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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

November 4, 2004

Jay Haas

ATLANTA, GEORGIA

TODD BUDNICK: We welcome Jay Haas after a first round 67 in the TOUR Championship. Jay, just one bogey, two birdies and an eagle today. Nice round out there.

JAY HAAS: It was good. I played very well. I kept the ball in play most of the day, which you had to do out there, the rough being wet and things like that, but the greens are holding. I would expect somebody will be lower than this today, even though it is windy. With the greens holding so well, I won't say it's easy, it's just not showing its teeth like it could.

But any time shooting in the 60s here I'm pleased.

TODD BUDNICK: It's been a big week, awarded the Payne Stewart Award yesterday, a great achievement for you and you played well in the first round.

JAY HAAS: Yeah, still kind of glowing, I guess, from yesterday. That was just unexpected, I guess, when Tim called me a few weeks ago just to have been chosen amongst the players of today and the quality of people that we have out here, to be picked was -- it didn't really sink in until yesterday when I saw the names on the trophy, and just all the circumstances surrounding it, it was pretty impressive, and I certainly -- if you saw that list of players, and then with my name on there, you'd say, "What the hell is that guy's name doing on there? What award is this?" I don't know if that carried over any today, but I really was relaxed. I was probably more nervous about my speech yesterday than I was about my first round today.

TODD BUDNICK: Lastly, before we take some questions, the course was under a great amount of water this morning. What did you think the chances were?

JAY HAAS: I didn't think we'd play on time. I felt like we might try to play this afternoon, re-pair or something like that, but I didn't think we'd be on time or play the ball down. When we drove by the course this morning there were rivers running by the low spots. You could see that they put in a lot of drainage here over the last year, two years, and I think that really helped. It's still soft and there's some mud at times, but I think in the past, in the recent past, we've been playing lift, clean and place too often, and I don't remember that happening 25 years ago as much. I just went out and played, and I'm sure there will be some complaints about mud on the ball today, but you won't hear them from me.

Q. Any adjustment at all -- the greens were a little slower, weren't they?

JAY HAAS: They were slower, and I thought they were slower yesterday during the Pro-Am, and I think that was due to the rain on Tuesday night. Just from what I've seen in the past here, tournaments in the past, the ball just -- if you get above the hole, it's very treacherous.

Yeah, you could run in some putts today. Uphillers you could give it a pretty good whack, and down, you didn't have to just guard against running it so far by. That made it a little bit easier, and with the softness of the greens, obviously, as we say, throwing darts, but the speed I don't think was what it will be as the week goes on. The sun is coming out and I think you're going to see more in the speed of the greens by the end of the week.

Q. Where does this year rank on your scale of your most fun years?

JAY HAAS: I thought last year was fun, but this has topped it just with the Ryder Cup and the Payne Stewart Award. It sounds boring, I guess, but just being in this locker room with these guys is thrilling to me, just to think that I was -- I played well enough to be in this field. I didn't win a prize and get to come here, earned my way here, and I think that's very gratifying.

Q. What's going to have to happen to get you off this TOUR?

JAY HAAS: I've been saying that if I start off the year next year not so great and kind of struggle a little bit that I'll change my tune and play more Champions Tour events, but that's a little bit of an insult to the Champions Tour because if I don't play well over there I'm not going to do that great. I'll do okay but I won't do as well as I want to.

As long as I can remain competitive over here -- I've had guys from both tours tell me, "Keep playing as much as you can over there." Tom Kite, he just said, "Play as much and as often as you can play, don't give it up." I've heard he's going to come over and play, use his last year of the Top 50 lifetime exemption, and he might come over and play a pretty extensive schedule. It's rumor, I haven't talked to him personally, but this is the major leagues; this is where we want to be. So until somebody says "go," in more ways than vocally...

Q. Do you know what's going to be your next tournament of next year?

JAY HAAS: I looked. San Diego, Hope, Phoenix, that was kind of the first three there. I may not play San Diego, but I've had good luck there in the past and I like being there. I've got some good friends there and everything, so I may open up with that and then go to the desert for a couple weeks and take off AT&T.

Q. You must have struck the ball really well today because it's playing long, all carry?

JAY HAAS: I played with Kenny Perry and he was 25, 30 yards by me on every single hole. He did not have a good day. He struggled on the greens and wasn't real sharp with his irons, but yeah, this -- you know, I'm weak, short, slow, whatever. In the field of athletics, I would not be the favorite by any means, but there's no defense out here, so that's the good thing for me.

TODD BUDNICK: Can we just go through the card. Birdie on 6.

JAY HAAS: Well, I birdied 3, made about -- hit an 8-iron to about 12 feet, and I hit in the bunker at 4 out to about ten feet, missed it.

6, I hit an 8-iron to about six feet.

11, I hit a 6-iron, almost flew it in the hole, landed two inches left of the hole, went by 12 feet.

Bogeyed 14, pitched it by and missed it.

5-wood to the back fringe at 15, made it from about 16 feet, something like that, and then three nice pars coming in. Two-putted 17 and 18.

Q. Happy to hit 8-iron there, not 4-iron, with that new tee at 6?

JAY HAAS: This would have been a nightmare day. I'm sure they would have adjusted it today had we decided early on to play that tee sometime. It wouldn't have been today, but I didn't even -- getting back there, I heard there was a tee back there, but before I couldn't hit a practice shot and they said they weren't going back there.

Q. Pretty perilous shot?

JAY HAAS: Looks like they're going to have to do what they do at TPC and you might have to go to the drop circle because I might be all there if I hit the first one in.

Q. How excited were you to play this week from the standpoint of it's a 30-man field? You're playing the best players, but it's certainly -- from numbers, it's one of the easiest tournaments to win.

JAY HAAS: I guess you're right about that, but obviously the field is pretty deep here. Yeah, I guess it was my goal by toward the middle of the year and I got in the Top 30 and I said, "Boy, it sure would be nice to drive down the road and show up here and get in that field." I guess I went to 29th before last week. I played at Greensboro, missed the cut there, didn't play in Vegas, didn't play at Disney, and I guess I was kind of worn out from the Ryder Cup and trying to make that and playing a lot this year.

I played very well last week at Tampa, probably as good as I've hit the ball from tee to green for four rounds, so that was encouraging and kind of carried over to this week.

But yeah, just to be here is a dream come true, and they just keep coming for me.

Q. When we go to major championships there's always a lot said about the golf course. Seems like the players don't really say much here other than this is a great place to be.

JAY HAAS: I think the course here to me, it's not a spectacular golf course like Pebble Beach or something like that. To me it's like Harbour Town, Pinehurst No. 2, great courses that just one hole after the other are great holes. I don't think it's set up as difficult as it could be set up, either. You know, the rough is not as high as it was a couple years ago, they tell me. The greens aren't as fast, but it's got my vote.

This is the first year I've ever played it. I never have been down here to play this course. I don't want to say it surprised me, but everything is right in front of me. There's no tricks to this golf course. I guess there would have been if they had put the tee back at 6.

Q. Does it separate anybody in and of itself?

JAY HAAS: You know, I don't think it's brutally long. It certainly wasn't playing that way on Tuesday, the Pro-Am. Now with the rain it's starting to play quite a bit longer. I think any course sets up for a long hitter, I don't care where you are, tight, wide open, long, short. Every course is a long hitters' golf course. You look at the Top 10 money winners. Somebody told me this stat the other day. The Top 10 money winners, the best driving accuracy percentage is like 148 of the Top 10 money winners. You might want to go check that out, but to me that means bombs away and you can get away with it.

But golf, like I said, there's no defense. If you play well, you know -- like I said, Kenny was outdriving me today, but I was able to get him today. In the long run, though, I wish I had 30 in my pocket.

Q. Is there any difference in the field? You've gone back and forth between the two tours. The other tour, any different feel out here as opposed to there?

JAY HAAS: There are outstanding players out there, and obviously it wasn't a pushover because I didn't win any of the tournaments I played in. I still think -- I don't know what number I would put on it, but there are players on the Champions Tour that could still be doing what I'm doing right now.

I see Hale at 59 on the right golf course for him would still be a threat to win a golf tournament out here. I still think he's one of the best putters in the world. Tom Kite, I think if the Champions Tour was not there, if there was no such thing, there would still be quite a few of those guys trying to do this.

The depth of the fields obviously are not what they are out here, but the quality of play is not a lot different.

Q. Are you playing that new Titleist golf ball?

JAY HAAS: I played it Tuesday, and I didn't see -- certainly didn't see any negatives to it. I didn't play it today, but I'll probably start playing it in the off season here.

Q. What's it supposed to do?

JAY HAAS: It's smaller and heavier, goes through the wind -- no (laughter). It doesn't spin maybe as much with the long clubs but spins the same with the short clubs and feels the same around the greens. There's something with the cover that's a little different, but I didn't see a lot of difference.

Q. Just tweaking it?

JAY HAAS: Very minute qualities are changing.

Q. So it's Pro V1 feel with X distance?

JAY HAAS: To me the X doesn't go any farther. I don't keep it in the air enough. It doesn't spin enough for me. It may be a little bit toward that way but not in between I wouldn't say, maybe just a bump toward that way. But it seemed fine. If you told me I had to play it today, I would have had no problem with it.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, Jay.

End of FastScripts.

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