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By Greg Hardwig
Naples Daily News
November 12, 2004
Jay and Bill Haas already have won one unofficial PGA Tour event. Today, they'll try to do it again at The Franklin Templeton Shootout.
The father and son teamed to win the CVS Charity Classic back in late June, beating such players as Chad Campbell, Chris Riley, Kenny Perry, Peter Jacobsen, Jeff Sluman and Greg Norman in the team event.
 The younger Haas, college player of the year at Wake Forest, won over $315,000 in nine events after turning pro in June. |
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All six of them happen to be playing in the Shootout at Tiburón Golf Club, albeit with different playing partners in the 24-player, 12-team event.
The teams will play modified alternate shot today, with better ball on Saturday and a scramble on Sunday.
"I can't imagine a better scenario than what we had at the CVS and just being included in this field here," said Jay Haas, who at 50 contended for the title at the Tour Championship last week. "Going to work with your son, it's a pretty neat thing for me, no matter how we do.
"I went into the (CVS) and I felt I'd won even before we teed off, how exciting it was to be with him and watch him interact with the other players, and how I feel his game is up to their standards and is just going to get better."
Hank Kuehne and Jeff Sluman are the defending champions in the tournament, which is in its 16th year. The two won a three- team playoff a year ago over Campbell and Shaun Micheel and two-time champions Brad Faxon and Scott McCarron.
The modified alternate shot typically is the more difficult of the three formats because the two team members alternate hitting shots, so it's harder for one to pick up the other after a bad shot.
"(Today) is the toughest day," the long-hitting Kuehne said.
"The key is you've got to get off to a good start. You can't win the golf tournament, but you can definitely shoot yourself out of it."
Of course, this is supposed to be a fun, relaxing kind of deal.
And while the competitive juices will get flowing as the tournament wears on, it won't be quite the same for what many of the players just got through dealing with.
Seven are coming from the Tour Championship, which they got into by finishing in the top 30 on the money list. A few others were battling to get into the top 125 on the money list to retain their tour cards for next year.
"Everybody wants to play well, but it's not what the guys were going through a couple of weeks ago trying to keep their card or get into the 30th or 150th (spots) or stuff like that," Sluman said. "This is a fun event and it just seems like the more fun you have, the better you play."
And the better they have a chance at taking home a nice early Christmas present. The winners split $600,000 out of the $2.5 million purse.
"I've seen how much the winner gets," Bill Haas said. "You're not just playing for nothing. The way my dad's playing, if I can help him out a little bit, I think we've got a shot."
Counting the defending champions, there are six others in the field who have won this event: Mark Calcavecchia (1995), Steve Elkington (1993, 1995, 1998), Scott McCarron (1997, 2000, 2001), Lee Janzen (2002), Jay Haas (1996), and the host himself (1998).
Norman will be playing in his first event since early August.
The 49-year-old has been bothered by a bad back.
Paul Azinger, the new ABC Sports golf analyst who's teamed with Olin Browne, handicapped the field: "I would say the favorites have to be Jay Haas and Bill Haas because they won the CVS.
I'd put Sluman and Kuehne in there because they're defending champions." Azinger added Steve Flesch and Justin Leonard and also U.S. Ryder Cup teammates Campbell and Riley.
A sleeper? Steve Elkington and Jacobsen.
The younger Haas, 22, turned pro after the U.S. Open where the two became the seventh father-son duo in history to both make the cut. The former college player of the year at Wake Forest won over $315,000 in nine events and was ninth at the Deutsche Bank Championship in early September, but he will have to head to the second stage of the PGA Tour's qualifying school next week.
"I know his mind's probably on next week, but I think it's important to play this week and have this kind of competition," Jay Haas said.
"Hopefully, I can be a good partner and we can get in the hunt and we can get in some pressure situations and get him ready for next week."
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