Why simply making a PGA Tour cut was so meaningful to this senior major winner

There are few families as impressive as the Haas clan when it comes to PGA Tour prowess.

The Haas patriarch, Jay, won nine times on the PGA Tour, and has 18 wins on the Champions Tour, including three senior majors.

Jay’s sons, Jay Jr. and Bill, both played professionally, with Bill currently competing in his 17th PGA Tour season. Bill has six career wins on Tour, and was the 2011 FedEx Cup champion.

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This year, Bill is playing on a Top 50 career-earnings exemption and will need to make the FedEx Cup playoffs in order to secure his card for another season. He’s currently No. 172 in the FedEx Cup ranking, and despite needing every possible dollar in winnings to propel him up the list, he selected a surprising partner for the Zurich Classic, the PGA Tour’s annual team event: his 68-year-old father, Jay.

Incredibly, in one of the week’s most feel-good stories, Bill and Jay made the cut, making Jay the oldest player in history to achieve such a feat.

On this week’s episode of Off Course with Claude Harmon, Jay explained just how much making that cut meant to him.

“I didn’t think I’d ever play another PGA Tour event,” Jay began. “Six or seven weeks ago, Bill asked me if I wanted to play. I tried to talk him out of it. I said, you need a better partner than me, don’t waste a week on me. But I’m so glad I did it. As any parent can attest, there’s just nothing like watching your kids do something well, that they love to do.

“Just to be a part of that, part of the event, part of the team with Bill, we don’t get to be partners often,” Jay continued. “It was a week I’ll never forget. Making the cut was icing on the cake.”

Jay was faced with a nervy four-footer on the pair’s final hole to secure their weekend tee times.

“I just told myself, just hit it solid, just make sure you keep your head steady,” Jay said. “My hands were shaking. I’ve seen a video of it. Luckily, it was from my backside, so I couldn’t see my hands shaking. But somehow the hole reached out and caught it, and it was a pretty cool thing for us to make it to the weekend.”

For more from Jay, including what he loves about World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler’s swing, and what today’s generation of players has that his didn’t, check out the full interview below.

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As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.

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