BMO FINANCIAL GROUP CANADIAN WOMEN'S OPEN

July 8, 2003

Annika Sorenstam

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Sure. First of all, I'm happy to be here. And you're right, it's been very busy the last four or five months, and especially after the Colonial.

You know, right now I'm just dealing with a little cold, and obviously very tired from last week, but excited to be here. I'm not defending, but kind of defending because I wasn't here last year. So happy to be back and looking forward to playing this golf course.

Q. Given how hectic your schedule has been, the way you were feeling and the way the Open ended for you, did it ever cross your mind to withdraw from this event? Was that ever a consideration?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: No. It never crossed my mind. But, I mean, I am tired, and in a way I wish this tournament was maybe later in the year for me right now. But, no, I had all intentions of being here, and, no, it never crossed my mind.

Q. With the success you've had in your career, and of course the Colonial a couple of months ago, I was reading an article and they were saying how you've become a one-name athlete like "Woods," like "Renaldo." What do you think when you hear of compliments like that, and how much is your world different than it was a few years ago?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Well, obviously it's very flattering. You know, there's not a lot of Annikas out there, really, in the U.S. It's very flattering and things have changed the last few months. You know, I'm happy about that. I feel that people have respected what I've done and respected my success on the golf course, whether it was before Colonial or after or whatever. I think it's good for women's golf and I'm just embracing it.

Q. What was the reception of your peers on the LPGA TOUR to your participation in the Colonial?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Well, starting out, I think it was mixed. A lot of people was wondering, you know, "Why are you doing that," and "why do you want to go through something like this." But once it was over and I came back to the Tour in Chicago, I was overwhelmed with all of the nice things that the players were telling me. They were congratulating me and saying it was great for me, but mostly for ladies golf. You know, now I feel like it's been very, very positive.

Q. Do you think that would have been the reaction had you not played as well as you did?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I think so, yeah. I mean, I think everybody understood how difficult it is to play out there, and especially with all of the attention the last few months and all of the buildup. You know when I stood on the first tee, I had 20,000 people watching, and I think people really understood how difficult it would be. For me it was the experience in general. It wasn't just how I played; it was being there, experiencing it with the guys, playing a tough golf course and being under the microscope, which is why I wanted to do it, to really put pressure on myself. So when I come to majors or other big events, I would have experience one more time, and that would help me.

Q. How much has that experience helped you this past week at the U.S. Open?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Well, it's tough to single out one particular event like that, but I know long term, it really helped me. Again, being under the microscope and experiencing it, I think the more you do it, the better you get. I know for a fact it won't get any tougher than Colonial. I'm hoping that I will bank on it for years, the experience, the preparation and the hard work to get there.

Q. How much of what happened on Sunday was because of how poor you were feeling?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Oh, I don't know. I don't want to blame it on anything. It was just, you know, I had an opportunity to win the championship, and I felt like it's birdies that matter; I came here to win and that's what I tried to make.

Now sitting here, and especially Sunday night looking back at it, yeah, I wish I would have done differently and I wish I would have felt better. But at the time, I think I played good golf and it came pretty much down to, obviously, the 18th hole.

But if you think about it, I had so many chances throughout the round that if I would have made some putts early on, who knows what would have happened.

Q. I know that the listeners are interested in your future and your five-year plan, if you have a five-year plan, I think we should -- if you could tell me?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Sometimes I don't even know what I'm doing tomorrow. Right now, I have such a busy schedule, playing this week and then I'm heading to Europe for a few weeks.

When it comes to my career, I'm just going to take it as it comes. I still have a lot of goals I want to achieve, and then we'll see what happens, how long I'll play.

Q. Then we will see you in Scandinavia?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I will be there in August and then I'm coming back in September, so it's going to be twice this year.

Q. There's been a lot of talk on the men's tour about conformity of equipment. They are now talking about voluntary testing of drivers to see which drivers might be legal on the Tour. Even the women's tour has seen a dramatic increase in distance off the tee and performance. Is it time that maybe the LPGA led the way and took steps to make mandatory testing for equipment before the players tee off, and taking a step ahead of the PGA and leading, instead of following, as far as conformity?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I agree with you and what other people say, that equipment has helped a lot of players; and now especially the ladies, that we are averaging 250, a lot of players. So equipment has a big part of it.

But also, I think just working out and better athletes, we are hitting the ball further. I don't see an issue on our tour, and I don't know if they will do it on the PGA TOUR. I think we have some bigger issues to work out on our tour and take it one step at a time.

Q. How do you stay so upbeat? Everybody talks about how mental this game is and it can drive you crazy, but in extreme pressure situations, you look at the Colonial, you always seem to smile and always seem to stay in a pretty good mood. Even this past weekend, you never seemed to get too down. Is there anything specific?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: That's very nice of you. Well, first of all, I love what I do, and I feel very fortunate to do what I love to do the most.

Yeah, I'm hard on myself. My expectations are very, very high. Every tournament I play in, I want to win, and I expect myself to win. But I know that there's a lot of good players out here; that anything can happen in golf, the margins are very small. You've just got to keep on working. One week it might go your way and the next week it might not. But I'm a grinder and I keep on grinding. But at the end of the day, as I said before, it just a golf tournament. I know I'll get my chances, and the more I'm in contention, I think the more I'll win.

Q. To follow up with that, how much of a motivating factor is it to do well this week, to build on what happened on Sunday?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Well, it would be nice to, you know, not bogey the last hole when you have a chance to win. You know, I want to play well wherever I go. I feel like I'm going to prepare good tomorrow. My game, I'm very happy where I'm at. I think I'm striking the ball well. I think I'm putting well. I'm looking forward to a good week.

Q. How important is your fitness level and the workouts you've been going through, the improvements in your game and just generally for the LPGA TOUR; do you see a lot of people now following you into the gym?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: First of all, obviously, I believe in working out, and I think it's great for golf, and especially for us women. I think the strength is very important. I've noticed a big difference with my game, so I totally recommend working out.

If you look at all of the young players that are coming up now, I think they are better athletes. They work out harder and they hit the ball further. They are just better golfers than maybe they were 20 years ago. I think working out has a big part of it. Right now I'm banking on my physical strength because mentally I'm getting tired, so I need something to rely on.

Q. You and your fellow players do such a good job supporting every event on TOUR. We used to have a PGA event here and we would never have any of the top players here. What is it with the women that they are so devout to this tour? It doesn't matter where it is, you always have at least three-quarters of the top players in the world at your event.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: That's a good question. I mean, I can only talk for myself, but, you know, without this tour, I wouldn't have a place to play. So I think my way of giving back is to respect the tournaments and support them as much as we can. I know the tournaments wants the best players to be there, and we want to do our best to just be there and do that.

And also, again, I love what I do and I love to compete, so that's why I'm here.

Q. The ethnic flavoring on this tour, it's astounding the number of Koreans that you have. Can you comment on the growth of golf overall, but especially the Korean players?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Yeah, it really is amazing. When it comes to the Korean players, I'm sure Se Ri Pak and Grace Park and Mi-Hyun Kim, they are role models in their own country, and I think that's why you see a lot of Koreans coming up. But just in general, this is the LPGA TOUR, but I also want to say it's the world tour. You've got the best players in the world here. Five or six years ago, there were a lot of Swedes and you don't think of Sweden as a golfing country. But you get all kinds of players, and it's just an international tour and I think it's fun because you know this is the best women golfers in the world. They play right here.

Q. You mention the fact that you want to support all of the events. How do you get yourself up for an event like this, which is a smaller tournament from something like a major or Colonial when you play in pressure-packed situations?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: It's not that much smaller. Maybe it doesn't have the status that the U.S. Open does. But history-wise, we have always played great tournaments here -- which I want to say the hospitality has been wonderful every year I'm come to Canada. I think that reputation, that's one of the reasons why I'm here. And it's still a great purse. This summer there's some big events and I want to keep playing and later on we have other big events. You don't want to talk a week off because you're missing something.

Q. Everyone asks the people who come in every week: "How does the course set up for your game." Do you find any courses anymore that don't set up well for your game?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Well, there's certain courses obviously that favor certain players. You know, if you come to a place and you feel like this course might not fit me, what are you doing to do, go home? Well you've got to do something. You've either got to adjust -- whether it's a shorter course, well, you've got to adjust. If it's small greens, big greens, I mean, I think that's what a good player does is adjust your game to different courses. That's something that I try to learn every day. I mean, I don't see a reason why I couldn't play any golf course. Either you work on certain shots or you change your strategy.

Q. I'm wondering when you got to Vancouver, and if there were any familiar feelings driving in here today, because Marine Drive is down the street and you've played here very well in 1992 at the World Amateur team competition?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I arrived last night, and I haven't been back since '92. I remember Marine Drive, but I don't really remember the area here. When I drove from where I'm staying, I saw Marine Drive, and it's like, "I've got to be in the neighborhood." So I hope I have a chance to feel more of the city and maybe go over there to where we played.

Q. Will you be out on the golf course today or will you just be doing the Pro-Am tomorrow?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I'm just doing the Pro-Am tomorrow.

Q. Is that a way of allowing you to recharge your batteries a little bit, to limit yourself to the one practice round?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: That's my plan. We'll see how it works.

Q. You mentioned when you first came in that in a way you still feel like a defending champion from the last time you played the Canadian Women's Open. Can you talk about the decision last year not to play, how difficult that was and just your approach to that?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Well, it was very, very difficult because I was defending in Sweden the same week and I could only be in one place at a time. It turned out that the year before that, I had skipped Sweden to be in Canada. So, the next year when I'm defending at both, you know, I felt like I had to go to Sweden because I went to Canada the year before.

So it was very unfortunate that the tournaments are the same week, but I made a commitment that I'll be here this year, and here I am.

Q. Give me kindly, give us all, in this case, your highest high and your lowest low in your career so far, would you please?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: My highest, well, it's tough to single one moment because I feel like I've had to many great moments in my career. But obviously my first victory which was the 1995 U.S. Open, I'll never forget that. And when it comes to the lows, I love in the final in the U.S. Amateur 1992. And then last week comes pretty close. But other than that, I mean, I have a lot of positive memories.

Q. Were you surprised by how much coverage -- there was probably more coverage of fact that you didn't win last week, that generated bigger headlines. On the Golf Channel, there was more talk about what happened to you on 18 than what happened on Monday; were you surprised by that?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Yeah, yeah. But then again, I guess it's a compliment. They all expected me to win, which I did myself. But like I said before, there's a lot of good players out here. When you play in a championship like that, anything can happen.

You know, I haven't read a lot of papers and I haven't watched a TV because I was just dealing with on my own that I have not paid attention to what other people were thinking, but definitely, I'm disappointed.

Q. As far as the conflict between Sweden and Canada, is this another example of everybody wants a piece of you now, the bigger your persona gets, is that ever overwhelming?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I'm not used to that, so I'm trying to balance and trying to deal with it. But it's a nice little problem to have. So hopefully I'm doing the right thing and hopefully I'm handling it well.

Q. How long does it take you to get over an experience like No. 18? You mentioned that was one of the more disappointing moments in your career. Are you over it or are you still bothered by it? Will it take you a long time to get over that?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Well, I'm not over it yet because I still keep thinking: "You know, if I only would have done that and what would have happened if I did that?" But, you know it's not going to help me. It's not going to affect my game in future tournaments, I know that. I'm not going to let it bother me, but I will think about this for a while.

Q. Was it questioning of club selection?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Well, I'm not questioning any of that, it's just -- because I was thinking to myself: "If I was in that position again, would I do the same thing?" And I would. I think playing aggressive on a par 5 like that, I've done that the last three years, because I've gained distance with the driver and gained distance with all of the clubs; that I can play more aggressive on par 5s, and I have won tournaments that that way. But it turned out last week that playing aggressive on par 5s didn't work for me.

So, I've won a few and obviously a lost a big one. But, I guess that's a chance you take.

Q. You said you won't play on the PGA TOUR again. Michelle Wie, who is just 13, appears to have the distance to play out there. Do you think it is possible in the future that a woman can play competitively and win on the PGA TOUR? Is Michelle Wie maybe that person, if her game keeps developing?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Yeah, she could be the one. I think she's very, very talented, and she obviously has all of the tools to do something like that. She sure has the right attitude. She's already motivated today to play on the PGA TOUR for different reasons. I do believe that there could be a chance in the future that some woman would like to try on a regular basis. But then again, we have a great tour here, and I think the only reason why you would do that is, let's say you won on the LPGA every week by ten shots and you want to look for another challenge. So far, that has not happened.

I had a great time doing it once, and if she gets a chance, I hope she enjoys it.

Q. But is there a danger in that? Is there a danger in a woman becoming so good that she beats the rest of the women and can only compete with the men? Does it put this tour in danger?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I don't think so. Not at all.

Q. Every week you pull into town and the players are talking about it, the media is talking about it; it's like Annika Sorenstam is going to win everyone and else is playing for second. That's like an extra club in the bag. Do you have that attitude when you talk into town; that you are going to win and everybody else is playing for second?

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I always hope I can win and I always feel like I can win. But, you know when you play this game, you know that anything can happen and anybody could have a really good week with a lot of good breaks.

So I have to play my best to win. And some weeks I do, and some weeks I don't. But I always feel inside that I have the confidence that I can play well.

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