Hamilton, ONTARIO (July 24, 2001) - Lorie Kane of Charlottetown, PEI owns a one shot lead midway through the 36-hole Whirlpool Canadian PGA Women's Championship presented by Aquafina and Bank of Montreal at the Glendale Golf & Country Club in Hamilton, Ontario.

Kane registered 5 birdies and one bogey Tuesday at the 6,158 yard layout to finish at 4-under par 68, one shot better than fellow LPGA touring professional A.J. Eathorne of Penticton, B.C.

"Overall I'm pretty pleased with the way I hit the ball," said Kane who won this championship four years in a row from 1996-1999. "I really putted well. I want to win this tournament again and I'm going to go out tomorrow and play some aggressive golf and see what happens."

"The Canadian PGA with the Whirlpool Championship was there when I had nowhere else to play so its very important and this is a part of my schedule that I put in every year and try to work my LPGA schedule around it."

"It was a good round," said Eathorne who carded five birdies against two bogeys. "I hit the ball really close to begin with but didn't make anything right away and got a bogey. I kicked myself in the pants and said lets get it going."

Three golfers are tied for third place at even par including Vicki Maxwell of Peterborough, Ontario, Kareen Qually of Calgary, Alberta and Deborah Lee Eldridge of Dundas, Ontario.

"I just had a very good day," explained Maxwell who registered just ten putts on the back nine. "The hole looked like a peach basket."

Defending champion Nancy Harvey of Swift Current, Saskatchewan fired a 4-over par 76 and is tied for 9th place with 7 others.

The Whirlpool Canadian PGA Women's Championship is the final event on the 2001 Bank of Montreal Canadian Women's Tour that included stops in Calgary and Montreal. Total purse is $65,000 with $13,000 and a full set of premium Whirlpool appliances to the champion.

The winner of each event plus three more players as determined by a points system are exempt into the Bank of Montreal Canadian Women's Open August 16-19 at Angus Glen Golf Club in Markham, Ontario.

After two events, Kareen Qually of Calgary, Alberta leads the points system with 553.33 points, followed by Susan Wright of Breton, Alberta (520) and Carrie Vaughan of Rothesay, New Brunswick (315).

Bank of Montreal, Canada's first bank, is a highly diversified financial services institution. The Bank operates more than 30 lines of business within its group of companies, including BMO Nesbitt Burns, one of Canada's largest full-service investment firms, and Chicago-based Harris Bank, a major US mid-west financial services provider.

Last October, the bank announced its title sponsorship of the Bank of Montreal Canadian Women's Open and, in May 2001, expanded its golf sponsorship to include the Canadian Women's Tour and Future Links, a grassroots program to develop golfing skills among junior golfers.

Whirlpool Home Appliances are supplied by Whirlpool Canada, the nation's largest supplier of major home appliances and a subsidiary of Whirlpool Corporation, the number one home appliance manufacturer in the world. Whirlpool Canada sells products under the brand names Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Inglis and Roper, and is a major supplier of Kenmore appliances to Sears Canada, the country's leading retailer.