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BMO FINANCIAL GROUP CANADIAN WOMEN'S OPEN

July 7, 2004

Beth Daniel

NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO

PAUL ROVNAK: Well, Beth, thank you for coming in and joining us. I know we are a couple thousand miles away from where you won last year, but I imagine it's always nice to see your picture on everything and just know that you have that trophy last year, so tell us about that and take questions from it there.

BETH DANIEL: Obviously last year's win was very special for me, and I have a lot of great memories from last year, and this is one of the tournaments that goes to different golf courses. It's kind of strange to be a defending champion at a different course. You get a good sense of the course that you played, and this one is about as opposite a golf course as you could get. So, you know, it's very, very different but it's nice to be back and nice to be back in Canada and defending this championship.

Q. Winning at 46 was by many standards an accomplishment, and I don't want to focus on your age too much, or maybe I do, but at 47, why not push the age envelope?

BETH DANIEL: I get so many questions about age, I think once we turn 40, everyone starts questioning our age and it's a matter of how you feel. And I don't I mean, I don't know how I'm supposed to feel, and I'm 47 years old. I feel the way I am, I still am playing golf and that's kind of the way it is. So I don't look at age.

Plus, golf is a sport that you can play at any age. So I feel like I'm on equal ground with 20 something year olds. So it's not a sport where I'm going to lose a step in quickness, that doesn't matter in golf. So, you know, I don't look at it that way, I don't look at it the way other people do.

Q. Talking to some of the other players, Stacy Prammanasudh, and referring to Meg Mallon's win this past weekend, it was inspiring to them in that she's 24, 25, and it's inspiring to them to know that they can still be, as she put it, "kicking butt when I'm that old."

BETH DANIEL: Again, I don't look at it that way. The thing about golf that's different from other sports is that experience means a lot. Like I feel that my course management is better now than it was when I was 20 years old and winning a lot of golf tournaments.

Yes, maybe you lose a little flexibility, maybe you have to work a little bit harder in the morning to stretch and get warmed up before you go out and play, but golf is very much a mental game and I think age and experience helps you tremendously. And particularly, in a situation like Meg's was this past weekend, where not only do you have to have your golf game, there were plenty of people that had their golf game on Sunday, but they didn't hit their ball in the right position on the greens. That's age, that's maturity and that's what helps you kind of get over the top.

I mean, it didn't surprise me at all that Meg won last week because she played really well on Saturday, so she kind of had the momentum going into Sunday, and she just let it roll. Whereas, you know, a lot of younger players would not be able to do that.

Q. How then do you approach this tournament? You are the defending champion and it is a different course, how do you approach this, do you get an edge or is it so tough to do?

BETH DANIEL: With it being a different golf course, the defending champion really means nothing except the fact that you won last year. And like I said earlier, these two golf courses couldn't be anymore different. The course we played last year was a very, very tight, very small greens, a traditional type golf course, and this is not that. The fairways are very generous, just a lot of bunkering, huge, huge greens. It just has a whole different feel.

So, you know, I don't really feel like a defending champion except for the fact that I did win last year. So I don't think I have any kind of advantage. I think everyone in the field is equal and starting tomorrow, go tee it up and play the best you can.

Q. You mentioned you feel you've improved in some ways than you were in your mid 20s, do you think you could have been as competitive a golfer had you turned to golf professionally at 18 or 19 or 20 years old? Or why are there so many young players that seem to be competitive despite their lack of experience?

BETH DANIEL: I don't know. I turned pro when I was 22 and I didn't feel like I was mature enough then. I may not be mature enough now. (Laughing).

Certainly when I was 18 years old I was not mature enough to handle what you have to handle traveling the world and the things that you have to handle on TOUR. I'm very thankful that I went four years of college. Granted, I haven't used my degree, but, you know, the four years of college helped me quite a bit in maturity and it also was something to fall back on if I didn't make it on TOUR.

But I was more of a late bloomer. When I was 15, 16 years old, that was when I just started shooting par. I was very much of a late bloomer in golf. You know just experience means so much. The fearlessness of a young player is good, but it also can get you into some trouble.

So, you know, certain things like that are predictable in golf when you know the players and it's just I don't think people should make as much out of the age of a Meg Mallon or Juli Inkster or Rosie Jones or myself as they do, because we are all fiery competitors, and, you know, we work hard at our games. That's what's important.

Q. Don't you think, though, there are 38 30 somethings and 40 somethings who look to you and Meg and Juli and say, that is so inspiring; it's neat that people my age can be so competitive still and it inspires them to compete and say that, yeah, I can do that, I may not be 25, and this is not in golf, but whatever.

BETH DANIEL: No, I think there are people. I look at Jay Haas, he has totally inspired me for two years. I think what he's doing is fantastic.

But the funny thing is that people aren't making as big of a deal about the fact that Jay Haas is 50 as they are about the fact that I'm 47. I mean, I'm three years younger than him and every question I answer about my golf game is about my age. I'm sure that every question Jay answers is not about his age. They talk a lot about it, but it's not to the point that they talk about how old Inkster is and how old Rosie Jones is and how old Meg Mallon is and whoever is in their 40s.

I think the difference is, the men have something when they are 50, and the women don't. So we are not used to seeing women play into their 40s because there's nothing out there, there's nothing beyond the LPGA TOUR for us. The men once they turn 50 can go on to the Champions Tour. So because there's another tour, they are not considered old, I guess.

So I think that's the difference in why people are so focused on us because, you know, it's only kind of Betsy King and myself, kind of started the trend. Well, of course I played a practice round with JoAnne Carner yesterday and she's 65 years old, the first nine, this woman struck the ball like can you not believe. She's outdriving me by like 10, 15 yards. And I feel like I'm hitting pretty good off the tee and she's bombing it past me and hitting golf shots like you can't believe. The thing is, JoAnne probably doesn't have the stamina at 65, but, man, I wish she did because you know what, there are not a lot of people that can hit golf shots like JoAnne Carner and to me, it's just a joy to still be able to see that, that she's still playing.

Q. In retrospect, what did you get, now that it's a year later, what did you get?

BETH DANIEL: Out of winning last year?

Q. Out of winning last year.

BETH DANIEL: I just got a great deal of satisfaction. I mean, you know, that's about it. But I mean that's why I play golf. I play golf to try and win, to try and get in that situation where I have a chance to win a golf tournament and I either succeed or I don't succeed. That's what kind of I feel like it almost makes you a better person because you go through that. You go through the adversity, you go through the ups and the downs and that's what it's all about. It's a rush and that's why we play sports.

Q. You played 10 tournaments this year, this is your 11th, I believe, you missed the cut only once, any looks down the road, just how much fun is this still to play, and any looks to when maybe it might be time to not play?

BETH DANIEL: Well, that's a tough question because it's hard for any athlete to sit there and say, you know, this is it, it's over.

And you always hope that there's like a sign that tells you, and I've talked to some players, I've talked to Donna Cahoney (ph), I've talked to Judy Rankin, I talked to some players that have stopped playing and asked them, when did you know, and for every one of them, it's different. I think it will be different for me, too. I'm not really kind of the retiring type. Just one day, I'll probably just walk away and that will be it.

I can tell you this. Last year was a lot more fun than this year's been. This year has not been a lot of fun. I have not played very good golf. My idea of playing well is not being 69th on the Money List. That's not why I'm out here. It would be very, very easy for me to walk away from it right now. Whereas last year I was playing well, I was finishing Top 10, I had chances to win golf tournaments. You get that rush and you're like, man, this is great, I love it, this is why I'm here, this is why I put in all of those hours beating balls and this is why I go to the gym and work out and do all of that.

This year, it's been all that hard work and you feel like you're getting nothing out of it. So it has not been as much fun this year, and it would be very, very easy for me to walk away from it the end of this year if I continue playing this way this year.

Q. But you're here.

BETH DANIEL: Well, I'm defending champion this week, so of course I'm here. I've committed tournaments and I'll keep playing, but that's kind of been my monitor. As long as I felt that I could win and as long as I felt like could I really compete out here, I would stay, and it's worth the work, it's worth what I have to do. But, you know, if I finish even 50th on the Money List, it's not worth it for me. You know, I've had my career; give somebody else a chance. You know, I have a nice home in Florida. I have no problem staying at home in Florida and just enjoying things.

Q. And you have last year to say, "yeah," don't you?

BETH DANIEL: Well, yeah, you do. But I mean last year when I won, it had been eight years between victories for me. That's a pretty dry spell. You know, I just kind of kept looking at my stats, my stats were still okay, so I'm like, okay, I'll keep playing. I had been in contention. I had been in some tournaments where I felt like I could have won but I didn't. Definitely you have to put yourself in contention more often to be able to win more often. This year has just not been not been good at all.

Q. Is the fact that your wins have been few and far between and your struggles this year, is it because of you, is it Beth Daniels, or is the Tour getting that much more competitive with these younger players; does the same standard not yield the same result?

BETH DANIEL: Definitely the Tour is more competitive. Although, geez, I grew up in a generation that could go down in history as the best generation that ever played the LPGA TOUR. You are talking some great players: JoAnne Carner was still playing, still winning when I came out on TOUR, Kathy Whitworth was still winning quite a few tournaments when I came out on TOUR. You've got Bradley, King, Sheehan, Inkster, Alcott, Lopez, all Hall of Famers that played I've played my whole career with that. So it would be hard for me to say that the Tour is more competitive, because that was pretty competitive. I mean, I'd continue to name players.

You know, I don't know why, my whole career I've gone through really long, dry spells where I haven't won tournaments for like years. I don't know, I wish I could explain that. If I could explain it, maybe I could have done away with it. But that's just sort of how my career has been; it's been a roller coaster ride.

But obviously, when I'm on a down slide of a roller coaster ride right now at age 47, it's going to be a lot harder for me to right that and go uphill again. So, you know what, we'll see what happens.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BETH DANIEL: I can't answer that. Who knows, maybe I'll win this year and I come back I'll be in Nova Scotia next year. (Laughing).

End of FastScripts.

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