Bill Haas' Talent Has Taken Him To New Heights
5/28/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
May 28, 2002
By Jay Reddick
April 15 started out as a pretty ordinary day for Bill Haas.
The Wake Forest sophomore had class that morning, and went to see his dad in the afternoon. Of course, when your father is PGA Tour professional Jay Haas, and you're planning to see him after his round with other pros and friends at the annual Wake Forest Pro-Am, that's a little out of the ordinary.
From there, things just got stranger for Bill Haas, as he was thrust in front of some TV cameras and told that he would be playing in the PGA's Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic the next week. The sponsor's exemption was set up as a surprise for Bill.
"I had no idea," he said. "I didn't even know to be there. I was just going to hang with my dad."
Haas' opponents might say that turnabout is fair play, since he has been surprising them on the golf course all season long.
In Haas' first 11 events of the 2001-02 season, entering the NCAA East Regional, he has seven top-five finishes. A staggering 78 percent of his rounds had been even-par or better, and he had been under par in nine consecutive college rounds. In March, he won the Birkdale event in Charlotte after firing a tournament-low 66, and on April 14, the night before his extraordinary day, he won The Intercollegiate in Chapel Hill.
Alas, his good fortune didn't quite extend to Forest Oaks in Greensboro. After opening with a 2-over-par 74 on April 25, he rebounded the next day to shoot 71 but still missed the cut by a stroke.
Haas had a pretty large gallery following him both days but said it didn't take him long to put distractions out of his head and just play.
"I was nervous on the first tee on Thursday," Haas said. "After that, I was pretty calm."
Haas showed off a steady game at Forest Oaks, but a couple of rookie mistakes kept him from playing on the weekend.
"I was pretty disappointed to miss the cut," he said. "I had a triple-bogey on Thursday and then bogeyed two of the last four holes on Friday.
"I can look back on it now and chalk it all up to a learning experience."
Haas' learning curve is higher than most, and his inclusion in the field at Forest Oaks had very little to do with his last name. He ranks as one of the top 10 players in college golf by whatever measure you care to find, be it statistical (he's been in the top five of the Golfweek/Sagarin computer rankings for most of the season) or subjective (he was one of 10 finalists for the Ben Hogan Award, college golf's Heisman).
He's even on the verge of succeeding on an international scale. He was one of eight American golfers picked to compete in the sixth annual Palmer Cup, which pits the country's best college players against the best from Great Britain and Ireland. This summer's event will be played July 11-12 in County Clare, Ireland, on a brand new course designed by Greg Norman.
"I don't know a whole lot about the tournament," Haas said. "It's really a great honor to represent my country. I played in an East Coast vs. West Coast event as a junior (golfer), but this is so much bigger."