USA Today
April 8, 1999

"Playing is high note for Celine Dion"

Grammy Award winner Celine Dion celebrated her 31st birthday last month with a round of golf at Augusta National, home of The Masters. She calls it the most memorable round she has played and short four rolls of film to record the day.

Dion and husband/manager Rene Angelil own Le Mirage, a 36-hole course northwest of Montreal. Dion, a 20-handicapper, started playing golf two years ago. She talked about Augusta with writer Ann Liguori.

Q: How did you shoot?
A: I played so bad. I could not keep my head on the ball. Normally, I get so mad when I play bad – you don't want to hear some of the words. But at Augusta, all I could think about was that there are so many legends who have walked on the grass, who have touched the trees. And I thought, you should not be angry when you play bad. This course deserves respect. The game exists forever regardless of how you play. And it is the only course where I felt this way, because the course was so incredible.

I don't know what heaven looks like, but Augusta has to be close. When you look at an artist who paints a beautiful picture, you say the real picture could never look as beautiful. Well, all those artists who painted Augusta with all its lovely trees and holes: it exits, it really exists!

Q: Were you more in awe of the beauty of the course or did you get swept up in the mystique of Augusta?
A: It was not a certain kind of tree or flower as much as it was the ambiance. You know when you meet a person with a certain charisma who stands out? Well, this course has a lot of charisma. You enter the gate. I, personally, started to shake. There are so many souls who have been there.

Q: Rene tells me that when you went back to purchase souvenirs the next day, you heard Arnold Palmer was playing and you both waited for him. What was it like meeting him?
A: I felt very nervous meeting him. I saw Rene with tears in his eyes. He was so excited, like a child meeting his hero.

Q: How has golf changed your life?
A: It changed our relationship. We got closer. I want to spend as much time with Rene as possible. It changed my life in a big way, because I needed a balance to do something, a sport, go outside, take some air. It's what I want, what I like. Hollywood, it's exciting but it's not real. Real life is to walk on earth, see green, water, see flowers, meet people.

Q: What do you bring from the music world to your golf?
A: It's focus, definitely, strength and concentration. It's so powerful. When I go on stage and sing, it's very powerful to me because I love it. I feel in my element. In golf, this is my focus and then my strength and concentration comes when I hit the ball and look at it.

Q: Do you get the same satisfaction hitting the perfect golf shot with perhaps, hitting a note perfectly?
A: You go on stage and you hit some good and some bad. But it's not a normal life traveling around the world, eating room service. It looks great, silver plates everywhere, the best hotels, jets, it's great. But it's not the real life. I need to be home, play golf and share something with my husband. It's a game you can play forever as long as you can walk, as long as your hips can turn.

Ann Liguori can be reached at her Web site: www.annliguori.com. She is the executive producer of Sports Innerview with Ann Liguori and hosts a weekly show on WFAN Radio in New York.