last week (laughter)?

JAY HAAS: No, that was probably certainly the highlight of my year so far, was to see him birdie that last hole. I was in the locker room watching on the computer, watching on TV, and then after he finished, I thought, well, hey, that's the first time he's beaten me in a tournament. I couldn't be happier. I hope he does it every single week this year. We played some practice rounds the last couple of days and he's playing very well. I think it's tough for someone to only have seven exemptions to try to have that in the back of your mind, to make $450,000 to be in the top 50, to be a temporary member or whatever in only seven events and then focus on the Nationwide Tour. I think his mindset is to try to get as many exemptions out here early and then to establish himself on the Nationwide, if he has not gotten that temporary status or full status.

I think he knows he can play out here. I think it's just coming out his first event being a sponsor's invite, I think he feels like he's -- he didn't earn it, say, he didn't qualify to be in the event, so he kind of feels a little self-conscious about taking a sponsor's invite, but everybody does that and you need that. He's earned that invite from his past play. So yeah, I couldn't be prouder and was so excited. Again, I hope he beats me every week.

Q. Two years ago you talked about The Presidents Cup being a goal, last year Ryder Cup, now The Presidents Cup. Is that a specific goal this year?

JAY HAAS: Probably. I think I'll feel better about it maybe after the first -- through April if I've really played well and kind of just keep myself in there, in the hunt money-wise, but every year I come out, I want to win a tournament. That's kind of my goal. I would like to win on both tours. That would be probably the ultimate goal.

First and foremost, I'd like to stay in the top 50 in World Rankings. That's kind of just a little goal, just looking at different things. The good play takes care of all these bases, so I wouldn't say that I'm ruling out The Presidents Cup, but I'm not thinking that far in advance right now.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Jay, we appreciate your time. Play well this year.

JAY HAAS: Thanks. Hope to see you all week this week.

End of FastScripts.

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