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CHICK-FIL-A CHARITY CHAMPIONSHIP

April 28, 2004

Virada Nirapathpongporn

STOCKBRIDGE, GEORGIA

STEVE ROBINSON: I'm Steve Robinson. I'm with Chick Fil A, and I want to very briefly give you the announcement on the award we are about to make.

We are about to present and announce the Nancy Lopez Award, which will formally be done tonight at a dinner party. This award was created to honor the top female amateur in golf, amateur golf, from the previous year. And it was very similar award for many years, as you probably know, the Haskins Award, and we looked up, along with the tour, and said, where is the comparable award for lady's golf, and there wasn't one. Because of our association with Nancy, it seemed appropriate to create such an award and name this in her honor. Working with Mike Wolburn (ph) who heads up the Georgia Golf Association, his affiliation with the USGA, he put together an international panel of writers, experts, and about 65 or 70 international voters voted on this award, and I think this is the fourth or fifth year we have made this presentation.

So we are very, very pleased to do that today. So I'm going to turn this over to the lady that bears the name on the trophy and the award, Nancy Lopez.

NANCY LOPEZ: Once they name an Award after me, I always said, you had to die before they do that, but thank God I'm alive and I want to enjoy it.

And Virada, we are buddies now on a first name basis. Congratulations on this award. I'm very proud that you have won it, and I want to congratulate you for this award and look forward to this evening.

VIRADA NIRAPATHPONGPORN: Thank you very much. Obviously, this is a great, great honor for me and my family and my country, just to have my name associated with a golfing legends like Nancy Lopez is just wonderful. We all know how much she's brought to the game and women's golf has come a long way.

So I'd like to thank Nancy Lopez and Chick Fil A for putting in the effort to recognize women's golf achievements. Thank you very much.

TY VOTAW: Congratulations. As the fifth award winner in this very special award, it is only a continuation of what make this is event and the traditions we are trying to establish, Chick Fil A is trying to establish, with Nancy as host for this event all the more special.

Awards are known by the quality of the people who have won them and certainly the five recipients certainly live up to that award and live up to the status that Nancy Lopez has given to the game of golf.

We are gracious recipients of Nancy this week as host of the event, and the LPGA is the beneficiary of Chick Fil A's support and this is an example of their commitment to the game and the commitment to LPGA and its future.

I think with Virada, we have a very bright future in women's golf. She has to get through her last year at Duke, and as a North Carolina graduate, it's tough for me to say the name Duke unsolicited, but we congratulate you and we wish you all the best, and we can't wait to have you contribute to the success of the LPGA.

Q. Who did you look up to in women's golf and how old were you when you started?

VIRADA NIRAPATHPONGPORN: When I started golf, I followed golf in the United States. I was back in Thailand, and Nancy Lopez was like when you think of when you think of women's golf. My age when I started golf, eight.

STEVE ROBINSON: Tonight at the dinner Chick Fil A will be presenting a scholarship donation in her honor to the scholarship fund of Duke University.

Q. When will you turn pro?

VIRADA NIRAPATHPONGPORN: I'm actually not sure yet. Because it could be outside of academic institution, I would actually like to donate to Leukemia Research Center. My dad has been struggling with leukemia, so I'd like to contribute to that research foundation.

End of FastScripts.

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