For Jay Haas, Happiness Was Being Just a Shot Away

It was a tough way for Jay Haas to lose, but he wasn’t complaining. On the contrary, he was happy to have come as close as he did.

Going into the final round of the Shearson Lehman Hutton Andy Williams Open at Torrey Pines Sunday, Haas was tied for 14th place, four strokes out of the lead.

But Haas, a 12-year PGA Tour veteran, fired a 6-under-par 66, tying Jay Don Blake for the best round of the day, and topped off his charge with an eagle 3 on the 18th hole.

With that, he surged into a first-place tie with Steve Pate, only to have Pate edge him out with a dramatic closing birdie.

Since Haas had teed off 32 minutes ahead of Pate and the third-round leader, Brad Faxon, Pate was on the 15th hole when Haas finished with the eagle that tied Pate at 18 under par. Pate parred 15, 16 and 17 before sinking the 6-foot putt that gave him the $117,000 first prize. He shot 269 for the 72 holes.

Haas, who earned $70,200 for finishing second, wore a smile as big as Pate’s afterward.

“I’m pleased,” Haas said. “I played well all week, and I can’t sneeze at second place.

“I figured I needed to go 20 under to win the tournament, and that was a good guess. Even after I finished at 18 under, I thought I had less than a 50-50 chance of forcing a playoff. So many guys were so close that I figured two or three would go at least 19-under.

“I’m not down at all. I didn’t lose the tournament. With my eagle on 18, I put the heat on him. He just made the shots he had to make, and with the pin placements as tough as they were, he deserves a lot of credit.”

At one point, six players were within one stroke of Pate, and Haas wasn’t among them. He was two back. But none of the six improved his lot, and Haas shot past all of them with his big eagle.

By his own choice, Haas didn’t see the putt with which Pate beat him.

“After I finished, I went to the locker room and watched a few holes,” Haas said. “After Steve drove to the right on the last hole, I started loosening up for a possible playoff. They wanted me in the tower with the TV people, but I thought that would be presumptuous.

“So I went to the putting green and waited it out. I heard somebody say Steve was eight feet away, and I heard somebody else say five feet. I wondered, ‘How far is he?’

“But I just assumed he was going to make it. He has that certain something that separates winners from good players.”

Haas, 34, an alumnus of Wake Forest and a resident of Greenville, S.C., won this tournament in 1978, his second year on the tour. He has won six more tournaments since, including the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic four weeks ago. His runner-up finish here boosted his career earnings to $1,924,426, including $267,380 this year.

“I’ve been around so long that they called me an old tiger when I won the Bob Hope,” Haas said. “But I’m still learning, and I’ve been practicing more on chipping and putting, because I’ve proven to myself that those are the keys to winning. Everyone hits about the same, but not everyone chips and putts real well.

“When I won here 10 years ago, I shot 10 under and won by three strokes. Either we’re getting better or the course is getting easier.”

Of his round Sunday, Haas said, “There were two turning points. I hit a terrible drive on the first hole, but I came back and shot a birdie. Then I missed the green badly on 4, but I chipped within eight feet for a par, which kept my round going. From then on, I didn’t struggle at all.”

And his eagle on 18?

“I was 18 feet behind the hole to the right,” he said. “I remembered seeing a lot of people miss from there, maybe because of the wind off the ocean. But I happened to get my putt on a good line and with good speed, and it just wiggled in.

“So much of this game is mental. It can leave you as quickly as it comes. I’m just lucky enough to be on a roll right now.”