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Haas eager to forge own name
By Alex Myers
Old Gold and Black Reporter

If you are waiting for the next superstar athlete to come out of Wake Forest, the next Tim Duncan so to speak, you need not wait any longer. He is here. However, this athlete destined for greatness on the professional level does not play basketball. In fact you won’t find him on the football field or baseball diamond either.

Junior Bill Haas is a golfer, and a special one at that. One who is continuing the line of great Deacon golfers and who will leave this school carrying with him extremely high expectations for the future.

Expectations are something that the Deacon golfer from Greer, S.C., has gotten used to over the years, though. As the son of well-known PGA professional, Jay Haas, it’s tough to avoid questions of potential.

"A lot of people have higher expectations than I do," Bill Haas said. "They say I should do better because I’m a pro’s son, which really doesn’t matter at all except for the fact that I’ve gotten to see it first-hand. I’m not expecting anything more just because of that, so I guess it’s whatever I think."

His uncle Jerry, currently the Demon Deacon golf head coach, was also a PGA tour player, and his great uncle, Bob Goalby, was the 1968 Masters’ Champion — just adding to Haas’ impressive golfing bloodline.

As is the case for most children of professional athletes, fans expect these kids to follow in their parents’ footsteps.

As a result, these children don’t have it as easy as others would like to think, since a tremendous amount of pressure is usually tossed upon them before they have even taken their first steps.

There is also no guarantee that these children will be as good as their parent in his or her respective sport, or even that they will choose the same career path, making such comparisons unfair. Bill thinks that the close comparisons to his father aren’t warranted either.

"It’s (being a pro’s son) not as big of a deal as people think, but it was definitely beneficial," Haas said. "I would love to just be able to compare with him." Though time will tell how successful he will be

as a touring professional, it is clear that Bill Haas will follow in his dad’s footsteps and become a member of the PGA Tour.

Before becoming a Demon Deacon, Haas came out of high school as one of the most highly-touted golfing recruits in the nation.

He had already garnered such honors as being a Junior All-American and South Carolina Junior Player of the Year before becoming a Deac, thanks to winning the South Carolina State Championship both his junior and senior years as well as leading his Riverside High School team to a state title.

Since coming to Wake Forest, Haas has proved that all the hype following his high school career was well-deserved. As a freshman, Haas quickly established himself as the number one player for the Deacs with a team-leading 72.9 scoring average in 12 events.

Highlights of the year included second place finishes at both Birkdale and Cleveland Golf/Augusta State Invitational tournament where he also shot a career-low round of 64.

He capped off his season by earning ACC rookie of the year honors. Perhaps the most telling stat from Haas’ first year as a Deac was that his five top-10 finishes, which all came in the final five events of the season. This showed a trend that Haas, although already a force to be reckoned with, was only going to get better in the future.

This trend showed up quickly in the fall of 2001 as Haas shaved over two strokes off his team-leading average the previous year.

In the five events that season, he posted an incredible scoring average of 70.3.

As a result of these accomplishments, Haas rapidly ascended to the top of the list of the country’s best collegiate golfers earning himself a No. 2 national individual ranking entering the spring 2002 campaign.

He did more to establish himself as one of the nation’s elite players during the spring season, winning two tournaments and finishing in the top 10 in five of the seven events. He finished the year with a spectacular scoring average of 70.86, two strokes below his average freshman year and at one point had a staggering stretch of nine straight rounds of posting scores below par.

For his efforts, Haas was named First-Team All-American and a semi-finalist for the Ben Hogan Award given annually to the nation’s top collegiate golfer.

Adding to his amazing year in 2002, Bill Haas also competed as an amateur on a sponsor’s exemption in the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic as well in the 2002 U.S. Amateur at the famed Oakland Hills Country Club in Michigan.

These two well-covered events proved to many that Haas had the game not only to stand up to tough competition, but to tough pressure as well.

Though he missed the cut by one stroke in Greensboro, Haas came away with a lot of experience playing in his first professional event and in a field that included his father, Jay.

"That was neat. It was a big deal for me because it was a big step for me to get there and experience that," Haas said.

"I think I can play with him (Jay), I think I can play with guys I’ve played with that are pros and that gives me confidence."

This doesn’t mean that Haas already thinks he is a lock to be a successful professional though. The junior realizes that he can always improve upon his game, especially at slowing down his pace of play from time to time.

"It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, it’s what you can do," Haas said. "There are certain, small things that you can do better on the golf course. We’ll see. I have two more years here and I hope I can work on all of them."

It didn’t appear that Haas could improve much on the course during his recent run to the semi-finals at the prestigious U.S. Amateur.

This run included a blistering 28 on the front nine during his quarterfinal match, a stretch of golf that Haas labeled as "the best nine holes" of his life.

Then again, a 28 is probably a better nine hole score than almost anyone has ever posted, professionals included.

If there were any doubts about Haas’ talent before this brilliant performance, they were quickly silenced.

This dazzling display of shot-making proved that Haas could play not just with anyone in the amateur ranks, but with the guys who make the big bucks each week on the PGA Tour as well.

Haas is looking forward to this weekly grind in the future, but still knows he has some unfinished business to attend to before turning professional.

"My goal is still to play in the Walker Cup, which is a great amateur thing to do, I still want a team ACC and NCAA championship," Haas said.

He doesn’t care as much about titles for himself, such as possibly winning the Ben Hogan Award in the future.

"That’s not something that I strive for," Haas said. "You can try to win a tournament, but you can’t try to receive a name or award. You try not to think about that, and if it comes, then great."

Haas, who is majoring in religion, puts graduating as one of his main goals for the future.

"That’s one of the things I want to do is graduate. This is a great school and I say doing that is definitely more important than winning a college or pro tournament," Haas said. "Then I’ll go to Q-School, try to get my card, and work my way up."

These are modest goals for someone who appears to be destined for greatness. Though golf is a very tricky sport to predict who will pan out in the professionals, there is no question that Bill Haas has what it takes.

"He’s obviously got the attitude and the skills to play at the professional level and to be successful at it," Head Coach Jerry Haas said.

"I don’t want it to go to his head, but he is certainly a very gifted player and he appears to me to be doing all the right things."

Fans around the country will soon know just how good Bill Haas can be. He’s an exciting player to watch and one who can be compared to Ernie Els, a.k.a. the "Big Easy," for his seemingly effortless swing.

This was never more apparent than at the Haddock Golf Center last week. After an interview, Bill, wearing sandals took a wedge from a teammate and without hesitation fired at a pin some hundred yards away, knocking the ball stiff to within a few feet.

"He makes the game look easy sometimes," Coach Haas said smiling. "You know, right now, I’d like to trade shoes with him because he’s got a lot of game and a lot of upside."