JJay Haas, playing in his first Senior Open, shot a 1-under 70 in the second round Saturday. Overall, he's 5-under for the championship. He shared his thoughts with www.ussenioropen.com.

I wasn't as sharp today and I was very sharp on Thursday, so I guess that can be expected.  I got a little frustrated early on, I think because I wasn't putting well again and I wasn't hitting it as well, so I ended up 2 over after seven holes. But then I made a little adjustment and widened my stance and made a nice putt on the 17^th hole for birdie, and then on the 18^th for par, and followed them up with nice putts on the second, third and fourth holes for birdies and was ready to roll.

On the sixth hole I hit my best shot of the week after pulling my tee shot left on the par 3. I had a very restricted back swing due to a tree and a bar lie and I hit this pitch shot out there with basically with no back swing and got it out of there and rolled it by to 3 feet. And I was so excited with the recovery shot that I missed the putt and that was a shot to the gut there.

I didn't feel like I gave too many away today. I actually felt it was an easier day due to the soft fairways, which held the drives. And the greens are very, very soft so you are throwing it right at it.

Of course the course is playing much longer. As an example I needed one more club on the 10^th hole and if you added it up it is playing much longer, like 15-20 yards every hole.

I would have like to been better that I am, obviously 5 under is nothing to sneeze about.  I felt like I've left some out there, but I had a nice run of putts today, but if you get enough of them your going to make a few of them; my percentage of 15-footers is pretty low right now, but if somebody doesn't go way low in the afternoon group we'll all be in the hunt.

I expect the scores are going to continue to be pretty low just because of the way the course is set up. The [flagsticks] will be more difficult over the next couple rounds, but overall I think you going to have to keep shooting in the red to win.

Sunday will be fun. Thirty-six holes is not my ideal way to spend a Sunday, but I am looking forward to it.  A lot of these guys over the years that I've played against, competed against, I've been on the outside looking in plenty of time against them.  It's nice to be up there close to the lead, playing in the last few groups, having a chance to win.  That's all you can ask for.  It's a thrill.  They're all great champions, and I'm privileged to be here with them.