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CANADIAN OPEN

September 6, 2006

Bill Paul

ANCASTER, ONTARIO

Q. Obviously you are disappointed in the names that have withdrawn today?

BILL PAUL: J.D. called yesterday and he thought he'd be better. He had called and we fully expected him to be in. He said he was still going to come. He called late yesterday and said it might be difficult, he'd see how he got through the night and he was going to call and WD in the morning, which he did.

DiMarco, he called, I haven't gotten back to him, I just heard through the Tour that he had WDd. He called and left a message, and I'll get back to him and find out.

Q. But it's disappointing.

BILL PAUL: It's what it is now, right? It's too late to go out and chase guys. But I'm happy with who is here, and we have a tournament. We'll start Thursday and we'll go to Sunday and award a trophy and everybody will be happy.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BILL PAUL: I think Deutsche Bank hurt us the first year. But the Deutsche Bank in '04, and '05 and according to history it got stronger. But with a Monday finishers you have guys will go home Monday, and you have guys that come up here on Tuesday, and if there is any struggle, they can quickly go home Monday and change their clothes and do that. And then get back here. But I think Deutsche Bank hasn't been that big a problem like it probably was anticipated to be.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BILL PAUL: I think we'll have some challenges. It is what it is, and the opportunity was to play late in the fall, go to October or not be part of the PGA TOUR. We're part of the PGA TOUR, I do a lot more on certain of the golf courses we're going to. And I talked to a lot of guys now that maybe coming from The British Open isn't as big a challenge, because we are going to be playing (inaudible)

Q. Really unexpected when you get withdrawals. This is part of the course, this happens pretty much every year?

BILL PAUL: The withdrawals were good. I've had years here in '03 where they start on Wednesday of the advance week, and they go right on through. That's more discouraging. We take a look, here, we had 35 guys go from Thursday at 8:00 in the morning, until Monday evening at 5. I didn't have a WD I think I had some on the Monday of the advance week and we didn't have any WDs until one on Sunday prior to, and then these guys today. So that's pretty good.

Q. How do you define a field? (Inaudible.) Where do you put the first group?

BILL PAUL: Personally I have a commitment sheet with all the different categories on it. I always try to get into the Q School. And we got into the Q School here, which I think was strong, we hadn't done that and stayed there since Royal Montreal in '97. We were there last week in Shaughnessy.

You can be weak with a couple of guys on top and that can make a difference for what people perceive as the field. But I think the categories on where we are, the guys that have won over the last two years, past winners, major winners, it's been strong.

Q. Mike Weir obviously means a lot to you to be here?

BILL PAUL: Yes, all the Canadians, I think. I think Mike and to have Ian Leggatt play well, and David Morland as he did in Royal Montreal in 2001. If you get a James Love or some of the other guys that are out on the Nationwide Tour, I think it's good. It's good for all of us. Mike in '04, as I said Morland did it in 2001 and Gordon Smith, he did it way back in the '80s. It just brings out the interest in it.

Q. Certainly Mike has meant a lot for golf for this country. Can you quantify that?

BILL PAUL: Mike has always been we always look for somebody, whether it's a hockey player, baseball player, football player or whatever, Mike's been a rising star. When he won Augusta in 2003, that meant everything. It grew the game, grew the interest in it. When we were coming into here in 2003, and that was just a springboard to sales. It wasn't so much is Tiger going to be here, is Mike going to be here. And I thought that was pretty cool.

End of FastScripts.

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