U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 10, 1997

Lorie Kane

LORIE KANE: Overall impressions? Extremely excited, very proud, stayed quite patient and didn't get too frazzled when I made a double early in the back nine. Just tried to hit all the fairways and the greens and have a chance at making as many putts as I could -- or as view -- or having as few putts.

LORIE KANE: I hit a pretty good drive down the right side of the fairway. And was kind of in between clubs, so I opted to grip down on an 8-iron and I didn't hit it as solid as I should and have and left it a little to right, and I chipped -- I was standing very close to being in the bunker but had a little footing and left it through the green and made a poor chip. And I'm planning to go practice my chipping as soon as I finish here.

LORIE KANE: Just over that, yeah.

LORIE KANE: Exactly.

LORIE KANE: No. 2, I hit a 5-iron -- actually just probably missed a hole-in-one by about an inch, they told me when we got to the green, rolled through about three feet past the hole.

LORIE KANE: Excuse me, but I've got to think about the holes.

LORIE KANE: I hit a good sand wedge to about maybe 8 to 10 feet above the cup.

LORIE KANE: 7 is also a par-5 and I think that was probably the nicest birdie, because it was a tough pin place. And I hit 9-iron inside about five feet.

LORIE KANE: No. 8, again, a very difficult pin placement. I hit all of an 8-iron and hit the mound and rolled back down the slope and I made a nice, probably, a ten-footer.

LORIE KANE: That's right. 16 is a long par-4 and I hit 3-iron into the green and all of the 3-iron and made about a 25-foot putt.

LORIE KANE: I think it's a great hole. I had pretty good length off the tee, so I gave myself position to either hit 3- or 4-wood on my second shot. We opted for 4-wood. I have been having difficulty with the 3 wedge system I have, and really learning how far a hit each club. 53, 55 yards with my lob wedges, and hit 4-wood in, hit lob wedge on to about -- how long is that?

LORIE KANE: I hit a really good drive on that hole, hit it up to the right side of the fairway. And again I was in between clubs, so I opted to grip down on one, and didn't swing right through it and left it a fairly difficult chip, because these greens slope so much, from right to left, that one does, and it just ran away from me about 15 feet above the hole. And I did my best to get it down there but left it short.

LORIE KANE: That's when the rain kind of hit us, and I think my group was being timed at that time, too, so I hit a little bit of a quick swing, it was a 5-iron, I left it to the right side of the green. I was up against the collar and opted to putt it and went quite a bit past the hole, and again, just -- I was right on what I thought was the right line, but you can't give the holes away here at Pumpkin Ridge.

LORIE KANE: The superintendent obviously is doing a great job. I think it's been consistent with the rain we've had, a little bit, and a little bit there. Overnight, I'm sure it rained most of the night. And the course, I think the speed is good. I'll be honest with you, coming to a U.S. Open I was a little bit nervous about how fast they could get and how fast the course would be run and what the rough was going to be like. I really think it's playing very well.

LORIE KANE: If we go back to the 6th hole when I made my first bogey, my caddy, Danny Sharp said that won't be your last bogey at a U.S. Open. I put it all in perspective, and the marshals and the rules officials are out there to keep the pace of play up. And we were at a position and we were trying to make it up. And you can't get frazzled, you can just keep chasing it, hit it, finally hit it again.

LORIE KANE: S-h-a-r-p.

LORIE KANE: Danny caddied a little bit for me last year, and full-time to year. He is a fellow Canadian and played the Canadian Men's Tour, and very knowledgeable.

LORIE KANE: Absolutely. I rely a lot on him to keep, as I'm sure a lot of players do. It's -- it is the U.S. Open, and it's exciting and to try to keep everything in perspective, you can sometimes get ahead of yourself. And I asked Danny just to keep me going. And we talked about whatever we needed to talk about. He keeps me on the straight and narrow.

LORIE KANE: Well, to give you a brief bio of me, I'm from Canada. I didn't play in many Tours other than a few Florida winter tours. I'm a du Maurier series graduate. I played nine tournaments last year on the LPGA Tour as a conditional player. And also stayed in Canada and played the series. And I really tried to just put myself in a position I could play well each day, and my goal was to try to lower my stroke average regularly. And now my next goal is to bring myself to the next level. I think I'm a pretty consistent ball striker. I tend to put it in the fairway a lot. I just think I'm having the time of my life, and that's probably the biggest reason I'm playing well.

LORIE KANE: I think so. You know, I don't miss many fairways, and I don't hit -- I hit your average number of greens, probably, if you look at statistics. But I do get it in play, and I keep it in play. I don't get -- I'm not all over the map, as they say.

LORIE KANE: Yeah, I'll be honest with you, here, my putter broke yesterday and I'm playing with one that the great guys at Odyssey and Mike Eggling helped me get together, because of the time difference they couldn't get the one that I have. I play with a Rossie 2, but the bronze version. I have putted with just the regular stainless, and that is what I have right now. It's a little bit longer than the one I usually putt with. It was 33 inches, but I knew I had to have something today. And maybe it was a good thing.

LORIE KANE: I probably will keep it in the bag. I'm going to check the other one and see if we can weight it up to the weight I like. I'm not sure what I'll do. But I did putt well today and I'm probably foolish to try to change it, so I probably won't.

LORIE KANE: Actually the shaft was loose a couple of weeks ago, and we put the shaft back in and something seemed to be a little bit loose again the other day, and I guess there's no weight in the Odyssey Rossie 2, but something I think maybe when they heated it up to put the shaft back in, maybe loosened the head a little bit inside. They're such great putters. I can't wait to get the other one back. But I like the one I have.

LORIE KANE: It is. It's the Rossie 2. The only difference is the color. One is gray and the other is the bronze or the gold looking.

LORIE KANE: This one that I'm putting with is 33 inches compared to the one I have which is 32.

LORIE KANE: Well, I will tell you, I looked up at the leader board and saw my name at 3-under before I made a lovely double and kind of smiled and thought to myself, "Boy, I wish my family could be here to see this." It's a real long tournament. I'm excited just to be here and I'm going to give myself and Danny the best chances we can for the rest of the week. It is the Open, so you have to be patient, they tell me.

LORIE KANE: I guess, well, other than -- I've never seen an open life. I've watched it on TV. The conditions, just the atmosphere. The du Maurier Classic is our open, which is important to me, too, but just the opportunity to come and play and the field the way it's selected, the players -- we have to work to get here, and it's a goal to get here. And it's just a real honor to be here. I don't know if I can say anything else.

LORIE KANE: I've been struggling a little bit in the last couple of tournaments, I guess with the schedule. I'm not used to playing -- I've played, I think, 15 events. And that was probably the most events I'd ever play in one season. So coming into this tournament I was excited about being here and I wanted to kind of get myself pumped up and I didn't have any difficulty doing that, because again the surroundings and everything is great. And I went out and worked hard. I think maybe being at the open and being here allowed me to get a little more pumped than I have been in the past.

LORIE KANE: The du Maurier -- don't ask me to compare the U.S. Open and the du Maurier Classic, I'm Canadian.

LORIE KANE: Absolutely. I've read and watched and am really excited to have had the pleasure today to meet you. You've done a lot for women's golf and we sure do appreciate it.

LORIE KANE: Yes, I went back to the qualifying school, I finished, I think -- only having played 9 tournaments, I finished 127th of the money list, just shy of that 125. And I think it was the best thing I wasn't 125. I might have been too complacent at the Tour school. I went back to the Tour school and finished third and again played some pretty consistent golf. And here I am now full-time on the Tour, which is exciting for me.

LORIE KANE: I think I was five when I was introduced to the game by my mom and dad, really didn't play competitive golf until my early teens, 12, 13. Played two Canadian Juniors and then played a lot of amateur golf. I'm a little bit older than most of the girls on their second year on Tour. I'm 32. I didn't turn pro until I was 29. But I felt -- I call it my college golf experience, because I stayed in Canada and went to school and hit in snow all winter, was the opportunity I had with our CLGA, that's our Canadian amateur body, to represent Canada overseas at the British Amateur and the French Open and the Mexican Amateur. I used those experiences and turned pro again after the World Amateur in '92, and then I played on the du Maurier series, which is a developmental tour, I call it, set up by du Maurier for Canadian women.

LORIE KANE: I feel I've been in the golf business my whole life. My dad is in the business. He's the director of golf for the three provincial courses that our government owns at home. He was a golf pro when I started playing as a child. I've been working in pro shops and in the back shop, I call it. I started cleaning the clubs, then I went to the Penthouse, which is the golf shop. So I know the business pretty good.

LORIE KANE: I thought about it, but at that time, I come from a family of four girls, and the cost, the Canadian dollar isn't very strong down here, and the expense was pretty good. A couple of years after I probably could have, but I was excited about going to the university, at the school my sister went to, it was Acadia University in Nova Scotia. Golf wasn't a big priority then.

LORIE KANE: It's Annika Sorenstam. She's a great player, and with all that's gone on this week for her, I'm sure it's been difficult at times, but Annika is a fantastic player, and never -- she could come back from anything. She's a great player.

LORIE KANE: Thanks.