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BELL CANADIAN OPEN

September 6, 2005

Ian Leggatt

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

THE MODERATOR: Ian, thanks for joining us today. Ian, making his 11th appearance at the Bell Canadian Open. He had a PGA TOUR victory in 2002 at the Touchstone Energy Tucson Open. His best finish at the Bell Canadian Open was tied for 16th in 2002 at Angus Glen.

Q. Can you talk about your health situation? Haven't seen your name up there for a while, wondering if you've been physically healthy enough to play over the last few weeks.

IAN LEGGATT: I'm getting better. I've had some weeks where it's been really good for two or three days or whatnot. I've been making cuts and whatnot and getting back.

More than anything, the injury thing is fine. It's just a matter of that 14 months where I didn't play. That's my biggest issue right now, even though I've been back for I think 10 or 11 tournaments, it's still not quite comfortable, 100% on the golf course with myself when things start going a little sideways. I'm getting better at it than I was at the very beginning. More than anything I'm getting used to playing competitive golf again.

Q. What do you do to get that mental side back, is it just a matter of putting until the hours, playing lots of rounds or the things that you can maybe do away from the course to refocus?

IAN LEGGATT: I think it's a couple of different things. No. 1, my biggest issue right now is just trusting myself on the golf course and trusting playing again.

Second thing is, you know, getting into position. You know maybe it's a certain shot during the round of golf, trying to make the cut or getting into contention and not like I played really, really well in New York a few weeks ago and got off to a really nice start on Friday and all of a sudden I got really uncomfortable; whereas before, I would just kind of keep going. I think it's more just getting into that, you know, mental state of competing again more than anything. But I've been getting a little bit better at it week after week. Really, that's the biggest issue, is just being comfortable with my ability on the golf course.

Q. Do you think the mental side of the game is something that really separates the players up there? On the range they look like they can all hit it pretty well, of course. Do you think that is something that separates the players?

IAN LEGGATT: I think so. Obviously it's all about confidence. A guy like Vijay, I personally think over the last four or five years, he's the best player in the world, and really, he sort of for my reason of thinking, he's really the only guy out here that can still win when he's not playing his best; sort of like Tiger was a few years ago.

I think Vijay, still when he's not 100%, he can still go out and compete. A lot of guys can't do that unless they are working at some level of their ability, that 80 or 90 percent. I think his confidence is so high when his physical ability is not all there; he still can win a golf tournament.

Q. Is it a little bit frustrating to have this medical exemption deadline hanging over your head at a time when you're still trying to get your game back?

IAN LEGGATT: Yeah, it is. I think obviously I would like to just be at home working on my game and coming out when I feel 100%, but that's never going to happen. Because I could be standing on the range hitting it fine, but getting used to being out here is what it's about.

I think I had a lot of issues where I kept playing through the injury and was playing worse and worse and worse and thinking all of a sudden one day I'm going to wake up and it doesn't hurt anymore. So I'm trying to play through all of that kind of stuff where you still have all of those little thoughts in your head where you're making protective golf swings so it didn't hurt anymore. I'm slowly eliminating those. They still show up, but, I mean, they are not near as much as my first week back; it was like every single shot I shot, I still even though I had been practicing and not having any worries with my injury, every single shot I hit, I was still thinking it was maybe going to hurt a little bit. I kept thinking it might come back. That's almost completely diminished now. I just need to get a little more confidence where I feel like I can compete out here again.

Q. The exemptions you have, will it extend into next year?

IAN LEGGATT: I will. I get 25 I think, and I've played ten or something this year so far. So I'm not too worried about it. I think once I get playing well and get going, then I can start spending more and more weeks out here where I'll get playing four or five weeks in a row, so I'm not too worried about it.

Q. Playing a course like this, with the rough the way it is, does that bring any of those worries about hurting yourself at all?

IAN LEGGATT: It doesn't, no. My injuries weren't like that. Mine were just from years of wear and tear. It was never like an instance and I hit it and it hurt. It was just I developed a bone spur in my hand that was just from hitting lots of golf balls. So everything that happened with me was just a matter of years of hitting a lot of golf balls.

Q. Do you like this kind of course and does it suit the way you play?

IAN LEGGATT: I think the beauty about Canada's best golf courses, and it's a lot like some of the best golf courses on the PGA TOUR, like a Westchester; it doesn't favor anybody.

Loren Roberts and I were just talking about that. He's considered a very short hitter, but I think some of the really long holes out here don't necessarily favor a guy who hits it 350 yards, because corners run out, and it narrows in. A guy like some of the longer players, like a Vijay Singh, he's going to be hitting 2 irons and 3 woods around out there. He's going to be hitting it where a guy like Loren Roberts or Fred Funk hits his driver. It becomes fair where certain weeks, those guys are giving up 50 or 60 yards sometimes to longer hitters.

I think Hamilton was a lot like that and this is a lot like that. It isn't a Glen Abbey type of a place that really does favor a long hitter. This place right here favors a guy like Loren Roberts. It would not surprise me if someone like him or, you know, Fred Funk, there's a number of guys you could think of like that, drivers the ball straight, keep the ball in play, really nice short game. Those are the guys that are going to win this week.

Q. Is Q School an option to either improve your standing

IAN LEGGATT: I'm exempt to the finals of Q School, so that is a possibility if I feel up to it. I'm definitely going to enter. It's not something I want to miss, because then I would be in a situation where I would still be exempt for ten tournaments at the start of next year, even if I had to go back to Tour School. It's a no lose situation for me.

End of FastScripts.

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