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BMO FINANCIAL GROUP CANADIAN WOMEN'S OPEN

July 12, 2005

Lorie Kane

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA

PAUL ROVNAK: Thanks for coming and talking with us. We are in Canada this week. Obviously your home country. Maybe talk about how it feels playing back here in Canada.

LORIE KANE: We are not just in Canada here. You are in Atlantic, Canada. It's awesome. I have been looking forward to this for a very long time, probably as long as I have been playing professional golf. I think that's in 1993. I was encouraging du Maurier at the time to try and move the du Maurier Classic here and to decide to come to Halifax into this region is very important.

PAUL ROVNAK: Let's take some questions.

Q. What specifically are you doing differently and the same this week to deal with that pressure of being here in Atlantic Canada and since so many people are going to watch you extra closely this week?

LORIE KANE: Well, nothing. I think I learned a few years back that to play in Canada is to have an extra club in the bag, so to speak, and to use it to my advantage. Obviously being so close to Rhode Island and having the Maritimer support for sure, one would think there would be an added pressure, but I am just looking at it as an opportunity to showcase myself as well as the Tour and to enjoy the process. I played the golf course today. It's in fine shape. It's in great shape. Mike Young and his staff have done a wonderful job of taking care of all the things the players need here, so I am just going to go out and have a good time. I can't wait to tee it up on Thursday, actually.

Q. Can you tell me I saw you place your ball in different places in the sand trap and different places on the green to try to get used to the course. How did you find the course? Is this a tough course or what?

LORIE KANE: It's a very good championship golf course, no doubt about it. It's not probably as firm as maybe we would like to have it so the fairways aren't running a lot. It's going to come down to where you place your shots on the green and as a result, today I was chipping from a lot of different places, trying to just get a feel for the roll of the greens and you definitely don't want to be above a few of these pins. So it's going to be about placing the ball. But that's you know, it's not really any different week to week. I think maybe the biggest thing here there's a lot of uphill, downhill lies, there's not a lot of flat going on here.

(Laughs).

Q. How would it feel to win a championship here? I know it's been a while since you have won

LORIE KANE: It would be awesome. I think it's time that I get back into the winner's circle. I am doing everything right. Just not maybe bringing it together at the right time. I do feel very confident about my game plan for this week and we'll go out and see if it works.

Q. You had a great breakout the last day of the US Open. What worked for you there and what, from that day, can you bring to this week?

LORIE KANE: Well, I played I have been playing great. I just, like I said, I haven't been maybe putting the scores together. It's unfortunate for you guys, that you don't get to see me hit shots. You only get the end results and that's what shows up in the box scores either on Monday or Thursday through Sunday or on Monday morning when we finish tournaments.

At the Open I played very steady golf and Open golf courses suit me very well because they are very tough. It's a premium to hit fairways. I putted great. Sunday, I think the highlight of Sunday's round that kept me going was I made a 40 footer on the 9th hole for par. That's momentum building. I went on to the next week into Jersey and played very well. Unfortunately I had to have some time off but the upside was that I got to go home to PEI for a couple of extra days. I don't think I have been to home for July 4th weekend in ten years. So what I take from the Open it's just been a process and know, building towards being the best that I can be and getting back into the winner's circle for sure. It is a bonus to know that I was the only one under par on Sunday and that makes me feel very good.

Q. Being an athlete you are obviously a mentor for very y young girls. There's a young girl that I spoke to, Cassidy, who wrote a thousand word essay about being able to walk alongside of you. What do you say to that?

LORIE KANE: It's awesome. If I am a role model I hope I am a good one. I know I have been raised by my mom and dad to be the best that I can be and to treat people the best that I can and to leave this sport better than I found it. I had a young girl today who plays on a national team,I believe her name is Ashley, and she, believe it or not, told me she was twelve years old watched me play the last du Maurier Classic and decided that she wanted to be inside the ropes and that girl was playing here this week and I was like, I couldn't believe that I had that much of an impact on a young girl to have her work hard enough to obviously be playing on a national team which is a big feat and to be here playing in the Canadian Women's Open. I do not take what I do lightly. I hope I can leave an impression on female athletes, that it's cool to be an athlete and cool to be a golfer in particular. There's lots of young girls out here this week and it's exciting to see.

Q. You touched on the fact that you are a maritimer; that sets you a part as a unique individual amongst girls that you are playing. Why is it, you being fun loving, boisterous, maritimer, why is it that golfers demand silence on the court when NHL and NBA players and that sort of thing can play their game in noise?

LORIE KANE: (Laughs) I think that goes back to the history of golf and the etiquette and the whole nine yards of that. I am a loud sportsfan and I am a loud sportsfan watching golf after somebody has hit a shot. I don't know, I guess it's that's a very good question. I guess it's the way we have been raised in the game. It requires some calmness but at the end you can obviously be joyful or whatever, or not so joyful. If you hit a bad shot which I don't do, so I am only joyful.

Q. Are you disappointed that when the tournament does finally come to your backyard here it's got a very rough spot on the schedule with the Evian starting on a Wednesday and not many star players here?

LORIE KANE: Well, I think you are wrong because the Tour has stars from the top to the bottom and I would rather look at it from the perspective that maybe not having a few of the top players here gives somebody else an opportunity to show exactly how good they are. Our Tour, the LPGA Tour is deep, like I said, from top to bottom. It's difficult being an athlete and playing golf as your sport and try to play week to week, it's very hard to do. I have talked to a few players that weren't coming. They apologized for me for that, and I said, you know, you can only do what you can do. The same players that went to Toledo last week may not be here this week because like you said, we are heading to Europe, but it's not a knock against them or anything. It's just the process, that we have schedules, you can't play every week. I didn't play last week. So the upside is, again, we have a lot of young players here that have an opportunity to make this their first win. They are going to have to beat me to do it, though.

Q. The role of your caddie, you are part of a team here this week. What can you tell us about your expectations from him week to week and especially this week again with the pressures of being at home?

LORIE KANE: Well, Danny is no stranger to playing in Canada himself. He played a lot on the Canadian Tour and, you know, he's a great caddie and I think this particular golf course will require a teamwork because of having the position of where you want to be on the greens. You are probably if you looked around the last two days when players are trying to get here the caddies are first in town and they are spending the time walking and getting familiar with the golf course, so that they can map the strategy and basically be your tour guide. My relationship with Danny is one that we are both very good players obviously, and so we work together. I will be counting on him a lot because he might see something different on a hole than I do and I want to make sure that we are working together. He will let me know if I need some information. He's not afraid to kick me in the butt when I need it, too. So it works.

Q. You talked about the what you heard from Ashley about you being her inspiration. My first question is, who was it that inspired you to get to this stage and the second part is: Yourself excluded what's it going to take how do we get a Canadian to win on the LPGA Tour?

LORIE KANE: Well, the answer to the first part of the question, my parents it was who instilled in me never be afraid to try something. I wanted to be a professional athlete growing up. I just didn't know what sport it was that I was going to be playing. So in my youth, golf was somewhere that I knew there was professional women playing. The second part of your question is, you know, it took me a long time to learn to win. I am not quite sure if I still know how to win I mean, I shouldn't say I do know how to win but I don't know the formula to tell somebody this is what you do ABCd and E and you win. It's a process. It's a learning process. I think here in our country we just need to keep encouraging young girls to play and to support them at all levels and to know that you go from junior golf to amateur golf, to senior amateur golf and, you know, there's professional golf and not to discourage anybody from taking that jump from being an amateur to a professional. I think there has to be that buildup. I think we have some great athletes in this country, great players, we have I am surprised at how many young girls are playing college golf in the United States. Way more than when I was trying to become a professional. So I think we just need to keep encouraging them and giving them every opportunity they can. And winning will come. It's part of the process.

Q. There's lots of Canadians who could be in contention. Speak briefly to each of the Canadians that are here this week and what do you think their strengths and weaknesses are on this course and playing in Canada?

LORIE KANE: Let me just pick out Dawn right off the bat because I think she's the ultimate in competitiveness. Dawn is a true natural when it comes to just sheer competing and playing the game with the object of putting the ball in the hole. I had so much fun playing with her and representing Canada at the World Team in South Africa in January. I learned a lot about how Dawn thinks on the golf course. She's very positive and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if she wins again soon on Tour. These greens probably suit Dawn because they roll very true, you know, obviously if you can play enough break, they are rolling very nicely.

On A.J.'s part I said this earlier this year I give A.J. a lot of credit. You may have thought that she was going to fall off the map last year and did go through a rough time but she really pulled her herself up and improved at her game both from the physical side of playing and also on the mental side to give herself some confidence and A.J. is firing on all cylinders right now and I think any time can break out and win.

Q. Talk about finally having a home game in your career...

LORIE KANE: I have to ask you what that means.

Q. Playing close to home.

LORIE KANE: Oh, all right.

Well, it's not quite home. It will do for now.

I worked very hard at trying to encourage people to come out here to Atlantic, Canada. I think and I am not shy to say this. I think (inaudible) Rhode Island led the way in developing a product, particularly the golf product and the Brunswick, Nova Scotia have followed suit as well as New Foundland, I really think that we are a good destination and by having an event like this here I think it's going to encourage them to come back and I am hoping the next time we'll be in PEI. I can't see why not. We don't get much fog. (Laughs). We have an airport, I think we can land some planes I am just joking (laughter).

PAUL ROVNAK: Thank you.

LORIE KANE: I left them with a good one.

I have to say this to you guys, it's very important and we, as players, thank you for coming out and taking the time to write your stories and to follow this story because this is very important. I think that women's golf in particular, the LPGA, you are only going to see the cream hit it this week, the Tour is unbelievable, isn't it, Paul? The potential that we have in the next few years, it's an exciting place to be, so, thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

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