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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 31, 2004

Jay Haas

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

Q. Could you start us off with birdies and bogeys?

JAY HAAS: I started on the back. I bogeyed 10, hit a 3-iron in the front bunker, hit it out to about 12 feet, missed it. 16, I hit a poor 3-iron left of the green, chipped to about 12 feet, missed that.

Birdied 17, made about a 10-foot putt there.

2, maybe a 15-foot putt.

3, about 15 feet.

4, I two-putted from about 45 feet.

Then 6, I missed about a three-footer for par there, made bogey.

I didn't play as sharp today as I was Thursday, but I was very impatient on the first round. I got a little impatient quick out there today and wasn't hitting it quite as solid. I got over par, 2 over through 7 and was a little -- I won't say panicky, but I needed to make one, and I made a nice stretch there of about six holes I played 4-under, so that was really the key to my round so far or the tournament so far. I made four of my longest putts of the week, and none of them over 15 feet really, so that -- that's frustrating I hadn't made any long ones, but it was fun to make a couple there.

I won't say the course played harder today. It played longer, but the greens are soft. You can throw it right at it, and the fairways being soft, it made it easier to hit the fairways. The ball would hit and stick. It was kind of a tradeoff on the distance factor there.

Q. Can you talk about the advantage that you may have tomorrow over a lot of the guys out here being that you're one of the younger guys out here?

JAY HAAS: You know, you look at the guys -- Peter, although coming off of a hip problem, he's been working hard with that, so I expect he'll be -- he'll go the full 36 tomorrow. Tom Kite works as hard as anybody out here, Hale, no telling what he'll shoot, he may go 6 or 7-under today, too.

I don't think you can discount anyone who's up there just because of age or anything like that. If you get on a roll, if you get playing well, you get confident, you get momentum, you get adrenaline flowing and it carries you through.

You know, if there is such a thing as an edge because of age, maybe I have that just because I'm just 50 and some of the other guys are a little older, but I guess if I was 55 or 56 or 58, I wouldn't think that the 50-year-old had any advantage on me.

Q. How do you know?

JAY HAAS: Yeah (laughter).

Q. (Inaudible).

JAY HAAS: Yeah, you look at the leaderboard, and there's names that you recognize up there, not a lot of surprises. You know, Hale is not up there, so I would expect him to shoot under par easily today, 3, 4, 5-under. That wouldn't be a surprise there. I think that's the nature of the golf course. You have to hit a lot of good shots, a lot of solid shots. Distance, I think, is a key here. It's not a short hitters' golf course, and in this arena on maybe one of the longer hitters, I wouldn't say I'm long, but longer than I am on the regular Tour, so I feel like that helps me here.

Q. (Inaudible).

JAY HAAS: Oh, yeah. With 36 left, so much can happen, even though it is just one day. Guys can get going, and I can see a 63 or 64 out of somebody here before too long.

Q. 3-under when the course is wet, spike marks can be an issue -- (inaudible).

JAY HAAS: Not completely. There's still guys that wear spikes out here, but I don't think there's as many metal spikes out here as there are on the regular Tour, and you just don't see them. It's refreshing. It's been kind of a gradual thing, but now that you look at it late in the day, you see the greens and they still look pretty good, and that never used to happen. It's much nicer to putt on surfaces like that.

Q. Not with the course but with the fans, do you have some kind of a home field advantage here?

JAY HAAS: I'd like to think so. They've been very supportive of me, and seeing people that I hadn't seen in a long time. It's fun to see that they're out here pulling for me, glad that I'm still here playing for them.

Q. Speaking of pulling for people, I guess you're going to eat a little lunch and look at the leaderboard?

JAY HAAS: Yeah, I was getting updates on the computer last night and was pretty pumped about his finish yesterday. That was fun. Hopefully he'll have a good day today.

Q. What's your history with a 36-hole round?

JAY HAAS: Well, we do it quite a bit. I qualified for the Open 36 holes, played well. I have not qualified -- you know, when you've played as long as we all have here, there's been good and bad everything. I think the key to 36 is being patient, being on an even keel like we try to do every day, try not to think too far ahead.

But for me personally, I've done good and bad, I think.

Q. What's it like to be in a dog fight -- (inaudible).

JAY HAAS: It's fun. A lot of these guys over the years that I've played against, competed against, I've been on the outside looking in plenty of time against them. It's nice to be up there close to the lead, playing in the last few groups, having a chance to win. That's all you can ask for. It's a thrill. They're all great champions, and I'm privileged to be here with them.

Q. Are you going to pop Peter on the hip a little bit?

JAY HAAS: I might take him down and do a little one-on-one at the hotel maybe (laughter). I saw him stretching earlier today, and I just told him he was kind of a wimp and just suck it up. I'm betting he does.

End of FastScripts.

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