Jay Haas, playing in his first Senior Open, finished the championship at 10-under 274 and a share of third place. He shared his thoughts with www.ussenioropen.com.

Well it was a long day.  None of us are used to playing 36 holes.  I know all of us made it and maybe some of our shots weren't as pretty as others, but we're all competitors, athletes.  We all feel like we're capable of doing that and playing good golf, and at the same time, playing 36 holes. It wasn't so bad.  It was cooler than it could have been, that's for sure.

I played well the first 18 holes shooting a 2-under-par 69 and felt I had a chance event though I was four shots back of Tom Kite.  I started out pretty well getting it to 10 under par through the first nine of the final round, but gained no ground on Kite who was 3-under par as well over the front nine.

I felt the whole day 12 under par was the number for some reason, not that I thought Tom would back up.  He was doing a lot of good things, and this is not an easy golf course.  You're going to make mistakes, and coming in when you're trying to hold the lead, some tough holes out there, but I felt like if I could make a couple birdies on the back I'd have a chance.

Tom made a great par save at 10 and then a great birdie at 11 and another nice par save at 13, and after that, it was kind of like we were playing for second place or at least in our group we were, and then Peter kept answering him.  It didn't look like both of them were going to back down.

I got a bad break on the 11^th just creeping into the rough off the tee and didn't feel at that point I could risk going four down, so I tried to clear the water and it didn't happen and that bogey made it awful difficult to come back.

But after the birdie on the 18^th I was close again with Irwin in the clubhouse at 11 under par, and with Tom having some difficulty I had a chance.

On the 18^th hole I've been hitting 3-wood there all week and I'd have 6- or 7-iron into the hole.  I was trying to get an 8- or 9-iron there, trying to turn it around the bunker.  I didn't get enough on it.  Fuzzy [Zoeller] hit his and got over the bunker, which turned out wasn't great, either, but I was trying to make three, and I was trying to force it a little bit.

I could have made three with a 3-wood and a 7-iron or something, but I felt like I had a better opportunity if I got a little farther up there.  I thought it would come a little bit farther than the bunker.  Had I been another foot back, I could have reached the green.  I just had to worry about the lip so much that I had to stick it straight up in the air, and I didn't get enough on it.

But then I hit a great shot from 50 yards for a birdie, which would have got me to 11 under par and at least tied with Hale Irwin who was the leader in the clubhouse. As soon as I saw where it landed and it scooted forward I thought it would be awful close. To see where it ended up was pretty incredible where it got to, jut on the lip.

I didn't hit it as good the last nine holes; I didn't really hit it very good at all.  I know you could say it's because I was tired or what, but I hung in there.

All and all I'm disappointed that I didn't putt better earlier in the week. I won't say 10 under is the worse I could have been because I made some nice ones today, but early on I didn't really make many putts. That was frustrating and disappointing I didn't get any lower at the start and kind of get in front of the game a little bit.  But overall I did a lot of good things I played a lot of good golf.