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CANADIAN PACIFIC WOMEN'S OPEN

August 18, 2015

Lorie Kane

Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the 2015 Canadian Pacific Women's Open. There's no better person that I can think of opening up our press conference schedule here in Canada than Lorie Kane. Lorie, you're a CP ambassador. I know it's always special when you come back to Canada, but is this week particularly special with this event.

LORIE KANE: Absolutely, thank you. Yeah, for a lot of reasons. I think coming home, I mean, I am home, but I'm not very close to home, with me being from Prince Edward Island, our smallest province, but this is an awesome city. This is my home away from home. I spent a lot of time here as an amateur playing golf at Shaughnessy and being under our national team program at that time. And then my ambassadorship with CP and helping them do what they do best, and that's give lots of charitable dollars and encourage others to do the same to the BC Children's Foundation.

THE MODERATOR: Talk about being a charitable ambassador. CP Has Heart really seems to have a huge influence on this week and has a big charitable component. Why is it so special for you to be involved in that, and what does that program mean overall?

LORIE KANE: Well, heart health is extremely important, and so for CP to take on the campaign, I don't think anybody realizes the importance until you're affected by it. My dad had a heart attack in August of last year, and a healthy guy and maybe a little bit of hypertension runs through the family, a little bit of stress at times, but CP's awareness to that and making it their corporate campaign, it's a big deal. And then on the golf side, and what we can do here with the CP Women's Open is raise awareness through the foundation and the different hospitals that we've been able to leave money for. Dr. Shu here at BC Children's Foundation is doing some incredible work. In June we had a Tour of the hospital, and to listen to him say, okay, gentlemen, ladies, this is where your money is going, I think it gave us all a real incentive to want to try to work harder to raise more money.

To be a part of it all, I've met some great kids along the route who have struggled big with heart issues. Our young ambassador this year, Sam, is 17, so I'm seeing the progression of what happens when we have good healthcare and somebody that knows more than I do obviously about taking care of a heart that makes life for Sam a whole lot better.

THE MODERATOR: You've been a great ambassador for that program and really a great ambassador for Canadian golf for many, many years. We had some big news today with Brooke Henderson being granted membership for the LPGA for the rest of the year. Brooke became the first Canadian since you had last won on the LPGA Tour. What does it mean to see the success that she's had and to hear this news today?

LORIE KANE: Well, it's very exciting, and I knew it was only going to be a matter of time before that happened. Yeah, I'm glad she's now an official member of the Tour. Her win last week was exciting, and it brought me back to 15 years ago, St. Louis, when I won my first tournament, and all those feelings were -- I didn't win by eight shots, but maybe three or four, and I know I bogeyed the last hole. But watching her and her sheer determination, it was just fantastic.

Q. We've seen the men's open tournament kind of struggle in terms of getting marquee names. It seems like the Canadian Open on the LPGA side has just gotten better. It looks like a major, it has felt like a major. How much has this tournament evolved in the last decade to where it is now?
LORIE KANE: Huge. That's a very good question, and yeah, unfortunately for the other side, the men's side, they do struggle at times. But first and foremost, what attracts players to tournaments is venue, purse size, and how we're treated, and CP has stepped up to the plate. Mr. Harrison, Hunter Harrison, the CEO of the company, believes in doing things right. He does business the same way. So we come here and we're treated like royalty, and to your point, this is our major. This is our open, and therefore we present it as such. Golf Canada and the partnership they have with CP continue to take us to great, great golf courses.

I think this is probably one of our better tests. This sets up very well for the ladies' game, and you have the best in the world because frankly it's one of the best tournaments in the world.

THE MODERATOR: As you talked about this test, what is it about this golf course that provides such a good test for the players?

LORIE KANE: Two separate nines. You go downhill and then you work your way back uphill, so up and down on the front nine. And the back nine is just cut in amongst the trees, big firs I'm hoping they are, or cedars -- they smell good. You want to stay out of them because you can't go around them and you can't go over them. I think the front nine is where you have to be -- you have to know where to place the ball on the greens. You want to definitely be below the hole on some of them, and on the back nine I think is the scorable nine. But you have to have -- the rough is not real thick, but it's very healthy.

I know that BC has been having a tough time with rain and lack of water. They've done a wonderful job with the fact that this course has a reservoir and can do a little more watering than maybe the neighbors across the street, but the golf course is great.

THE MODERATOR: We know CP and Golf Canada always put on great events, and there's 14 Canadians here in the field this week. As you've watched kind of the evolution of Canadian golf, it seems like we're having a lot more young players. We've seen it on the Symetra Tour this year, now with Brooke on the LPGA Tour. How do you feel about the state of Canadian golf, and are you pretty proud when you look and see all the talent that's coming.

LORIE KANE: Absolutely proud, and I think, again, I have to give credit to Golf Canada, and obviously its corporate sponsors, CP being one of them, that has helped developed the programs. I was fortunate enough this July to play in the Pan-Am Games, so that's the first time that golf has been in a multisport game, and it was a wonderful experience. And so for that week I had an opportunity to be part of Team Canada, not only Team Canada from the golf perspective but Team Canada. I was one of 740 athletes from different sports.

Moving forward, what will happen is Sport Canada will see how great we're becoming and funding will be fed through to our golf sport, and as a result of that, along with the partnership with CP and its other corporate sponsors, Golf Canada will continue to grow programs, and we will continue to have more Brooke Hendersons.

Q. You had touched on the fact that Brooke is playing in this tournament. You know the pressure a Canadian faces playing at home. Can you talk a little bit about maybe how a 17 year old might deal with that or what advice you'd give to her to deal with the pressure of playing in a tournament at home like this?
LORIE KANE: Sure. Well, again, if I just use myself as an example, I won in St. Louis and then went to Ottawa, which was then going to be the last du Maurier. I had two things, one, I was trying to win a tournament, and two, I was trying to save a tournament. I ran out of gas.

I think if we can all help Brooke with this, just allow her to be 17. I wasn't 17 when I won my first tournament. I wasn't 17 when I joined the Tour. A little bit older. But she will -- this is the difference, I think, between myself and Brooke, is I might be considered a Chatty Cathy or someone who likes to smile and talk a lot, and not that Brooke doesn't do that, but I think Brooke's determination from her goalie mind -- she may get really annoyed with me at some point in her life with me talking about her being a goaltender. I really think that that mindset that a goalie has has helped her a lot, and frankly, to see her play last week and follow the last few holes on The Golf Channel coverage, I saw the same determination until she stepped on the 18th green and then she kind of smiled and said, okay, now I can let -- I'm going to experience this.

But my advice to her would be embrace it, enjoy it. I know she's got a good team around her, and I know you as the media are going to take it easy on her, that when she says no, that means she needs a little bit of rest. We just need to give her some time to grow. Last week is not her first, and she could very easily win this week.

THE MODERATOR: Lorie, thank you very much for coming in. Best of luck this week, and we really appreciate it.

LORIE KANE: If I can finish with this: We can't tell our story without the help of the media. I know some of you were here in June. It's very important that we tell the story, because CP is doing its best and Golf Canada is doing an even better chance to get us as much coverage as possible because at the end of the day our goal is to raise over a million dollars for the BC Children's Foundation and Dr. Shu. Thank you.

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