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BELL CANADIAN OPEN

September 8, 2004

Mike Weir

OAKVILLE, ONTARIO

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: In a moment the press conference with Mike Weir will commence, but first I'd like to introduce a long standing partner of Mike's, Bell Canada, today presented by Pierre Blouin Group, President of Consumer Markets. Mr. Blouin.

PIERRE BLOUIN: Thank you very much, Joel. We're glad to be here, and thank you all for being here. As you know, Bell Canada supported Mike Weir since the early days. In fact, since 1990, so we've been working together for now 14 years. We take enormous pride in Mike Weir, in his determination and in his accomplishments and in the recognition that he has brought to Canada and Canadian golf on the world stage.

Mike has built a solid reputation, Masters champion in 2003, winner of multiple tournaments, the Air Canadian Championship, which was at that time the other Canadian PGA TOUR event, and ranked in the Top 10 around the world.

A lot of change in 14 years since Bell made its first commitment to Mike, but one thing hasn't, the reason behind our support to Mike. Quite simply, we made our commitment to Mike because for us he embodies in his professional and personal life the attributes Bell Canada has always stood for, a never ending drive to excel, to improve every day the fierce determination to win and the quiet pride in success.

Off the course we have great admiration for his charity work and a positive role model he sets for Canadian youth. And now we're privileged to be working with him as we develop the Mike Weir Foundation for Youth. Today I'm privileged to announce we have renewed our sponsorship with Mike for the next three years.

Bell Canada will continue to work closely with Mike both on and off the course and we're already putting in place our plan for 2005 to leverage this new agreement. This renewed sponsorship is an important part of our continuing contribution for golf, and further example of our determination to support the individuals and events that Canadians truly care about.

It's also recognition that in sport and business, Mike Weir and Bell stand for the same things, neither of us fade when the going gets tough, but sometimes golf caps do. So we would like to celebrate our new agreement by presenting you, Mike, a new, unfaded Bell golf cap.

Mike, we wish you well in the Open. It would be great for the centennial Open that we do have a Canadian winning and we'll be rooting for you all week.

MIKE WEIR: Thank you. I would just like to say a few things. This being the 100th anniversary of our national championship, with Bell's involvement in the last few years, not only with the tournament but with myself, I'm very proud to be here, excited. As a spoke last night, I think last night was a great evening to start off this event and this week. Bell did a great job of putting that on. And as I said last night, I remember the first time I played here as a 19 year old, I was very excited and very nervous and still the same feelings this week. Even after probably 10 years from my first time playing here, or 12 years, I'm still very excited to play. It's going to be a fantastic week, and I look forward to hopefully playing well and getting some excitement for the fans.

I'm very excitement about the renewal with Bell. As Pierre said, they were my first corporate partner from early days on the Canadian Tour and we've had a great relationship all the way through, and three more years is a great thing and hopefully it will last a long time. Thanks, Pierre.

Q. Mike, regarding the sponsorship, if you could talk about when you first signed on with Bell and what kind of a difference did that make for you as a player, your family life, what did it allow you to do that you couldn't do previously? How did it change your life?

MIKE WEIR: It just helped basically with entry fees. I was able to call my wife, because she was back at home working, for the mobility side of Bell back then, I had a cell phone with unlimited use, which was huge back then. And like I said, my wife was at home working and that's how we kept in contact.

She caddied sometimes, but half the time she was back home working. It helped pay all my entry fees on the Canadian Tour and helped me pay for Q School, which is a big entry fee, 3 or $4,000, so it was a great help. They've been there right from the start.

Q. When you come back on Canadian soil, I know it's special for you because you're now in your home province, friends and family close by, the media obviously wants a big piece of you this week. Talk about any possible distractions and what your mental adjustment is coming into this Bell Canadian Open in your home country?

MIKE WEIR: Well, I feel it's not a big mental adjustment. I had that last year. Last year was very busy after winning the Masters last year, but it was exciting. I think I was playing with Chris Riley the first two rounds and Loren Roberts had to leave, and they couldn't believe the reception Thursday morning on the first tee. It was awesome.

I think I planned my week pretty well, I think having a press conference here and some of the things I've done early in the week, I'm trying to accommodate as much as I can and starting tomorrow it's down to business and hopefully put myself in good shape for Sunday.

Q. Your overall impression on the field this weekend. Tiger is not here, but a lot of world class very capable golfers here, you're going to have some tough competition.

MIKE WEIR: It's a great field. Unfortunately, because of the hurricane we lost a few players. I know those guys would have been here, because of the 100th anniversary, but we still have a great field. It's going to be tough. We have Vijay who overtook Tiger, big story last week. So we have the No. 1 player in the world here. You can't ask to tougher competition here than that.

Q. You have probably been asked this question earlier in the week, but with Moe's passing last week. Everyone has got a good Moe story. I was wondering if you had one, and talk about his swing, as well.

MIKE WEIR: I have lots of Moe stories, as everyone does. We're going to miss him here this week. He's usually hanging around Monday through Wednesday on the driving range hitting clubs. I've said this before, to watch Moe in his 70s go down and hit the ball better than most of us guys on the range, it was pretty neat to see.

One story I can share with you was my first pro win was King Valley here in the Toronto area, when I was on the Canadian Tour. I remember hitting a drive into a hazard as I was contending to win the tournament. I had to take a drop and I had a 3 wood from 230 some odd yards. I hit the 3 wood out of the rough to go 15 feet, and made it for par. It propelled me on the last few holes to win a birdie n the next hole. Moe was standing off to the side, standing there with a wedge and he gave me a wink as I was going on. It was pretty cool, and I went on to meet Zokol and Steve Stricker by a shot. He was a great guy, loved kids, spent a lot of time with kids and helped them out, signed autographs for them. He was a real character of the game. He's going to be missed.

Q. Everyone is talking about Ryder Cup obviously right now. I'm wondering if a year from now, just looking down the road, if you could just take a look at the International side that's forming right now, with Vijay doing what he's doing and Adam Scott, yourself, a developing guy like Stephen Ames, should he decide to play, just wondering what your thoughts are and what the international team is shaping up and what kind of Presidents Cup that's going to be a year from now?

MIKE WEIR: There are a lot of Internationals playing well, Vijay is playing great, Ernie has been playing great, Retief Goosen won the US Open. It seems the International side, those guys are really playing well, so we should have a really good team next year.

I haven't been on a winning team yet. We tied last year, I'm looking forward to playing next year. It's a great honor to play in that event. I had a heck of a time. It's fun to get in that atmosphere with all the guys, and it's different, because we're out here as individuals each and every week. And to come together as a group and have dinners together, you get to see a different side to everybody and it's fun. Our side should be pretty tough. Right now we're playing really now. We'll see next year, but right now we're playing well.

Q. As someone who came up through the infrastructure of Canadian grassroots golfing, how excited are you to see a 15 year old as a Canadian Amateur, and if you could further explain what you feel that will mean in the next five or ten years?

MIKE WEIR: One, I think it's probably there are a few things, I think, the instruction is much better at a younger age now. In Canada, as a general rule, it seems we have better instructors that are really understanding what they need to teach, not just through swing mechanics but through mental training, physical training, and I think that's I'm not sure what that's a result of, but I know we're moving in the right direction. I think there are a few things. There's going to be some younger players coming up at a sooner age, like Darren, and there's guys on the Nationwide, guys playing well on the Canadian Tour. It's getting better and they're going to go to Q School and get their cards and it's going to push everything along.

I think one of the big proponents of that or components of that is that the instruction is much better. The swings to me all look much better than what they did, six seven or eight years ago, as young guys coming up. They have all more solid mechanics. I haven't played enough with them to see how they're thinking on the golf course, but they must be doing something right, the way they're playing.

Q. When you see someone that age and you see how far you've come and the trials and tribulations you have to go through, is it something where he is at the level he is now, someone's future like him has to be nothing but bright and maybe even exceed your own success down the road, things like that, is that what you see when you see somebody like him?

MIKE WEIR: For sure. I see guys definitely coming along and doing what I'm doing or better. And that's just going to happen. The more players we can develop, the better chance we're going to have not just one but a few guys get out there on the world stage and make a name for themselves and win some big tournaments, it's going to happen.

Q. In talking to Darren Wallace and talking to some of the other younger Canadians that are out there this week and asking about you, some of the words they've used, they've said he's a role model, she's a hero. Are those labels for you? Is that a strange suit to wear?

MIKE WEIR: It's a strange suit to wear. I don't look at myself like that. I look at myself as a normal guy, but at the same time I do accept that and appreciate that, that the guys do look up to me like that, and I take it seriously. But I'm a pretty humble guy. It's a little bit strange, I would say, but it's nice that the guys do see that. I try to represent myself in the right way in this game, and I have tremendous respect for the game. That's the only way to go about it in this game, for sure.

Q. As you were a younger Canadian, what Canadians were you looking at and saying maybe I want to take his path or maybe I want to be like him?

MIKE WEIR: Guys that were on Tour when I was growing up were Dan Halderson, Richard Zokol, and Dave Barr, Jim was kind of getting done when I was coming up, Jim Nelford, so I did get to see a little bit of him. Zoke helped me out a little bit when I was trying to pick a university to go to. I started working with his coach when I was right out of college, so he helped me get in touch with him, and start working on my game and start working on better fundamentals and things, so he was a good example. He was just a guy to call and talk to about the professional game, about travel, and doing all that entails professional golf, so he's been a big help to me.

Q. You probably get asked this every year when you play this, but explain the emotions, the pressure, the excitement of playing here as you would at another major.

MIKE WEIR: It's probably even more magnified, I compare it to the Masters this year. Even when I was winning the Masters last year, coming off a couple wins early in the year, I was still under the microscope. I was still able to go about my pace and do my routine and do everything, where this year at the Masters it felt a little out of control. This week is a little bit close to that. I'm managing it, I feel, a little bit better and I feel like I've gotten enough practice in, but there's a little bit more pressure, there's no question, than even a major, I feel like, for me, just being Canadian and the focus.

Q. I know it's only been two days, but how do you regard Vijay as No. 1 compared to when Tiger was No. 1?

MIKE WEIR: I think very deserving. I regard him as I felt like in the last year and a half, the way he's played, he's been playing like the No. 1 player in the world, and the number of wins he's accumulated over the last however many months, he's deserved it.

Q. (Inaudible)?

MIKE WEIR: I don't quite see Tiger in the same light as maybe in 2000, where Tiger was in 2000, if I'm comparing him to that. I see Tiger in the last couple of years, comparatively, but Tiger was blowing everybody away so much back then. It was a different thing. Vijay is winning and he's doing a great job, obviously, but Tiger was winning by 15 shots and things, and he won by 12 one time, 15 one time, crazy numbers out here.

End of FastScripts.

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