May 30, 2001

2001 NCAA Men's Golf Championships Participant Quotes

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Head Coach Jerry Haas:

On tradition :
"I don't feel any pressure at all. I'm certainly not the savior to the Wake Forest Golf program. I try to get good kids, like the two sitting here, and the other three out there. They work very hard, and that's something, as a coach, you would like your kids to do. I kind of play through them now."

On bringing back championship tradition:
"I don't think you'll ever see a team dominate anymore like they used to. In 1980, when they changed it, where everyone gets four-and-a-half scholarships, that made a huge difference. The school with the most money could basically get the best players. And that's changed. I always tell these guys that they are putting us back in the limelight again. You guys are doing things we haven't done in a while where we're competitive. With one freshman, three sophomores, and one junior . Our best golf is still ahead of us, in my opinion."

Bill Haas:

On twelfth hole:
"It was kind of a flag behind the green, where you can aim at in the middle of the green. I was trying to aim there hoping it would cut. It didn't cut. It kind of stayed right there, almost went a little left, and kind of rolled into the corner. There's plenty of green there to land on. It's just that you've got to trust your shot."

On the course:
"I like this course a lot."

On preparation:
"We went down and played Pinehurst Number Two. Just as a team, kind of for fun, but, also as a practice, too. It's a very difficult course. I felt it was good preparation for here. We went down a played a course called Quail Hollow. It was also a long and tight course."

Brent Wanner:

On the course:
"I like it. I won here in the fall. That's one of the reasons I like it. I think it sets up both of us. We both hit the ball pretty long. That helps out here pretty well. Nobody is getting the roll, at all. The holes on seventeen and eighteen, playing 450 and 460, so you have to hit it a fairly long way, and pretty straight. The rough isn't too bad out here, but it's still a little bit of a penalty. With the way the fairways were today, if you hit it in the rough, you had a cleaner lie."