BELL CANADIAN OPEN

September 4, 2002

Ian Leggatt

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Ian, for spending a few minutes with us here in the media center at the Bell Canadian Open. Obviously, this is your first time here. You had an opportunity to play the course yesterday and you're going to play this afternoon. Why don't you make a couple comments about the course and we'll go into questions.

IAN LEGGATT: I had never played here before, so it was a whole new venture for me. Actually, I was surprised. I had not really -- I had heard stories about how easy the course was, how wide it was and whatnot, but I think it's a very good course. Actually, there's a couple of guys -- I was talking to Gene Sauers and Olin Browne about it at lunch, and it's tough to even advance it out here if you hit it in the rough, even a decent lie. The rough is extremely thick and heavy.

So even though the fairways are a little more ample than we normally get on TOUR, but if you miss a fairway out here, it's an extremely high penalty you're going to pay. I was surprised, but the course is in great condition and it's a great layout. The guy who drives it good, I think you are going to see some lower good. But the guy who doesn't drive it very good is in for a long day.

Q. Did you get a chance to play the course before they cut back the rough and supposedly sowed the greens?

IAN LEGGATT: No, I didn't. Yesterday was the first time I played. I understand they did mow it down, but a lot of times, that even makes it worse. The grass might lay down and whatnot and get it to where your ball might actually sit up on it because it's so high. Now it's gotten really thick and sticky, and the ball kind of almost nestles down in it now. So I think it's maybe made it tougher; that they have probably trimmed off the top of it.

Q. How have things been different for you since Tuscon? You hear about when a guy wins and what happens to his life after that, based on everything from golf to outings, everything. How has it been different?

IAN LEGGATT: You know, actually I'm a lot more busier than I normally am during tournament week. I enjoy it. This is what you look for. I have aspired to be like this and I worked hard to get to this point. But if I was to say now, gosh, I don't want to deal with the media anymore -- but actually, this is what I've always wanted to do.

I've managed to take some time off and hide out at home and hang out with the new baby and everything. I think putting a diaper on right now is better than my putting.

I'm enjoying it. I'm going to play a lot now the rest of the year, to try and get myself in that Top-30 on the Money List. That's my goal. But I have enjoyed looking to win again.

Q. Some of the guys in the Canadian Tour are pointing at you as inspiration now, spending so much time there and no wins, but now you have broken through. Are there other Ian Leggatts that you know about, guys just below the bubble?

IAN LEGGATT: Absolutely. I think Derek Gillespie is one that comes to mind. He seems kind of on the same -- a little bit of a track that I was on, just sort of mediocre first year on the Canadian Tour and had a good college career, and now he's broken through this year on the Canadian Tour.

Hopefully for someone like me, I think Canadian guys, it's difficult for us to sort of work on our game, and if they look at some sort of the way I went about it and traveling overseas in the wintertime and never giving up on getting out here, I hope they do look at me and never give up. I think there's been some great players that have come along that kind of packed it in, maybe a couple three, two years earlier that could have played on the PGA TOUR.

Q. Along that same theme, you had a long gestation period as a pro before you got on the PGA TOUR.

IAN LEGGATT: Well, I think I just sort of -- I didn't want to play on any mini-tours. I thought mini-tours, even though there's guys that have played on mini-tours, I liked the idea of playing on sort of a tour, going to South Africa and playing on the Canadian Tour, you have caddies, you walk, no carts. It's like the regular deal.

I think the amateur, working your way through the amateur ranks, I had somebody tell me a long, long time ago that says, you know, first, you become the best junior at your club, and then you become the best amateur at your club and best pro. That's what I sort of aspired to as I worked along. If there's a couple juniors at my club better than me, I worked harder and harder to beat them. And if there was an amateur men's club champion better than me, I worked harder and harder to beat him; and I just worked my way along that way.

And I still do the same out here. I spend hours and hours on the range because I know there's still guys out here that have some things that I don't have yet and I still work at. That's kind of what drives me along.

I think a lot of the younger guys sort of took that thinking; that I think that maybe that's the way to go.

Q. (Inaudible.)

IAN LEGGATT: A little bit of trial and error. I was a big Saturday/Sunday morning golf watcher, and I could not wait to get out to the golf course after I was done to try to imitate Tom Watson and Lee Trevino and whatnot, and I think that's a great way for kids to go starting out.

I've had so many people that have pushed me along the way, with just at a young age, the first golf lesson I got was from a guy named John (phonetic) -- somebody in Cambridge, and pushed my way along through different people that have helped me.

And I've always seeked advice from other people. Even out here I do. Every time I start struggling with my putting, I'm running around looking for David Frost to help me, and I've grilled Nick Price on questions and things like that.

So I'm always looking to -- you know, I go to the guys that have had experience and success, and I figure they must have the answers.

Q. You mentioned before about putting a diaper on is easier than the game sometimes. In terms of having a young family, as wonderful as it is, how much of a distraction is it to the things you want to try to do on a golf course, and how far is your mind away -- when you are actually on the course, how far is away is your mind from your family concerns?

IAN LEGGATT: It's definitely not a distraction. I've got a great wife. She's caddied for me on TOUR, on tours overseas and she's kind of been there through the hard times on the way up and knows how hard that I like to work at it.

So she's never been to a point, where, you know, "I want you home at 3 o'clock today." It's the type of thing that just doesn't happen.

When I'm at home and I take time off -- I'm not going to take two weeks off and (spend) two days sitting on the couch. I'm just going to sneak out to the course and putt for a little bit. Next thing you know I'm hitting balls for five hours.

Now I go home, it's more fun. I can say, okay, I'm going to take time off and I get to stay home and play with the baby. It's actually a good distraction.

When I'm on the golf course, it's always been an escape for me no matter what was going on in my life. I've always been able to go on the golf course, no matter what's going on, I kind of forget about everything that happens.

So I don't find that a distraction at all.

Q. It's been 48 years since a Canadian won this tournament. Just your thoughts on the class of Canadians this year and whether this course plays to your strength?

IAN LEGGATT: I would like to think so, for sure. Without a doubt, Glen has had weeks this year where he's played well, and everybody knows Mike is ready to break through at any time. I think I'm definitely ready to win again.

I think we've got more guys this year, even if you just want to count three guys, there's been years where there's probably no media person or anything that thought a Canadian like Dave Barr (ph), every year he teed it up in his prime, everybody was hoping, okay, Dave is going to win this year.

This year there are three legitimate guys that could go out and win. I would love for me to win, and just be almost equally happy if Mike or Glen were to win, but any Canadian would be fantastic.

Q. You got your first round in yesterday and you're going out again this afternoon. Your thoughts on the course?

IAN LEGGATT: I said the rough is extremely penalizing. I think even the fairways are a little wider than we normally get on TOUR. The course is in great condition, and I think that the guy who doesn't drive it very straight is -- you know, you just can't advance it out of the rough. I think that's the equalizer out here for the wide fairways.

Q. You talked earlier about hoping that any Canadian, or particularly "this Canadian" would win, but do you find that there are more distractions when you come to a tournament, whether it's the Open or the Air Canada event, more than there would be in a routine week, and is that perhaps one of the factors that hurts your chances?

IAN LEGGATT: I don't think so. I think you just get accustomed to it. Obviously, you know, as a Canadian playing in the Canadian Open, we all put enough pressure on ourselves to perform well, just week-in, week-out. It doesn't even necessarily have to be the Canadian Open. I know Mike and I spent a lot of time together and we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to perform well.

So, I know that I would love to be in a position on Sunday to find out what might happen. But I don't -- you know, with golf, if you're playing well, I don't think there's any distractions. If you're struggling with your game, everything is a distraction.

I feel like my game has actually started to turn around in the last couple of weeks. I would love to have a position on Sunday to find out what might happen. It would be a lot of fun.

Q. How much is the Presidents Cup in the back of your mind, and what would it mean if Canada was to get it in 2007, for you to be on that team?

IAN LEGGATT: Oh, it would be fantastic. I think that event is starting to really grow, and I think the last couple times they have played that event, it's gotten more interest globally. So I think coming to Canada, especially with the interest Mike has brought to the game, I think he got up to like Top-10 in the world at one time, I think people see that this is an event that people would have great interest in, and to be in something like that would be fantastic, for sure.

That's a minor goal that's in the back of my mind right now, to be in South Africa next year, and I know I've got a couple of things I need to do to get on that team. But I'm a lot closer now than I was last December.

Q. You were one of two sons on the course when the Canadian hockey team got the medal -- did you know on the golf course or did you find out after? What was the story on that?

IAN LEGGATT: I knew -- Glen and I both were -- Glen was, I think a couple of groups in front of me. We were both watching. There was a lot of Canadian. Guys were walking around in the gallery with Walkmans on and listening to the game. I had a guy from the Golf Channel that was walking the golf course and he was radioing it. I kept asking, "Hey, what's the score?" And he was giving me updates as I was going along, so that was pretty fun.

Q. You look at the field this week and you see some of the bigger names not here. From what you hear in the dressing room and your experience, is it just a fact that given the day, given the fact it's September, late in the season, the Canadian Open, it not really fair for the media to expect 10 of the Top 15 to show up?

IAN LEGGATT: I don't think so. I think guys randomly pick their schedule, and it just so happened that this year it didn't work out that way.

I think in years past, with Tiger playing and Mickelson and whatnot, having guys like that in the field, I think that the players don't look at it that way, like, "Hey, I'm teeing it up in a weak tournament, I have a chance to win." Nobody looks at it like that because they know that everybody can play out here.

In any given week, a guy like Chris Smith wins the Buick in New York this year. Who would ever picked him to beat Phil Mickelson? That was a pretty good field that week. Just about everybody was there except Tiger Woods and Chris Smith won the tournament. So nobody is ever going to -- as a player, nobody can say like, you know what the heck, Gene Sauers won a tournament last week? Nobody even thinks like that as a player. They know how good of a player Gene Sauers is and they know everybody can play out here, so everybody can win at any given time.

The problem is the media and maybe the people that read about golf that are not on the inside circuit of it like the players are and see how good a guy really is, they might think, "How did that guy win a golf tournament? I've never heard of this guy before." You don't get a free pass to the PGA TOUR. Everybody has earned their way out here and everybody can play.

Q. I understand that there's a meeting among players during the Open, I'm not sure when, about the economy of golf, the Tour, that type of thing. Just wondering, among players, obviously they are starting to take it seriously, all of these sponsorship issues that are going on. I'm just wondering the urgency of all of these matters among the players, and are there any solutions to this?

IAN LEGGATT: I think certain players obviously concern themselves with it, being on the committee and whatnot, and they relay things to other players that are interested in it.

I think that's just the way the economy goes. I don't think any of the players are concerned about it. Obviously, there are events that guys enjoy playing and might be worried about not having a sponsor, like at Hilton Head, WorldCom and whatnot.

But I think the Tour -- Tim has got it all figured out. The players put all of their trust in Tim and he knows what he's doing. Tim will figure it out. Our job is to play golf and entertain the people that come out here and watch. You know, as far as losing sponsors or events, I don't think any of the players really are that concerned about it.

Q. Strength of field, every year it seems at the Canadian Open we hear about people wishing there were more Canadians on the field; that this is the National Open and so on. Well, this year you have a lot of Canadians and Canadian Tour guys and everybody else on the field, it's primarily because a lot of people have scratched or have opened it up to some of the other cat gore ease. Is that a good news or bad news thing?

IAN LEGGATT: Obviously, the guy who gets in, it's good news for him. I think the people that come out and watch, obviously this event would be -- would be more significant to the people that watch it, as far as the media coverage as well, if Tiger was here, instead of, I don't know, Todd Fanning, not playing or something, whoever might have got in, I'm not sure. Obviously, that would be an issue for you.

But I think that the Canadian Open should be on opportunity for the media RCGA to promote the Canadian guys. I've played in this tournament for a lot of years and it's been like I'm just another player. The way they run their advertising and everything is based on international players or international being American players, PGA TOUR guys, and they never sort of give the Canadian guys a boost, and the RCGA is always talking about how they are trying to develop the program and bring kids into this and whatnot. They have Derek Gillespie and Jon Mills as sort of their development type of guys and think don't even advertise or promote the guys during the week like this. This is a perfect opportunity for them to do something like that.

I think that they should do a little bit more for Canadians, as far as the event in letting guys in a little earlier, letting them know that you are going to be Canadian Open and we want you to play in our tournament, instead of a call on Tuesday night, "You're in the tournament because Phil Mickelson hurt his back" or something. That's kind of the way it's always been done but something needs to be changed about it.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you.

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