T.J.'s Take: Sweet redemption for Haas

text size

It doesn't matter what line of work you're in. There's always going to be an element of pressure. Many times in those pressure-cooker moments, people fail. It happens to the best of us.

T.J. Auclair

WHAT'S YOUR TAKE?

Send T.J. your feedback on Facebook

Thirteen years ago at Oak Hill Country Club, pressure got the most of the U.S. Ryder Cup team. The Americans entered the Sunday singles matches in 1995 with a two-point edge on the Europeans and needed just five of the 12 points that were up for grabs to retain one of the most coveted team trophies in sports.

Five of those matches went to the final hole. Four of them went in favor of the Europeans and one of them was halved. The final tally -- Europe 14 ½, United States 13 ½.

Brad Faxon missed a 6-footer on the final hole to lose his match to David Gilford.

Curtis Strange was a controversial captain's pick by Lanny Wadkins and lost his final three holes to Nick Faldo after failing to get up and down at 16 and then by missing two short putts on Nos. 17 and 18.

A halve in either of those matches would have given the Americans a win.

After those two back-breaking defeats, the fate of the Americans was in the hands of Jay Haas.

Through 15 holes, Haas was 3-down to little-known Philip Walton with three holes to play. In reality, the result of those matches shouldn't have come down to Haas' match. Fairly, or unfairly, it did. That's golf. And life. Expect the unexpected.

Miraculously, Haas holed a bunker shot on the 16th hole to make it 2-down with two to play. After a par to Walton's bogey on No. 17, it came down to the final hole with the Ryder Cup hanging in the balance.

That's when the pressure got the most of Haas and he ran out of miracles. His tee shot on No. 18 was a pop-fly that -- in baseball terms -- would have been a foul-ball into the seats that line left field.

Unfortunately for Haas, this wasn't baseball and those weren't seats in Oak Hill's left field. It was towering trees and gnarly rough. Haas wasn't able to recover, Walton won the hole and the Europeans won the Ryder Cup for the first time on U.S. soil since 1987.

There were plenty of goats on the U.S. team in that Ryder Cup. However, that 18th hole haunted Haas for years. In minutes he went from potential hero to -- in his own mind -- the primary goat.

It was almost cruel that the match was decided on that last hole, because lost in the moment was the fact that Haas played his rear off to even push the match to the final hole.

PGA of America

Jay Haas kisses the Alfred S. Bourne Trophy for the second time in three years as winner of the Senior PGA Championship.

SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

More: Haas edges Langer by a shot
Video: Haas describes his win
Video: Final-round recap
Stats: Final leaderboard

For the thousands and thousands of holes Haas played since that Ryder Cup, No. 18 at Oak Hill remained the boogeyman in his bedroom closet.

Until this past Sunday when Haas returned to the scene of the crime in the 69th Senior PGA Championship. And, of all the numbers, it had to be unlucky No. 13 -- as in years -- since that devastating loss.

Things were different this time around. Instead of match play, it was stroke play and Haas held a one-shot edge over Bernhard Langer, who was on that winning European team in 1995.

It was the situation Haas had been waiting more than a decade to be in. Throughout the week in Rochester, Haas vowed that if he were fortunate enough to be in that pressure-packed situation on No. 18 again, the outcome would be different. And it was.

Haas crushed a perfect drive down the left side of the fairway. From there, he hit the kind of iron-shot approach that players dream about to set up a major championship victory. Two putts later, Haas had his par and his second major championship victory in a Senior PGA Championship in just three years. Take that, Oak Hill.

The fact that one of his most shining moments in a heralded career came on the same green where he suffered one of his most painful defeats wasn't lost on Haas on Sunday afternoon as he sat beside the Alfred S. Bourne Trophy awarded to the winner of the Senior PGA Championship.

It was also fitting for Haas, that Langer was there for the moment, but not in an "in your face" kinda way. After all, golf is a gentleman's game. Need proof?

"If it had to be somebody I'm glad it was him [Langer]," Haas said. "I messed up the last hole [in 1995], I can go through it if somebody doesn't know about it, but the crowd, everyone was cheering and the Euros came on the green and everything and there was one guy that came up and gave me a hug, not a handshake, a hug. And I didn't really know Bernhard that well at that time. He hadn't played that much over here. He was kind of in a different stratosphere than me. So we didn't play a lot together.

"But that was the only guy that really showed compassion. But I'll never forget it. He gave me a hug and he knew, maybe, that situation," Haas added.

Langer, of course, was the goat for the Europeans in 1991 when he missed a short putt on the 18th green at Kiawah Island that would have given the Euros a win.

"I messed it up a lot worse than he did," Haas said. "He had a 4 ½- 5-footer or whatever to win the Cup and didn't make it. But I threw up all over myself there on the 18th hole to not win the Cup. And so maybe he knew what I was feeling at that time.

"But I just appreciated that at the moment and I said something to him in the scoring room there that I appreciated that gesture and just his class and professionalism he's had throughout his career."

Haas is as classy as they come, too.

That's why it was an absolute joy to see him even the score with Oak Hill's 18th hole on Sunday.