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MCDONALD'S LPGA CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

June 6, 2008

Lorie Kane

HAVRE DE GRACE, MARYLAND

DANA GROSS-RHODE: Lorie, you put together another great round today so you're 8-under par right now in third place well in contention going into the weekend to possibly make this a championship victory.
LORIE KANE: Thank you. Yeah it was -- what a great day to play golf. It got a little sticky by the end of the afternoon. But no I got off to a good start. Birdied the first and kind of settled in then birdied the last three on the front side. I will be honest I got a little quick on the back nine and didn't hit it as solid as I would have liked. But like yesterday, you know, I took my medicine where I needed to. I made some good saves. You know, that stretch of holes, 11, 12, 13 you take a deep breath, you can relax a little bit on 14, and then 15 is -- you know, I just missed my drive ever so slightly to the right and I was this far in the second cut and couldn't get a club on it. So you know it is a major. I kept telling myself that. And then you just -- you know, you just have to go with it. Overall I'm pretty pleased.
DANA GROSS-RHODE: Any questions.

Q. What did you end up doing on 15?
LORIE KANE: I hit it -- I tried to hit 7-iron. You know, it was funny I was listening last night watching the telecast and one of the players was having the same type of issue and I remember hearing -- I think it probably was Donnie or Beth -- was following a group actually and she says she tried to take off a little too much. I took the very conservative route just trying to get it up on the fairway. And again it just shut down so I was this far again from the fairway in really thick stuff. So I just wedged it out. So I went 7-iron -- I probably hit the 7-iron maybe 100 -- well I know we had 100 carries. So I probably hit it 110 yards, and then just hit a lob wedge -- or my gap wedge -- to 80. Wedged it on and had a real good chance and I thought I made the putt. But, you know, that's the way it went.

Q. I don't know how close you were to the lead last week but you played pretty well the first two rounds. What would you take out of last week into this week? And obviously you've been in this position many times.
LORIE KANE: I just think, you know, I'll take with me that I know I'm playing some good golf. And, like I said to Mike Ritz just before I got in here I really have nothing to lose. I mean there's a lot of stories being told. Lorena's got a great run going. You know, Paula -- what I read is Paula is the best player never to win a major so she gets to carry that around. I'm just here playing golf, and trying to have some fun doing it.
Last week was encouraging. Corning was very encouraging. I think, you know, I built some momentum for the last couple of weeks. And I'm seeing shots. And I'm having fun. And Danny and I are working well together on the course. When I -- I'm still committed to lining myself up but there are times when I do use him and, you know, then I swing a little freer. But overall it's been fun.

Q. Has there been a point in recent years where you wondered if this moment would come again?
LORIE KANE: Sure. You know, it took me a long time to win my first tournament. Then I won four quite quickly, and settled into what I thought was going to be an unbelievable career. It is an unbelievable career. Don't get me wrong. I mean I didn't turn pro until I was 29, so I consider myself to be very fortunate in what I have and what golf has given me. But I want to win again. And I think that fire in my belly kind of didn't burn out but I definitely didn't know how to get it back. And --

Q. Why not?
LORIE KANE: Well, I don't know. Maybe I became a little too complacent. I think I was too comfortable. But now I'm -- you know, I know how talented I am. I know when I get out of my own way how good I can be. And the key for me is having fun. This smile needs to be out there, fun, loving the game of golf, and not working the game of golf.

Q. Is the fun a result of good play or does it stimulate good play?
LORIE KANE: I think it's both.
Look I'm so fortunate to be playing golf at -- on the LPGA tour at this time. You know, like I said, 29 when I decided to turn pro, 30 when I joined the tour, and, you know, it's been an incredible run. But I know I got a lot more in me. And I'm ready to win again.

Q. Was there a time you hated it, or felt like you hated it?
LORIE KANE: No.

Q. Throw your clubs?
LORIE KANE: Oh I've pounded a few into the ground. I think -- I will be honest, I've never not liked the game. I've not liked me in the game. And there's things about me that I didn't like when I didn't smile and I wasn't happy with me.
I can't put my finger on how I got there, again, you know, to my last point, maybe I just became a little bit too complacent. I got a little caught up in what was going on up here, and forgot I was playing a game.

Q. Lorie, you were out playing when Carolyn Bivens announced that the LPGA is taking ownership of its championship. I don't know if you are aware that was going to be happening and what's your reaction to it?
LORIE KANE: Well I definitely wasn't aware. But thanks to Dana she made me aware when we finished. And it doesn't surprise me. You know, I think we're in a very healthy position. Commissioner Bivens is -- and our independent board, and our Players Council -- have a vision of where we should go. And it would be appropriate for us to own our own Players Championship. I'm excited. You know, I have to thank Mr. Lotman for all the work that he's done with this event. And obviously with McDonald's as our title sponsor over the last number of years. You know, we couldn't get here without them for sure. But the future is bright.
I don't think there's any more 29 year-olds coming out. Everybody is 19 now. So, you know, women's golf is healthy. So I'm excited to see where we can go in 2010 when we do take ownership.

Q. Any suggestions of where they may play? Where you would like to see?
LORIE KANE: Well, there's lots of golf courses. (Laughing) Something tells me we're not going to Prince Edward Island or something. But in reading the press release I would really like to see us find a nice home at a course with a lot of, a lot of heritage, a lot of, you know, traditions, and an old traditional type of golf course that may be too short now for the men but perfect for us.

Q. (No microphone)
LORIE KANE: Exactly. I mean you know being an east coaster, Canadian east coast that is, when I drive through here and now that I've had an opportunity to do a couple of U.S. Open qualifiers, I get to see the gems that are in this area. I mean there are some really great golf courses. And, you know, big markets I think are ready for us now. Particularly if we were to bring them the LPGA Player's Championship.

Q. What would be the most important thing for you to do the next two days?
LORIE KANE: Keep the ball in the fairway and have fun doing it. That would be the key. Because I know you can't get -- you can't hit it in the rough. It's just too penalizing. So I need to keep the ball on the fairway but I need to be having fun getting it there.

Q. I don't have your record memorized yet but it has been a tough start for the year. You had one round in the 60s then you had the great play yesterday. How important is it even though you didn't shoot probably as good as you wanted to today to have something like that so that it's not spiking?
LORIE KANE: No, consistency is a big thing. And you can go back let's just say a couple years ago, that was what Lorie Kane was about was the consistent play. You know, I would come out and, you know, my bad rounds wouldn't be over par. If they were, maybe one over par.
But I shot a lot of rounds in the 60s. I think I may have had a record for awhile. I'm not quite sure that I still do. But it's key. You have to -- you know, you have to take something positive from every round. Yesterday was so much fun. Just having a bogey free round. Today I grinded so hard because I did not want to make a bogey.
And everything I did was right. I just -- the balls just didn't go in when I needed to make those putts. But I gave myself chances and I will tell you one thing, Doug, I was not anxious like I would have been a month or two ago that if I missed a drive I would have been Oh here we go again. But, no, I didn't let that happen. And I'm not going to let that happen.

Q. When did you make your first bogey?
LORIE KANE: My first bogey was on 12.

Q. Did you throw a club or anything?
LORIE KANE: No. (Laughing)

Q. That's a Par 3?
LORIE KANE: Par 3, yeah.
DANA GROSS-RHODE: Can we go over your scorecard real quick? Number 1 was a birdie.
LORIE KANE: 9-iron to 5 feet.
DANA GROSS-RHODE: Number 7, Par 3.
LORIE KANE: 7-iron, probably 10 feet.
DANA GROSS-RHODE: 8, Par 5.
LORIE KANE: I had almost got it up on to the green and almost chipped in for eagle, just ran it across the hole and probably had a 3-footer.
DANA GROSS-RHODE: Number 9.
LORIE KANE: Number 9 I had -- I know the exact number. I had 125 to the hole and I hit a little bit of a seven/eights 9-iron to inside 10 feet. Probably closer than that.
DANA GROSS-RHODE: Number 12.
LORIE KANE: That's a shot I learned from my caddie. (Laughing) Number 12 I hit 5-iron and the wind was a little bit out of the right and I tried to cut it in there but it stayed up on the mound then I hit what I thought was a really good chip but it just kind of died on the green instead of releasing. And then I missed about a, probably a 6-footer.
DANA GROSS-RHODE: And 15, you had a wedge from 80 yards?
LORIE KANE: Yes. Actually I hit sand wedge, I had 80 yards to the hole after hacking it around a little bit and I was above the hole probably 6 feet, and thought I made that one.
DANA GROSS-RHODE: Do we have any other questions for Lorie?

Q. Off topic a bit, but I don't know if you saw the U.S. Open pairings for the men, what they've done?
LORIE KANE: Yeah.

Q. What did you think? And secondly would you like to see that applied to Interlachen this year?
LORIE KANE: Well, I think from -- for the Men's U.S. Open using the world rankings they've had world rankings a lot longer than we've had our world rankings. I'm still not sure our world rankings are right. So I would -- you know, it has two parts to it. If you put a Tiger-Phil group together, the whole golf course then tries to be with that group because everybody's going to want to see what they're doing. And it doesn't allow some space on the golf course for fans to get around. They're going to be, if they were 20 deep they're going to be 40 deep. And I know at the U.S. Opens they allow media inside the ropes. Well that then becomes a major circus. And there's not a lot of space for that.
For us, I would like to see the groups spread out a little bit. So, no, I hope they don't use the world rankings. But if they do, that's fine too. Because it is the USGA and they're going to do what they want anyway.
I think it's going to be exciting, but it's going to be exciting for the person that's sitting home on TV. It's not going to be that exciting to get out there and watch because there's just going to be too many people.
DANA GROSS-RHODE: Any other questions? Thank you all very much. Lorie, good luck this weekend.

End of FastScripts

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