Jay Haas, 1975 National Champion, 27 time Winner including 3 Senior Majors, Joins Me...

Golf Podcast: next on the tee

It was a huge thrill getting to spend some time with one of the all-time great players, Jay Haas. Jay was the medalist at the 1975 National Championship and he helped Wake Forest win back-to-back National Championships in 1974 and '75. He won 27 times between the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. He was also recognized with the Payne Stewart Award and the Bob Jones Award for his sportsmanship, character, and charity. Jay is the nephew of 1968 Masters Champion Bob Goalby, and his sons Bill and Jay Jr., plus nephew Dillard Pruitt also played out on the PGA Tour.

We start out talking about how his Uncle got him started in the game. We hear how Arnold Palmer and Lanny Watkins influenced his decision to play his college golf at Wake Forest. Jay gives us behind-the-scenes stories about teaming with Curtis Strange, Bob Byman, and David Thore and how they dominated college tournaments while they were there.

We then get into his relationship with two great friends of this show, Tom Purtzer and Rob Strano. We hear about how he battled Ben Crenshaw in the 1995 Masters plus what it was like being on the course during Jack Nicklaus' charge at the '86 Masters. We then go through his majors breakthrough at the 2006 Senior PGA Championship, winning it again in 2008, and coming from 5 strokes back to defeat Tom Watson in the 2009 Senior Players Championship.

We round things out by talking about this 1983 Ryder Cup experience and his plans for 2024.