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BMO FINANCIAL GROUP CANADIAN WOMEN'S OPEN

July 10, 2004

Beth Daniel

NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO

Q. Beth, thanks for coming and joining us. 69, 68, 67, one stroke better every day, you're defending champion and you're in second place all by yourself.

Give us your impressions and we'll take questions from there.

BETH DANIEL: Well, my day started out very uneventful, and I birdied the last four holes to get myself back in contention a little bit. My opinion is it's going to be very hard to catch Meg. She's playing real well. She hits a lot of greens, good putter, steady player. Somebody is going to have to go really low if they're going to try to catch her tomorrow.

Q. Do you feel like you're playing almost as well as she is right now?

BETH DANIEL: I think I turned things around at the end of my round. What I did well today is I hung in there. Starting out the round, I missed the first three greens in regulation. I just did not start out well, feeling real comfortable with my golf swing or anything. You know, I just kind of told myself if I can hang in there maybe, I can go on a streak and make some birdies.

Q. You are the defending champion. Is this a nice reminder this is your tournament and you're not ready to give it up just yet?

BETH DANIEL: I don't know. I'm doing the best I can. I'm playing as hard as I can. Quite frankly I was very happy to birdie the last four holes and feel like I have a chance tomorrow.

Q. Do you feel like you really have to attack her right off the top. She's been known to be very good having the lead going into Sunday?

BETH DANIEL: She's good when she has the lead for a reason; she doesn't shoot high numbers very often. She's not wild off the tee, hitting 75 or 80 percent of the fairways. We all know she's putting well right now. It's a pretty deadly combination when you have a four shot lead over the rest of the field. Hopefully I can go out tomorrow morning or afternoon or someone else can and go low pretty quickly, but basically in my mind, it's Meg's golf tournament right now.

Q. Do you think the way the greens roll, a 64 is inconceivable on this course?

BETH DANIEL: No, it's not. Somebody can shoot a 64. That's pretty much what it's going to take. I shoot 64, Meg shoots 69. That's the difference right now. That's pretty much what it's going to take.

Q. What's gone right this week after the whole season?

BETH DANIEL: You know, I don't know. I can't really explain that except that the fairways are a little more generous than what we have had all year. Driving the ball has been an issue with me, and the fairways are more generous, so I'm able to hit it in the fairway more often. Maybe that's the difference, but, you know, I still I'm not 100 percent confident in my golf game right now. I don't feel great about it, but I have been able to put some numbers together this week.

Q. Beth, it's still got to be encouraging to see not just the fact that you're second, but just the fact that you're 12 under and you have regained a sense of your form, if not most of it or all of it at this point.

BETH DANIEL: Yeah, I mean, definitely, things are better, and it's been a much better week. Hopefully I can put together something good tomorrow and continue to play well this week. You know, so, we'll see what happens, but, you know, if anything, I've just hung in there really well this week. I haven't gotten real discourage when I started out poorly or something like that. It is the kind of golf course you can make a lot of birdies on.

Q. What do you say to Meg when you meet?

BETH DANIEL: Well, I'm actually having dinner with Meg tonight with some friends who have come into town. Maybe I can poison her food or something or get her to drink too much tonight, help the rest of the field out.

Q. Have you seen what happens when somebody like Meg is on this roll she's on. I think she's now gotten 25 under in her last five rounds. How difficult is that run to stop?

BETH DANIEL: It's pretty difficult to stop. Every golfer dreams about that kind of run, and like she said, the hole looks like a bucket to her. The hole definitely does not look like a bucket to me. It looks just big enough to fit a golf ball right now for me. I'm still managing to make some putts. Golf is a game of confidence, and when you get that confidence, you just feel like you can do anything; and when you don't have that confidence, you sort of at times feel like an idiot out there. She has the confidence. She's on a roll right now, and, you know, it's up to somebody that's close to try and go really, really low to beat her.

Q. All top three leaders are all in their 40s. There has been so much talk about the youngsters this year.

What do you think about the value of experience.

BETH DANIEL: I went over this in my press conference. I think age is a state of mind, and golf is one of the sports where it doesn't really matter if you're 50 years old or 19 years old. It's not like you're going if you lose a step in golf, it doesn't kill you in golf. It does in other sports. You get one step slower, you're out of tennis. In golf, it doesn't matter, especially when it takes us over five hours today like it did today. You're better off when you walk slower. I just think that when you've played longer, you have more experience, you've seen things happen, you have been in tournaments where you're four shots behind going into the last round and you know you don't give up in that situation, that anything can happen.

When you're 18 or in Michelle's case, when you're 14 or 15 years old, you haven't had that experience. I think a lot of times in golf that can help you and work in your favor.

Q. Despite the fact that you're getting older, your course management skills are improving year after year. (Inaudible.)

BETH DANIEL: No, I don't necessarily buy into that. The equipment helps everyone. If you're younger and you hit the ball longer, you're going to hit it longer with that equipment, even though I'm going to hit it longer, it's going to be offset. I still don't I don't hit it as a matter of fact, I probably hit it shorter than I ever have in my whole career right now. I hopefully have all the latest technology. I mean, I'm hitting it longer than I did, but comparing it to other players who also have that technology, I haven't picked up anything on them. I don't necessarily buy that. What I do buy is the fact that I have experience and that should be able to help me in certain situations. That gives me an advantage.

Q. Let's go over your scorecard.

(Scorecard read.)

Q. Any other questions for Beth?

(Inaudible.)

BETH DANIEL: That's a good question. I don't know if I can answer that or not. I'm not sure about that. I think we have, but I'm not sure.

End of FastScripts.

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