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CANADIAN OPEN

July 29, 2007

Bill Paul

MARKHAM, ONTARIO

ANTHONY ALFRED: We are joined by Canadian Open tournament director Bill Paul. Maybe some opening remarks on how you felt the tournament week has gone.
BILL PAUL: Well, as I said many times, I thought it was a good week. You know, given the challenges that we were faced with, and perhaps something that goes with the date, maybe the perception of the golf course. You know, I think the field shaped up nicely as we got into July. We had a couple of WDs, but by and large, I was pleased with the field. The charter certainly worked out well, and I think surprising are the number of positive comments that we've received on the golf course beginning Monday.
I think, I mean, certainly I'm please about that. I know that the Angus Glen staff is happy about that. The week has gone smooth, and it's nice to be here with probably about 45 minutes left to play.

Q. You've heard this more than once, but Stephen Ames and Mike Weir outside the scoring trailer said today, again, that the golf course has to be the big thing for the RCGA going forward. Does the RCGA have that message and cognizant of that message going ahead here?
BILL PAUL: Yeah, I mean, I think we've had that message for a number of years but we've had some contractual commitments, Angus Glen being one of them and Glen Abbey being one of them, and we have to get those fulfilled before we can more forward. We've had discussions amongst ourselves. We know what we want to do; now it's just a matter of getting on board and getting it done.
I think now that we've got a bunch of commitments out of the way, we can move forward. But getting those golf courses isn't always easy. There was talk about Hamilton and going to St. George's. It's not easy. Just walk around that place and look at the infrastructure and what it takes just to put it all on the golf course, and I mean, there's a lot of great golf courses in this country, but very few that can hold the infrastructure.

Q. Ames said 90 percent of the golfers here don't like the golf course. What kind of feedback did you get? What percentage would you use?
BILL PAUL: I'm going to be honest; I think 90 percent of the feedback I got on this golf course has been positive. And if it's been about -- you know what, this is -- it's okay. It's good. I think guys were expecting a lot less than that. And, you know, the trouble I think with the rain that we got early last week that probably slowed it down and didn't get the greens to where we wanted to; certainly they have dried out now. Mike told me in the lobby last night in the hotel, this is a good tournament golf course. It's been good. Some players really liked it.

Q. You talked about some future plans, do you see this thing turning around and this tournament returning to its sort of prestige that it had in years gone by?
BILL PAUL: I hope so. That's going to take a lot. It's going to take a commitment from the RCGA, which I think we all have. It's going to take the golf course; it's going to take money; sponsors or sponsorship of some sort. It's going to take cooperation of a lot of people to put the puzzle together and get it could where you want to get to.
I think we are all on the same page of where we need to get to, not just a matter of building the model. You've got to start where we are now and build up.

Q. A lot of talk, furthermore, than that is the scheduling of this event; is there any reason to believe that that will change at all in upcoming years?
BILL PAUL: Well, our contract now is for five more years at this date. I know that 2009 the Buick Open moves before the World Golf Championships, so that's really the only change. I think this is the date that we got. We need to build upon it. We need to accept it and make most that we can of it.
If an 84 LUMBER or an INTERNATIONAL, that type of change -- I know we and probably several others have told the TOUR that we'd like to change, and if that happens, hopefully the cards are on the table and we're able to make that movement. But until now, I mean, it's not going to happen. We don't see anything happening on TOUR from a scheduling standpoint. This is the date we've got. We need to make the most of it.

Q. With all of the obstacles and the date, what does it mean to this tournament to have a couple of the heavyweights in contention, and one of them likely going to win in Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh?
BILL PAUL: I think even having Jim win last year and what he said in this media center that he would be back; I think any time you can get a top-two or top-three -- what's Jim, top-four, top-five player now; I think it's very, very important.

Q. Can you talk about attendance? The numbers seem to be pretty low.
BILL PAUL: Yeah, I mean, I don't know what we've announced. The only number I remember is Thursday and that was down.
You know, we're in a day where we struggle with corporate sales, isn't been as big as they were last several years at Shaughnessy and Hamilton. Maybe the date, going back to summer holiday was important. There were several factors that led to it. I think we are down. I think we had a good crowd out there today, certainly on a golf course where if you've got 20,000 people out there, it may not look as much if you put 20,000 people on Hamilton; probably look like you had a 100,000.
It's down. I don't know what the numbers have been -- we haven't announced today. I don't know what yesterday's was. Friday, threat of rain was going to hurt some people. Gate sales on all of those days have been good, so the walk-up crowd has been fine. I think you'd always like more people out at a golf course where you can accommodate more; we didn't get them.

Q. You talked about the difficulty of finding courses that can accommodate it; is it hard to find courses, especially the older Hamiltons and St. George's that want accommodate it, asking the members to give up everything that's required; is that a tough sell?
BILL PAUL: I think within the club it is. Certainly 2003, very few people around, including our organization thought that we could hold the Open at Hamilton. We did. It was exceptional. There was a lot of calls from a lot of old, traditional clubs that thought they would be in the running. Many had put plans together to host it.
I think you deal with a group, a board, and then it goes out to a membership if they want to do it. Naturally we are in an area, we are going into the summer, kind of the midst of the golf season. Some clubs are willing; some when they go to the membership, 75 percent, 65 percent going to vote for it. Until it gets there, I don't know. But it's certainly a path that you've got to cross.

Q. You mentioned the rain last week and how it slowed down the greens. Would that have been a factor -- players were saying a lot of the greens were slowed down because of the rain, but have we had enough rain for that to happen?
BILL PAUL: You talk to the agronomy guys, the rules guys, we had rain one night here. Got the rain through the night, which was enough to slow it down a little more.

Q. What night?
BILL PAUL: Thursday night maybe, or Wednesday night going into Thursday day. I was sleeping, so I didn't know.
So it's drying out, and even Mike said last night, 'I think it's where we want it now' and with some wind today it will dry out more. It will be tougher.
It's really the greens that have been probably the easiest part of the golf course.

Q. (I think the greens have been most talked about).
BILL PAUL: That's what some of the guys are saying, from the standpoint -- the ball not rolling in the fairways, a lot of guys are saying they can hit it. Certainly you talk to most players, I was in player dining today, and most people think that it's there but nobody seems to be sinking putts.

Q. Some people talk about the way the pins are placed, and they are saying it's because of the way that the greens are with the undulations and the slopes that it's pretty hard to find a pin placement out there.
BILL PAUL: These are pretty big greens. You can find a lot of pin placements here. I mean, if they are all on flat surfaces, what do you want? I've been on a couple where it seems to go a little bit against what the TOUR has been doing lately where they have been tucking them in three feet off of the edge of the green. 18 is probably six or seven feet in from the edge. I mean, if you hit it past the green, you can certainly suck it back to the hole.
I'm sure there's some greens, guys are going to know more than me, but most of the pins I've seen I think have been pretty fair.

Q. The British Open notwithstanding, have you learned what it's going to take to sell a summer date to players in North America? Have you learned anything about what you can do next year to get guys to come in the summer?
BILL PAUL: Yeah, I think there were a lot of guys on that charter that are here, because of that charter and certainly we made the commitment for the next three years to get the charter. I'm sure we will go longer but we made it for that. I think the more you can do for families from a relaxation thing here; guys coming out of a major, I think it's important to make them feel comfortable. But the charter was certainly the start of it. Everything from hotels to extracurricular activities for them, their families is important.
You know, we expected a lot more kids here. I guess there was some passport issues of some people getting across the border, but the things we put on for families and things like that, have been things that we just haven't done in the past.

Q. Will you do more next year?
BILL PAUL: Yeah, we have a lot of ideas. I mean, we did a lot of things here from what we did on Thursday with the player night, that was well-received. It was geared for them. Our Canada night was switched so Canadian players didn't have to get up first thing in the morning Thursday and play. We did things for the wives. We did things for the kid in the family that came from all ages, 18 months to 18 years, and I think those are things we will Bill upon. Our caddie area, it's certainly improved on. All of those things that build up to that entourage: The player, his family, caddie are important, building for to the future.

Q. Just about Jim Furyk, obviously you would like to have him come back because of his talent and where he stands in the world. Could you talk a little about what Jim Furyk means, obviously this week he was an outstanding defending champion, just what he meant off the course. Obviously he went to the sponsors meeting the other day and he's been really talking up the tournament.
BILL PAUL: I've known Jim a long time. I think he's a class act. The things that we have talked about have been -- at the sponsor meeting that we had, I saw a side of Jim Furyk that I never seen. He spoke out, and he wanted to speak out; and he kept leaning over to me, "Can I say this, should I say that." And I said, "Hey, man, say whatever you want." I think everything he had to say was factual, not only about this tournament, about the TOUR, about the golf courses you play, about things you do for players, about what sponsors can get out of the PGA TOUR event. I think he showed me a lot more of Jim Furyk that I didn't know of Jim.
When I've been on TOUR and had the opportunity to talk to Jim, he's been nothing but first class. I think it all started, you know, for this event with what he said in the media center at Hampton last year, that he would be back to defend and it was a matter of honor.

Q. (Would you expect Jim to defend again next year)?
BILL PAUL: Well, assuming he wins, yeah, I mean, I know he'll do it again. I guess there's some golf left to play, so we'll see what happens.

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