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BMO FINANCIAL GROUP CANADIAN WOMEN'S OPEN

July 12, 2005

A.J. Eathorne

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA

MODERATOR: We welcome A.J. Eathorne in the pressroom. Playing in Canada, your home country. Talk a little bit about what it feels like to do that.

A.J. EATHORNE: It's awesome, actually. Canadian fans are always kind of crazy a little bit bias, maybe. It doesn't matter where you go in Canada, they are cheering for us. Obviously Lorie is more homeland here, but it's seems like Dawn and I and all the rest of the girls have just as many fans this week. It is a lot of fun, busy week, but I will play great and make those cheers a little bit louder. Looking forward to it.

Q. Tell us a little bit about where you consider your strengths to this course and what about this course might have you a little concerned, strenghts, and weaknesses?

A.J. EATHORNE: It is a great looking golf course. I only got to play nine holes; just got in last night. It's a great looking golf course. I am a fairly good putter so with the undulations, it is pretty quick greens, I am looking forward to that sort of working in my favor. Starting to hit the ball a lot straighter than normal or as I have in the past few years, so I think that's going to be really important this week, picking your targets. Seems like a lot of areas maybe you don't want to hit, there's a lot of undulation that can pull you into a hazard, that kind of stuff, so if you veer away from that, it will be a lot better and it's Canadian land so it's got to be good luck somehow. I don't know, it's hard to say. I have only played nine holes, like I said, going to play five more this afternoon so hopefully I will get a little more feel from it. Apparently someone said hit it down the fairway and on the greens and you should be okay. I will try that this week.

Q. Following up, can you talk about your success in the match play in New Jersey, how do you build on that and carry it here?

A.J. EATHORNE: Well, it was a tough tournament. I haven't played match play in basically since the Nation's Cup event about four years ago. It's a tough mindset really but I had one of my best friends caddying for me and just sort of realized that it doesn't matter how bad you hit it on some shots, you are never out of the hole because you are just playing one other person and if you just don't worry about, it's just one hole. In stroke play you get the one hole where you take a double and you could be three, four holes before you get back to even. I am hitting it a lot better lately. My coach and I worked hard over the last couple of years to try to get where we are and obviously I am a lot further along, but I feel good about my game and looking forward to this week. My family is here this week. It's just going to be fun.

Q. The weather has kind of been a bit of a running joke. Have you been taking a little bit of ribbing from some of the other players since you are one of the Canadians?

A.J. EATHORNE: Yeah, couple of people said where are we going because obviously it's hard to get here and I had a bit of trouble with the fog last couple of days, but luckily my flight got in at the scheduled time and obviously it's worth the trip, a lot of people once they got here are like yeah, it took us a while to get here, it's just gorgeous, it's beautiful, everybody loves the Canadian event. It really showed some girls who missed flights or flights delayed a lot of them could have just turned around but they stuck it out, some took a bus and but yeah, luckily I think Lorie will get more of the ribbings because this is her side of the country as opposed to Dawn and I. I don't know, it's a tough spot to get to but I think it's worth the trip.

Q. Talking about the tough spot in the schedule with the Evian starting on a Wednesday up against the British Open...

A.J. EATHORNE: It's a tough it's tough to schedule everything. In a perfect world we would be able to play every event and work it in all in there. Those girls that really wanted to come to Canada are here. A few people that really wanted to go to Evian perhaps are missing because they don't travel well. It's hard to travel well from an event Sunday and Monday to start Wednesday anyways, when you go overseas that's a tough way to go. Unfortunately through scheduling it didn't work out; maybe we could have put a week in between the two; would have been a real good idea. That's what you do, you learn from the way things go and hopefully next year we'll get it all down.

Q. You got your family here. Lorie talked about she's trying to manage expectations by treating an event in Canada no different than any other. Can you talk about how this week will be different with family here and being in Canada and how much it will be the same?

A.J. EATHORNE: Yeah, I mean, you do want to treat it just like another event, but for her it probably is difficult. Everyone is always cheering Lorie's name and she's a great player, for me it's a little bit more exciting when my parents are here, my mom kind of has a distinct "woo woo." You know, no matter where she is, I know kind of in the direction where she is. That's really special to me. My family and I are very close. I think with the Canadian fans you might here "Go A.J." a little bit more and that's fun to me and maybe gets me going a little more. Might make me a little bit nervous, but you can turn that nervous energy into hitting it farther or closer. It's more like a bit of a show, I guess, this week. But if you enjoy it, then it's okay. It could be like any other week, but why make it something it's not. It is. It's special to be playing in Canada. It's exciting to have everybody want your autograph and want to see you and take a picture with you. So I am going to enjoy every moment of it.

Q. Can you talk about what led you to want to become a professional golfer, professional golfer from Canada, and also what impact you and the others on Tour may have on those that may be coming behind you?

A.J. EATHORNE: I played every sport growing up. Started when I was 13, it was sort of the process of elimination I think that eve golf and soccer ironically I played for eight years when I was real little and I quit it because I didn't want to travel. So that didn't really work in golf, I guess, but now I love to travel. I think it was just a timing thing. I played basketball and volleyball and was very serious about volleyball, fortunately, I picked golf instead of volleyball to go to college with. It was one of those things coming from a small town you hope and you want a lot of these things but you never know that it's going to happen. I have had great support obviously from my family and friends that said you can do it. It took a long time for me to believe it. Like you said, what I can give back to juniors, I mean, Gale Graham was like my big sister, she helped me believe in myself in order to come out here and become a good player out here. Dawn and I are great friends now and she's also helped me along the way. That's what Canadians do. We help each other along the way and really support each other. That's what I hope to give back to some of the girls that are coming along and there are some great Canadian golfers coming up. Obviously we are going to see a great deal of them this week which is great. Maybe with the shorter fields we got a few more Canadians in there; that gives us an opportunity to showcase a little more. It's one of those things that yeah you come from an area maybe it is a little bit colder, but if you got the heart and the will to want it bad enough, you are going to make it out there.

Q. Do you have specific expectations this week? Do you come into a week where you say I really want a Top 10, Top 20, make the cut?

A.J. EATHORNE: I just really want to win. It doesn't matter if it's Canada or, you know, somewhere down in the States or Europe or anywhere, I really would like a win. Of course it would be really fun to have it here not only because it's Canada but I am staying here for a few extra days so I can really enjoy it, enjoy some of the local wines and, whatever I can accomplish this week will be great. Obviously a win would be great. Top 10 wouldn't be too shabby either, and but all and all I think I just want to have a good week, have fun and just take what comes to me.

End of FastScripts.

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