Defending Senior PGA Champion Jay Haas said he had forgotten just how difficult The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island (S.C.) Golf Resort was until a recent corporate outing.

The difficulty of the course, which recently was ranked as America's hardest golf course by Golf Digest, has according to Haas caused anxiety among competitors in the 68th Senior PGA Championship, which will be contested May 22-27.

"I think the guys are a little nervous about playing and knowing what happened here (in the 1991 Ryder Cup), the pressure that you can feel coming down the stretch and the type of holes that are out there," said Haas at the 68th Senior PGA Championship Media Day on April 17.

"I think the sense is everyone is really, really excited. Based on what they've seen in the past, I think everybody is anxious to get here and see for themselves what they can do."

Haas will be attempting to become the first repeat Senior PGA Champion since Hale Irwin (1996-98), and he will have to accomplish the feat on yet another Pete Dye-designed layout. Haas won last year's Championship in a playoff over Brad Bryant at Dye's renowned Oak Tree Golf Club in Edmond, Okla.

PGA Honorary President Roger Warren, the president of Kiawah Island Golf Resort, said several players have paid a visit within the past year, including '91 Ryder Cup Captain Dave Stockton, Lanny Wadkins, Craig Stadler and Peter Jacobsen.

The 156-player field for the Championship is perhaps the strongest in tournament history and includes all eligible members of the '91 U.S. Ryder Cup Team - Stockton, Wadkins, Hale Irwin, Raymond Floyd, Mark O'Meara, Chip Beck and Wayne Levi - as well as three members of the '91 European Team - Seve Ballesteros, Mark James and Sam Torrance.

Other entrants include first-time competitors Greg Norman and Nick Price, and returnees Ben Crenshaw, Loren Roberts, Tom Kite, Gary Player,Curtis Strange, Tom Watson and Fuzzy Zoeller. Twenty-four players in the tournament have combined to win 60 major championships. The field will be finalized May 7.

The Ocean Course can be stretched to more than 7,800 yards, but Warren said the golfers will find it set up at 7,201 yards.

"The holes will challenge the players, but challenge in a fair way," said Warren. "The biggest challenge on the golf course is the wind and the direction of the wind, and the fact that the wind can change direction in the middle of the round. I think it will be a fair set-up, but obviously very challenging because it's a major championship."

Haas said yardage almost doesn't matter at The Ocean Course, which stretches along the coastline, with nine holes often playing downwind and the other nine playing into the wind.

"If you get that nine-hole stretch in the middle of the day into the wind, it just beats on you hole after hole," Haas said. "It's doesn't have to be set up that long to really challenge us. There's not a lot of gray area on this golf course. With a 15-mile an hour wind, which doesn't sound like a lot on a golf course like this, there's no protection. I don't care what level of golfer you are. That's a challenging wind."

Haas said playing in his home state is beneficial but at the same time he will feel some pressure.

"To have my name on that trophy...to see all the different names on there is something I will treasure the rest of my life," he said. "I'd like nothing better than to put my name right below 2006. I'd love to be on there twice."

"People have asked me, 'What's the greatest shot you've ever hit?' The greatest shot I think I've ever hit is that putt on the last hole (in 2006 at Oak Tree Golf Club) to birdie the 18th and get into the playoff. Knowing it was a major tournament, knowing what it could mean to me, I guess that made it all the more special to make that putt when it mattered most.

"I think the fact that I won a major championship, have my name on that trophy over there, is more of a benefit than I could put any kind of dollar figure on."

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