BELL CANADIAN OPEN

September 4, 2002

Scott Verplank

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Scott, thank you for joining us. Why don't you get started and talk about defending your title at the Bell Canadian Open.

SCOTT VERPLANK: It's great to be back. Last tournament I won was Reno, and I have not ever been able to go back because it's opposite the World Series. So I have not been able to come back and defend.

This was a good golf course. It's quite a different style than last year. I think that Royal Montreal suits my game better than this one does. However, I'm pretty -- I feel reasonably comfortable around this golf course. It's in great shape. I think if the weather cooperates, the scores will be pretty good.

Q. Inaudible?

SCOTT VERPLANK: Yeah, they are. The fairways are very generous. I would prefer them to be a little bit -- a little bit smaller. But as big as they are -- the rough is very difficult. The rough is very thick. But if you are hitting it good, you should not see a whole lot of the rough this week.

I think the golf course, it's a little bit like what the TOUR is trending toward, which is more of a bomber's paradise deal. The fairways are so wide that you can spray it a little bit more and still be okay.

Q. Inaudible?

SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, you know, I can't think for everybody else, but personally, I've always thought this was a pretty big tournament because it is the National Open. I know if you win the tournament, you are exempt in the British Open. So it has a little bit more merit than a regular Tour event, and in that way only.

But being our neighbor to the north, this is their biggest tournament. This is their National Open. There's a lot of good golf in Canada. I think there's a pretty large number of people to play golf here and there's a lot of great golf courses. You know, this is definitely their biggest event.

I think some things, the Tour has become a little more generic in ways thanks to -- I don't know what, I was going to give you credit but probably shouldn't -- no. (Laughs).

But other than the four majors, everybody kind of wants to bunch all of the other tournaments together.

I've had a pretty decent history at the Canadian Open, whether it was Glen Abbey or last year, I've had several chances to win. I've always looked forward to the event and always thought it was a pretty neat event to play in.

Q. What did that win last year do for you? Has it had any effect on you?

SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, taxes went up. My wife got to spend a lot more money. (Laughs).

It's great. Any time you win out here, it's a great deal. But to me, the timing of it last year, and just playing an old style of golf course that's a pretty neat track, I mean, it was special to me, there's no question about it. It would be special the next time I win. Just the way the whole thing set up last year was really a neat moment for me.

Q. (Inaudible.)

SCOTT VERPLANK: No. Not particularly. I think just the way the golf course sets up.

They are probably not playing all of it -- I've seen a couple of the back tees they are not playing. I don't know whether they are doing it for the one hole. I'm glad they are doing it on that par 3 that's dead into the wind and it's already pretty hard from there.

The fairways are reasonably firm right now. I think the only way that the scores will stay a little higher than they looked like they could be to me is if it doesn't rain and they don't water. If they get it firmed up, the fairways will play 20 to 30 percent tighter because if the ball rolls out, it's tough to keep it in the fairways, even though it's generous. If the greens were real firm that would make a human difference in the way the scoring is going to be.

Q. Do Tour players care what the score is going to be at the end of the week or just make sure they have one of the low scores?

SCOTT VERPLANK: That's only one score you really care about. It doesn't matter. If you're playing good and competing and have a chance to win, the scores don't make that much difference to you. Whoever wins is going to do whatever it takes to have the lowest number.

Q. (Inaudible.)

SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, that would be a little tough. Yeah, that would be very difficult. I agree with you, but it doesn't -- I guess what I'm saying -- last year didn't have Bethpage or Hazeltine rough or anything like that, but it was more of a ball control/precision type golf course -- yeah, Montreal. And some of the other ones we play. And there's some other courses that are longer but they are more wide open. And the ones you are talking about kind of fit kind of everybody. You have to hit it long and straight.

Q. Inaudible?

SCOTT VERPLANK: No. I think it should be. Well, I've never played the golf course in Ireland.

Q. (Inaudible.)

SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, apparently not. THE TOUR Championship is always contested on a pretty decent golf course.

Hey, I wouldn't have a problem if this golf course -- if the fairways were happen as wide as they are here this would be some kind of test, as far as scoring goes. I think it got pretty windy today, so if it dries out and the wind blows, then that's always going to -- always going to kind of keep everybody honest.

It's just a new style of golf course. The old style is more of a ball control tournament, both ways, high, low, all that. Most of the new golf courses that are built today are built like this, where they are very generous off the tee and they get kind of narrower towards the green. That's good.

I think the other 51 weeks a year, they probably need that around here; so I've got no problem with it.

Q. Along those lines, the Canadian Open was at an old golf course called Hamilton --

SCOTT VERPLANK: I've heard it's great. I have heard it fantastic. Real old golf course, old-style, going to be more kind of ball control. Just, I don't know, what I consider real golf.

I haven't ever seen it, but hopefully I'll do very well here this week and then I'll look forward to next year.

Q. (Inaudible.)

SCOTT VERPLANK: I can't really speak for -- Hazeltine is okay. Muirfield is as good as any golf course on the planet. I think you would have a hard time finding to think Muirfield was not pretty out some. It had everything, holes where you needed to bomb it on there, it had holes where you needed to control your distance and you had to hit it straight on all of them.

The first hole at Muirfield was just a pretty simple hole that is just a tremendous hole because they have grass this high on the sides. And then the long holes, wasn't even a really hard hole except they brought the environment in a little bit closer and all of a sudden, guys were gasping for air on the first tee.

So I kind of like that. I think most guys that like to play the game would prefer that.

Q. Inaudible?

SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, it is. There's no question about it. This course is a good example of it. I like the golf course just fine. It actually sets up pretty decent for me. But there's no question that a course like this, as wide as the fairways are, it's kind of, swing away, on a lot of holes. But that's okay. You've still got to shoot the scores, make the putts.

Q. What are your thoughts on the controversy down at Augusta National over women? Do you suspect that many players on TOUR will come out and make a stand with an opinion? If so, why; and if not, why not?

SCOTT VERPLANK: Wow. I don't know that a lot of players are going to make a public statement about that.

I don't really know how to answer the question because either way I answer it is going to be bad.

Well, there's two risks. The biggest risk is if you say that you agree with them. Then the public is going to rip you up.

I don't know. I tend to defer my opinion to the -- pretty much word for word the art calm that Bob Verdi wrote. Do you read Golf World? Read the back page of Golf World that Bob Verdi wrote about on that subject. I kind of tend to agree with him. I don't have a -- I don't know what to tell you because I don't think -- I'm not in a position to do any social engineering.

I think that, yes, if there is a woman that wants to be a member there and is qualified by the standards they have, whatever they may be, that's great. I think that's -- I don't care. Sure, they should have women members. They should have members -- but it's also their club. They all earned the right to be a member there.

It's kind of like the Bill Gates deal. He wanted to be a member there, but he let it known they wanted him to be a member; and that was his first strike, apparently. That cost him his chance to get in.

I'm not -- I'm going to leave all that to Tiger. (Laughs).

You know what, to be honest, I don't know how to answer that question. No, it's not right to have any kind of discriminatory policies. I don't know that they really have an unbelievable discriminatory policy.

The woman that brought it up, if she's really worried about advancing women's rights, she should be in Afghanistan helping people that are treated like animals. Why is she worried about a lady that's worth $2 billion about being a member at a golf course? Who really cares? It really doesn't mean anything. If you are really worried about social engineering, being a member at a golf club doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot.

I think they have got a lot better things to worry about if you're a women's group -- no offense, Joan.

What do you think, Joan? (Laughs).

Anyway, I don't really know. It's such a touchy subject, because you can get -- to be real honest with you, I don't care what happens. I just hope I keep getting invited to the tournament and they don't cancel it or whatever.

But if they invite 100 women members, that's fantastic. That would be great.

Q. Inaudible?

SCOTT VERPLANK: No, I haven't really been brought up in those ways. I think it's a deal that is just-- I don't know, it's just a very difficult situation. Everybody has an opinion about everything and it doesn't mean everybody is right.

That was probably put a little bit more -- that raised the subject a little bit to a higher level. I don't know. You know, it's the public they are worried about. The public and the media that has made the tournament prestigious. It started as a tournament where there wasn't a lot of coverage, media or public, and they invited great players to come play their tournament, and then the prestige of it is built up because people think it's important. The golfers think it's important, but the media and the public think it's important.

So in that way, I guess they kind of -- I don't know the details. I guess they said they are not going to have any corporate sponsors next year; is that correct?

So, I guess they are -- I don't know what their statement is by that necessarily. I guess their statement is that it's just their tournament and it's everybody else that's making it the big deal. I don't know if you can really buy that argument or not. But they didn't ask me.

Q. Is this something that gets as much conversation in the locker room?

SCOTT VERPLANK: No. That's why I'm so dumbfounded because I haven't really thought that much about it and it's just -- you know, I don't know.

I have a wife and kids and my own life and my own health problems to deal with and a lot of other things that are that are a heck of a lot more important than, who is the members at Augusta National. Even though I can play in the Masters, it's really hardly in my world. You don't go there any other time and I'm not really into -- I don't like discrimination. I'm not racist or biased or anything like that. I just think that everybody -- and I'm kind of old school American in that I think that if you work hard enough, you can get anything you want; you can live the American dream if you work your rear end off.

And nowadays, it seems to me like the American ways, since I was born here, you need to give it to me and I just don't agree with that. I think if everybody pulls their own weight, everybody pulls their own weight and everybody works and does things that are morally and ethically correct, then there wouldn't be problems like that.

That may be too idealistic or whatever, but I really haven't thought about it much.

Q. This is September, but by March and April this will be a hot topic --

SCOTT VERPLANK: Oh, I'm sure.

Q. People will be asking but it --

SCOTT VERPLANK: I guess, I don't know. I guess. It's so hard to tell because the Masters does not leak a lot of information -- the tournament and the Club does not leak a lot of information about their membership policies or just how they do business. It's their tournament. Maybe that is not right.

But at the same time, they have they have kind of earned the right to do that.

Q. I know yesterday you played with a couple young Canadian amateurs. What was your impression of their game, and based on what you've seen compared to some of the other really young good players that are on tour already, did you get a sense that some of the young Canadian guys are sort of that position of --

SCOTT VERPLANK: Fairly impressive for kids that age. All of the kids that age and younger -- it's unbelievable how far they hit it and how much physical talent they appear to have. Unfortunately, for an old guy like me, it takes more than just swinging at it.

They both look like nice players and they look like they have enough physical talent; that if they can get everything lined up, then they might be able to make a career out of it. It's very hard to tell. I just told them both to make sure that they had a great time this week because it's a pretty neat thrill to play in a PGA TOUR event and a National Open as an amateur player. It's a pretty good honor and pretty good thrill.

Q. In your amateur career, do you think it would have helped you, having that sort of exposure?

SCOTT VERPLANK: I think it's very important. It's very important for those guys just because they can look around, like us playing yesterday, and look around the range and play with the guys they are going to play with this week.

It's like if you have the carrot out in front of you, you think about going for it. Also, they need to see what they need to work on, see what they already to do, to see what they need to improve to try to raise their game up to another level.

Q. (Inaudible.)

SCOTT VERPLANK: Obviously, in my life things are going pretty good. I've got the Ryder Cup coming up, I'm in the Canadian Open. As far as my professional career, things are going excellent.

Q. Talk about after winning here last year and then the events of September 11th?

SCOTT VERPLANK: Short celebration. After winning the tournament, I don't know that I was particularly ready to play any time after that last year, to be honest with you. Because I was doing so many -- personally, I was doing so many things good that -- I was just in a slump. You are you are playing good, not fighting anything, getting it around -- and after that.

I don't know that I -- the rest of last year, I don't know that I really ever had the same kind of fire or motivation. I know that I tried to play two weeks after that at Pennsylvania and it was -- I don't even know I didn't was there.

I guess I just wanted to get out of the house and try to get back to a normal life. It wasn't very -- it was just hard to do, I mean just because you it kind of puts golf in perspective.

Q. Where were you?

SCOTT VERPLANK: Monday I played in an outing at Oak Tree for the Oklahoma State Basketball Team. They had that plane crash last winter. One of the kids on the plane that got killed is from Oak Tree. His mom and dad are friends of mine and they had a Memorial and fund-raiser and put a scholarship in his name at LSU. That was kind of a happy -- sad/happy day.

I was walking out the door. I was leaving at 9:30 and I was leaving my house at 9:00. Watching TV, walking out of the house and all of a sudden this stuff starts happening. I was on my way to St. Louis.

Q. (Inaudible.)

SCOTT VERPLANK: It's a little different. I think part of it is because it's been stretched out over a year now. I haven't legally got to -- the only times I've kind of had a blood rush to my head was like when I was trying on all my stuff. (Laughs). That kind of gets you pumped up when you look at all of the stuff. Playing for the United States; how could you not be excited to do that?

I think after this week, next week will probably be hectic at home trying get ready for two weeks overseas, with the second week being a pretty big deal.

Q. When did you get your stuff?

SCOTT VERPLANK: Oh, I've had it about a year and a month. You get it right after they name the team.

I never tried it on last year. I was going to try it on when I got home from St. Louis and get it altered everything. So about three weeks ago.

Q. What did everything look like?

SCOTT VERPLANK: Red, white and blue. What do you think? (Laughter.)

Q. Inaudible?

SCOTT VERPLANK: Monday as I was at home doing an outing. It was a basketball team tragedy they had. I was going to St. Louis Tuesday morning.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Scott.

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