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CN CANADIAN WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

August 18, 2007

Mhairi McKay

EDMONTON, ALBERTA

Q. You just had a 6-under 65, great round. It's interesting, though, the last time you fired a 6-under was in the final round at St. Andrews in the British Open which had kind of similar conditions, a little cloudy, a little cool, rainy. You seem to play well in those types of conditions. What do you think that is?
MHAIRI McKAY: I guess I must just feel at home here. I just obviously had a lot of confidence here coming from St. Andrews with that good closing round I had, and I played well the first couple of days. Today things just clicked, and I putted well. It was a little bit overcast and it seems like maybe there's some rain coming in, and that happened at St. Andrews, too, so it might be good for me.
THE MODERATOR: Can we go over your scorecard? Obviously no bogeys, we'll just go over all the birdies.
MHAIRI McKAY: Let's see. I birdied No. 3, the par 5. I was just off the side of the green about 12 feet, and I made that one. It was about a 100-yard shot that I hit in.

Q. What did you hit into 3?
MHAIRI McKAY: Sorry, 52-degree sand wedge.
No. 7, I hit it to 15 feet and made the putt. You want to know the club? I can't remember now, I'm sorry. I can tell you, I hit 9-iron.
No. 8, I hit it to ten feet and made the putt. I hit 5-iron in there.
And then I birdied 10. I hit a lob wedge to about 12 feet and made the putt.
I birdied 11, I hit a 3 rescue to about 18 feet, made it.
And then No. 12, I hit a 7-iron, I was about 40 feet away and rolled that one in.

Q. Talk about your last hole there where you hit it in the rough off the tee and you figured with the water there you had to lay up?
MHAIRI McKAY: Well, I hit it into the rough and the lie wasn't especially good, and I just felt that if I tried to be too aggressive, it was just one of those lies where I didn't think I could get the club to keep the momentum going through the grass to carry it onto the green, and obviously all the trouble is at the front of the green. I thought the smarter play would be just to play to a number and then have a more aggressive short shot in.

Q. Just talk about your golf career on the LPGA Tour, how it's gone, not just this year but since you've been out.
MHAIRI McKAY: Well, this is my tenth year on Tour now. It's kind of been a little bit up-and-down. I've had some really good years where I've finished in the top 20 on the Money List, and probably the last two or three years I've struggled a little bit. I did end up going back -- having to go back to Q-school at one point to get some status back.
But I've been working really hard on my game probably the last two, three years, and it's just a long process when you lose your confidence and you're not seeing the results. I've had a lot of people really help me get through this, and I feel like I'm on a really good track right now and I'm happy with where my game is at. Hopefully there's some good finishes out there for me.

Q. What do you think was the one thing you can kind of point out that's the biggest difference between yesterday and just today? You were 3-over yesterday, and then getting down to --
THE MODERATOR: She got to 2-over.
MHAIRI McKAY: Overall I think my ball-striking was really good today. It wasn't terrible. The last couple days I gave myself a lot of opportunities, but I left myself in the right place, and I just made the putts. That was really a big difference from the last couple of days. I was more confident on the greens, but I felt like I was hitting it well the last couple of days, but I probably just improved today as my confidence improved by seeing the putts go in, too. It's kind of a snowball effect, I guess.

Q. Just looking at your biog in the LPGA book, you pretty much have a hobby for everything. Is there anything you've missed in there? You have wake boarding, Scottish art, pilot's license. Is there anything you've missed?
MHAIRI McKAY: I'm thinking of getting into snake charming at the end of the year and maybe some hang gliding or something (laughter).

Q. You've been on the Tour and watched Ochoa come into this thing and where she is now. Can you talk about the person side of her as opposed to the golf side of her?
MHAIRI McKAY: Lorena? I had a chance to spend a little bit of time with her. She's just such a nice, genuine girl. You can hear it in her voice in the way she talks and the way she laughs. She's got a personality that you want to spend time around because she's got that infectious laugh and good nature, and I can only say great things about her. She's a great No. 1 and just in general a very, very good person. I didn't know all the things that she was doing outside of her LPGA career, and I read more of it back in Scotland when she won in St. Andrews and all the good work that she's doing down in Mexico. You know, that's just her; she's such a genuine, nice person. You like to see people like that being so successful.

Q. Just talk about how you got to Stanford University from Scotland.
MHAIRI McKAY: My mother's good friend at home, they're both members at the same course, her daughter is a nurse at Stanford University Hospital, so she'd go over and see her daughter, and the daughter arranged for her to play golf at the University golf course, and she happened to bump into the ladies' golf coach that day and they had a conversation, "I know a girl who would love to come here." She told him a few of the things that I had done as an amateur and junior back in the UK. I think she maybe had a little article on me or something, and that really started everything.

Q. Did you get a scholarship?
MHAIRI McKAY: I did.

Q. What did you graduate in?
MHAIRI McKAY: Public policy, economics and politics.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you all for coming in. Great round, and good luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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