Bill Haas sees 'opportunity' in early season starts

JACKSON, Miss. – Bill Haas isn’t accustomed to having free time in September. Before this year, he’d qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs in every year of the FedExCup’s existence.

He played in 31 of 36 Playoffs events between 2009 and 2017, advancing to the BMW Championship every year and making it to East Lake on four occasions. That includes the most famous moment of his career, his up-and-down from the water to win the TOUR Championship and FedExCup in 2011.

He missed the Playoffs for the first time in 2018, though. He used this newfound break to change his putting stroke and have knee surgery. He described the operation as a minor procedure to “clean out” his right meniscus.

His knee trouble started in December, when he partially tore his ACL while playing basketball alone in his driveway. The surgery should help him strengthen the muscles around his right knee, and possibly solve some of the swing issues that hampered him in 2018.

“I was able to play on it, I thought, because I don't put a whole lot of weight on it. But I really felt like in my swing I get on my left side too quickly,” he said. “I was just saying, ‘Well, maybe I'm getting on my left side too quickly because my knee is not strong.’ That's one reason I decided to do it. So we'll just have to see if that's the case. But it feels pretty good.”

Haas also switched to the arm-lock method that Webb Simpson, a fellow Wake Forest alum, and Keegan Bradley used to win in 2018. Haas has putted conventionally for most of his career. He did use a belly putter to win the 2011 TOUR Championship.

“Just seen some players having success with it. Thought it was worth giving it a try,” Haas said.

The Safeway Open was Haas’ debut with the new putting stroke. He finished T10 in his season debut, matching the number of top-10s he had in 25 starts last season. He’ll need a similar finish at this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship to retain his playing privileges for the remainder of this season.

Haas, who sat out a month after being the passenger in a fatal car accident at February’s Genesis Open, started this season with a minor medical extension. He was given two starts to earn 115 FedExCup points. His T10 in Napa was worth 67.5 points. A solo eighth-place finish here is worth 50 points.

“It's a whole new position,” said Haas, who’s six PGA TOUR wins include the 2010 Sanderson Farms Championship.

He can rely on sponsor exemptions and his past champion’s status for starts if he fails to meet that benchmark. He also has a one-time exemption available for ranking in the top 50 on the career money list. He’s 34th.

“I’ve got to view it as an opportunity,” he said.