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BARBASOL CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 18, 2018Davis Love IIIDru LoveNicholasville, Kentucky THE MODERATOR: (Recording in progress.) With all that said, just a few comments from each you. DAVIS LOVE III: Excited to be back. Obviously new excitement for this tournament. You know, new golf course and new town and nobody really has an advantage here, so we're all trying to figure it out. Maybe Josh Teater has a little local advantage. Excited to be playing again. Been out for two weeks with Dru, so that's been a lot of fun. We didn't play well last week, but we're both hitting it good, so excited about starting again this week. DRU LOVE: Yeah, I just want to say thanks to Barbasol for the opportunity. They let me play last year and I didn't play well and they invited me back. I appreciate that. Always fun to get out here and play with him and all the other great players out here. Great town. I came here a few weeks ago and played the course, so looking forward to a good week. THE MODERATOR: Just a quick comment from each of you about the course and how it sets up for your games. DAVIS LOVE III: I played nine with Dru yesterday. Sets up for his game better because he's 20 or 30 yards past me. But the fairways are soft with the recent rain. They're staying in the fairway. The ball is staying where you hit it on the green pretty much, so I think it's going to below scoring. Long hitters obviously and good putters are going to have an advantage, I think a lot like last week at the Deere. You saw soft conditions and low scores. I would expect that here. We both just need to make some putts. We were both hitting it good going into last week and didn't get anything out of it. I think anybody that gets hot with the putter this week is going to have a good chance. Greens are very good. Like I said, you're going to have a lot of birdie chances. You're going to have to make some. DRU LOVE: Yeah, like he said, really soft and a lot of rain and the rough is sort of benign. The long hitters that can bound up close to the green and get a lot of birdie putts are going to do well. The greens are pretty undulated and fast, so guys who can pick their spots and hit it in the right areas of the greens are going to do really well. THE MODERATOR: Okay. With that, we'll take questions. Q. Are there any key stretches on the golf course? DAVIS LOVE III: I think you're going to have to hit your irons well. For me, again, a little bit farther back. Seems like I've had couple 7-, 8-irons into par 4s and some 5-, 6-, 7-irons into par-3s. I'm going to have to hit my mid-irons really well. I think the par-3s, you know, if you can play those well and the par-5s; you know, everybody is going to have an opportunity on a lot of the par 4s. There are some wedge holes and short iron holes for these long hitters. But, no, I think it's going to be one of those if you make four or five pars in a row you're going to feel like you're backing up. You're going to have to be really patient and have some hot stretches. You know, Tiger seems to always tell me, you know, couple under par every nine and just be patient. I think you're going to have to go in with that mindset that it's going to be a lot of birdie putts and you're going to have to make them. It's going to be shoot at the pins all week, I think. DRU LOVE: Yeah, I think there are a few holes on the front nine. I think it's like 4, 5, 6, 7, that are kind of important. They're a little bit harder long irons into the par-3s, downhill, uphill, tight fairways that are important. So I would say like four holes in the middle of the front nine. If you can go couple under there you're making up a lot of the ground. Q. I know this is old news for you, but I'm wondering about the father/son dynamic. (Indiscernible.) DAVIS LOVE III: I can't wait to get home because he lost a truck wash to me yesterday. DRU LOVE: Two of them actually. DAVIS LOVE III: Oh, yeah, you pressed. DRU LOVE: Do I wash it right after I wash it or do I wait? DAVIS LOVE III: Wait until I get it muddy. (Laughter.) We pushed a couple weeks ago when we were getting ready to go the a road for two weeks. I won one day and he won the next. I didn't get my truck washed, so going to have to get it washed when we get home. DRU LOVE: It's fun. I just follow him around and do what he does. I played some practice round in the U.S. Open and big some PGA TOUR events with Jim Furyk, Ernie Els, guys like that, and Tiger, and just followed them around. Did exactly what they did. Chipped from exactly where they chipped; hit the putts that they were hitting in practice rounds. Just tried to do exactly what they were doing. Because whatever they were doing, they did it right their whole career. It's pretty easy to just follow them around. If they hit chips from this part of the green, you hit chips from there. If they go here, do that. And then sort of the routine before the round. He gets up early and gets going and stretches and does the same thing every single day. It's cool to see that and try to emulate that a little bit. Q. (Indiscernible.) DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, and then -- I assume they're playing a Web event this week or last week. You saw super low scores on the Web. You know, I'm nervous for Dru when he plays because there is a whole bunch of guys in his category that are fighting for a very few spots out her on the PGA TOUR. When I went to Q-School in 1985 it was a different ballgame. My dad could predict that I was going to make it. He pretty much predicted every year of my golf career for me. I can't predict what these kids are going to do. You don't know which one is going to make it through Q-School. I say it all the time. I see these kids, and I know if they could get to the TOUR they would do well, but just the level of play is just astonishing. There are 30, 40, 50 maybe guys in this field that can win at the Open if we could just get there, you know. It's getting more and more competitive. I say it all the time. Starting back with Greg Norman, Fred Couples, John Daly, for this generation and now Tiger Woods, they made golf cool. They made golf big money. We're getting bigger, better athletes. Everybody is taller than me now. I used to be the tall guy. It's just getting more and more competitive. It's amazing. I'm astounded. I stand there on the range watching these guys hit balls. It's just incredible how much you how many of them are so good. Q. (Regarding Brittany Lincicome. ) DAVIS LOVE III: Well, it's obviously fun to have her out. She's one of our favorites that I've gotten to know over the years and watched play not only on the tour, but international competition. Yeah, I played when Annika played. It's fun for us to see them out. My generation loved playing in the mixed team and competing alongside the LPGA players. You know, I think it just -- no matter what, our goal out here is to win. No matter what she does this week, it inspires the younger generation, both men and women, to play golf. So I think it's great. It's fun. I saw her across the range and I was just excited to see her over there hitting balls. She was opposite sides from me in the pro-am so I haven't seen her today, but it's fun. It's exciting. I don't know how much she knows about this course either, but we're all trying to learn our way around it. She should do well. It's not a big long intimidating golf course. Q. (Regarding Dru's game and strengths.) DAVIS LOVE III: Strength of Dru's game? He's got a lot of firepower just is what I see in a lot of the younger kids. He hits the ball a long way. His driver is long, but most all these guys are long. Like he was, what did you say, eighth in driving distance last week? DRU LOVE: Something like that. DAVIS LOVE III: The first two days; top 10 in driving distance. He's plenty long. They just can make a lot of birdies. It's amazing how many birdies he can make, he can reel off when he gets going. I think he's an all-around strong player. Just has the power to overpower golf courses and make lots of birdies. I saw that watching him and Justin Thomas play, or Tom Lovelady who is playing this week. Watching all these kids play in college is just amazing how many birdies they can reel off. They're not afraid anymore of shooting low scores. I remember in college watching John Inman watching Joe Inman shot in the 60s, or Andy Bean shoot 66, 66, 66 every day. I'm like, How can we ever shoot that low of scores? These guys just assume that's normal. They're ready for it. Low scores don't bother them. Eight birdies a day, no big deal, you know. So I think experience is the only thing he's lacking. He didn't play as many junior tournaments or college tournaments as all these other kids, so he's playing catchup kind of on the experience side; the firepower side is his strength, I think. Q. (Regarding the father/son dynamic.) You ever wish you could just trade places? DAVIS LOVE III: Well, I would like to start over, yes. I get asked the question in clinics and everything, What would you do differently if you were an 18 year old kid going to college or 21 year old college coming out on TOUR? I would work out harder. Now I know with a 54 year old beat up body -- I was just in the trailer with DJ Trahan. He was talking about his diet and his fitness. That's something that we didn't do in 1985 or 6 coming out on TOUR. We didn't work out and have trainers. We didn't have nutritionists. So I would like to start over and be in a lot better shape. Like to be in a lot better shape next year, too, next season. Q. Describe how you've tailored your game for this stage in your career. DAVIS LOVE III: I like that I'm able to play right now. I had a hip replacements in November and I've had a lot of injuries and surgeries. I feel blessed that I'm out playing. I was walking around today going, Wow, I feel really good. This is nice. So I would assess my game as still kind of rusty from -- like Tiger -- not playing a full season in quite a while. I am a little bit rusty, a little bit anxious, you know, for results. I think we're both in the same boat. We need and want results, and we're getting in our own way a little bit. So I would assess my game as on the range I'm really good and on the course I'm a little bit off mentally or a little bit rusty. But it's coming around. I'm excited about kind of a mixed schedule over the next six months, and then see what happens start of next year. Q. Dru, do you remember first time you beat your dad? (Indiscernible.) DRU LOVE: We bet truck washes. Q. He washes your truck? DRU LOVE: Right. He'll either wash it or get someone to wash it, but either way. Pay $100 to have someone else wash it, but you still win a clean truck. I do remember the first time I beat him. I get asked that question a lot and I love telling the story. Basically boiled down to the last hole; he made about a 40-footer for eagle. I knew it was close. We didn't know exactly what each other were, but I knew him making eagle was going to be really close. I had about an 18- or 20-footer for eagle on the same hole, and made mine right on top of him. He said, What was that for? I said 64. What about you? He said, 65, and turned around and walked off. I remember it like it was yesterday. I knew that I needed to make the putt to either win by one or two, when I made it and looked at him, he just... DAVIS LOVE III: I knew I needed to make mine or I had no chance. DRU LOVE: He knew he was defeated. It was awesome. I loved it. DAVIS LOVE III: All I remember is I won yesterday. That's all I remember. DRU LOVE: He did. DAVIS LOVE III: And he played two practice rounds on the course and I had never seen it before and I won yesterday. DRU LOVE: Yep. We'll see who wins Thursday, Friday. Q. (Indiscernible.) DRU LOVE: We've played nine. Probably shot around even. DAVIS LOVE III: I was 3-under. DRU LOVE: I was even. That's why I lost. Q. How long ago was that Dru, where you made the 18- to 20-footer to beat your dad? DRU LOVE: It was in college, probably my sophomore year in college. I was 19 or 20. DAVIS LOVE III: If we're playing at home when everything is equal, not on TOUR, he should beat me every day. I can accept that. (Laughter.) DRU LOVE: We didn't keep score. DAVIS LOVE III: He's got way more firepower. But every once in a while, like at Puna Cana, Jim Furyk and I beat him and Tom Lovelady. The old guys can be cagey out here on TOUR. It's a different ballgame inside the ropes. 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