BANK OF MONTREAL CANADIAN WOMEN'S OPEN

August 17, 2002

Meg Mallon

LAURA NEAL: Meg, maybe just give us some comments about your round and then we will go over your scorecard.

MEG MALLON: Okay. This is a real solid round. Hit 15 greens today. Had a lot of opportunities for birdies. Didn't really putt very well. I just had a lot of 12 to 30 footers today. And I seemed to leave myself a lot of four and five footers comebackers either past it or short. So that part was a struggle. But as far as hitting the greens and just being real solid golf, it was really a good day.

The card? First hole I hit a 5-iron to 25 feet and made that for birdie.

Then we go all the way to 11. And I hit a 9-iron to, we will, we'll call it 18 feet and made that for birdie.

And then 14, the par-5, I hit a 53 degree sand wedge to about four feet and made that for birdie.

Then 17, I hit a 5-iron to 15 feet, made that.

And then 18, I hit a pitch and I missed the green. Hit a pitch and run and had probably about 12 feet. And missed that. Made bogey there. That was my only bogey of the day.

LAURA NEAL: Questions?

Q. Do you have any special game plan when you go in on a day like today in a tournament that's tight like this. Do you try to go for it today or do you try to play for the weekend?

MEG MALLON: No, the first two days were key obviously because the scores were so high. Especially yesterday afternoon. So just the first two days were really the key for having a shot at the weekend. And I played really well. And I hit 30 out of 36 greens the first two days and just played real solid golf and just made a couple of mistakes, one 3-putt and hit it in the water on 14 in two days. So really those first two days helped me have today, because today the conditions were a little more benign. It was still windy outside, but they were a lot more opportunities for scoring I felt today. And the course is in the best condition today than it's been all week too.

Q. (Inaudible.)

MEG MALLON: Not too far from here.

Q. You must feel comfortable playing around here?

MEG MALLON: It must be. It's really nice to be back. I'm glad the tournament was back up in this area. I love Montreal. I have dear friends that have lived here for a long time. So it has just been a nice week for me and relaxing and enjoying visiting with them. So it feels like home a bit.

Q. I hate to say you kind of struggled the last couple years, but is there something that you've --

MEG MALLON: You shouldn't say it, because I haven't struggled.

Q. No, you haven't, but you haven't broke through and won?

MEG MALLON: Won. That's right.

Q. And you didn't have any top-5 finishes last year.

MEG MALLON: Actually I finished like sixth or something like that -- whatever. But you're trying to be negative and it's not working.

(Laughter.).

Q. Is there something though that you and Mike have found that you're working on or something?

MEG MALLON: No, we in the last time I worked with him is was at the Open. And as a matter of fact after the British I called him when I got back, this is my teacher, Mike McGetrick in Denver, and I said I needed another lesson. We never go more than six to eight weeks without seeing each other. And I didn't feel good about how I hit the ball on the weekend at the British, even though I had a good event there. But I was -- because it was windy I was just trying to come over a little bit. And that's the swing I made on the last hole today. So it's something that I am working on but certainly I feel a lot better about my golf swing this week than I did last week.

Q. You're comfortable here in Montreal and that but is there any comparison between this course and the course that you won at in Ottawa? Does it make it that you play well in this area? Is there anything there?

MEG MALLON: Well one of the major comparisons is keeping the ball in the fairway. The rough is very difficult here. As it was in Ottawa. And I got in the rough a couple times and it's a penalty. Although today Mi Hyun Kim hit some shots out in the rough that the ground is so firm now underneath it the ball's just taking off. I don't know if you saw her shot on 17, but she just missed the green and it just kicked 25 yards away. So keeping the ball in play where the sprinklers have hit is key to this golf course. And I know that it was very similar to how Ottawa played too.

Q. Game plan for tomorrow?

MEG MALLON: I'm excited to be in this position. So I want to go out and play really well tomorrow. I feel good about my game. I felt good about my putting the first two days, I'm going to try and go out and get a little more feel for speed this afternoon. But I'm excited about tomorrow. I want to go out and play well and just hopefully have a really strong day and win this golf tournament it would be great.

Q. How hard will it be to keep Solheim out of your mind tomorrow?

MEG MALLON: You know it's on my mind constantly. And I certainly want, I want to make Patty Sheehan's job a lot easier and make the team, rather than put her in the position of having to pick me, because I don't want to rely on that. But all year my game has been there. It's just it has not fallen into place for me. And Patty knows that. And I know that and it's just a matter of me kind of relaxing and letting it happen. And I think that last week getting that 8th place and getting a lot of points last week really helped my confidence a lot and I'm a lot more relaxed this week.

Q. Can you just elaborate a bit on about why you haven't won in a couple years?

MEG MALLON: You know, it's -- I can go back to 2000. I finished third on the Money List in 2000 and we're just talking two years ago. So it's not like I've been a major league slump or anything, but -- and I played right to the end of December. I had a very strong year. And we started our season up again the second week in January. And I was just flat burned out. There was no off season and it was like we went right back into another one. So last year I just it took about 8 weeks off because I was exhausted and I just never really got back into the rhythm of getting in contention to win a golf tournament again. I didn't feel bad about my game, I thought it was there. It just -- it wasn't happening for me. And that's the way it goes out here. But I've been out here 16 years and I've seen how those cycles go. And certainly you want to make them shorter than a two year period, but you have to appreciate every win when they happen because you never know when the next one is going to happen.

Q. (Inaudible.)

MEG MALLON: Nothing. I stayed home. I mean we never go home. So I just stayed home in Florida and enjoyed that time and really just -- I mean it took a long time to come down after traveling for so long. I traveled 42 out of 52 weeks in 2000. And I was just flat out fried. And no matter how good I was playing, mentally I was just shot. So it was just -- I needed to do it. I needed to get away. And unfortunately it just -- it was too long of a break.

Q. Give us a general day at home during that time. Get up at 9 o'clock, watch Oprah go back to sleep? Anything like that?

MEG MALLON: No, I'm not an Oprah watcher, I'm a Sportscenter watcher. So that's, you're kind of losing me there, but I don't know. When I go home there's so much to do. It's like there's so many fires to put out when you go home when you own a home and when you're away for so long there's a lot of things to take care of. And it was enjoyable to cook your own meals and stay home and do that kind of stuff. And workout. I mean I was, my body was so physically exhausted I needed to start working out again. So it was fun to be able to get into a routine and do that.

Q. The last time you were in this position after 54 holes? Do you remember that?

MEG MALLON: I don't. It's been awhile. I don't remember. Probably last year at some point in time.

Q. 1998.

MEG MALLON: Yeah, you know, last time I was in the lead?

Q. Yeah, going into the final round.

MEG MALLON: Oh really? Well that's good.

(Laughter.) 1998?

Q. That's what I was told.

MEG MALLON: I thought -- at the Open I wasn't in the lead, was I? Oh, okay. Well that's pretty good. 1998.

Q. Is there any difference playing then with the lead as opposed to being maybe a shot behind?

MEG MALLON: Well, you know, it is. It is different playing with the lead. It's nice to have a cushion. And I'm not sure, do I still have the lead do you know? I do. Okay. So it's nice to know that you have that shot or whatever against the field. I certainly wanted to separate myself a little more today. Because I played really well today and had a lot of opportunities. But it just didn't happen for me. So tomorrow I'm hoping that my putter shows up and I can separate a little bit.

LAURA NEAL: All right. Thank you, Meg.

MEG MALLON: All right. Thank you very much.

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