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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 19, 2005

Davis Love III

PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA

Q. (Inaudible).

DAVIS LOVE: I don't know, I got a few bad breaks the first day, and just didn't play well. And I hung in there better, obviously, the last three days. But things just didn't go my way the first day and it's is disappointing.

Q. What do you think about the pin placements?

DAVIS LOVE: They were the same all week, they were very, very hard. These greens are extreme, and the pin placements were hard and it was hard to make birdies.

Q. (Inaudible).

DAVIS LOVE: I've been thinking about it for three days.

Q. (Inaudible).

DAVIS LOVE: Well, yeah, for a while. But I'm just I'm extremely disappointed with the first round. I put it out of my head and I played three good days after that, but you're just not going to win shooting 77. And we had the first afternoon was the hardest, and I just didn't hang in there the first day. And it is what it is. I played three good rounds at U.S. Open, and not four.

Q. What do you think about this as an Open?

DAVIS LOVE: I think it's great. I think the two Opens they've had here have been great. It's definitely a patience test, and that's what they want. You've got to make some putts for par. The first day I just didn't make the two or three putts for par, that would have kept my round alive, and you look at the guys that win, they usually you talk about they didn't 3 putt or they didn't miss very many par putts, and unfortunately, the first day, they just wouldn't go in for me.

Q. Did you get a chance to play this course a lot when you were in college?

DAVIS LOVE: Yeah, I've played here probably more than anybody in the field. We never see it like this, but I played it a lot.

Q. (Inaudible) Were they as tight as they could have been to the edge?

DAVIS LOVE: Yeah, well, but like I said, they've been like that. There was some every day, there was four or five every day that you just look at it and go how can you imagine them ever putting them there? 13 was the hardest hole yesterday. It wasn't the hole, it was the pin placement. You can set it up where you can give us a chance to make birdies or where we're struggling to make pars, and, you know, 2 is one of those pin placements, that no matter what you did, you had a good chance of making bogey. Even if you hit two good shots, you had a chance of making bogey.

Q. Did you have a number in mind you wanted to get to?

DAVIS LOVE: I've been saying all along that 2 over would win. And that's what I was trying to get to after the first day. And that was just what kept me focused, was if I could somehow chip away at it and get back to 2 over. I could have done it today.

I hit the ball real well. I missed a few fairways, but I had my chances today, I had them yesterday, and that's just why I'm disappointed. Even with 77, I let, every day, three or four shots get away. You know what, you're going to run 20 guys through here that could have won the golf tournament that are frustrated. I'm just one of them.

Q. How do you feel about the Open coming back here in the future?

DAVIS LOVE: I hope I'm around to see it.

Q. The way you were hitting the ball, was it as well as you thought you'd be doing the last three days?

DAVIS LOVE: I really didn't I didn't drive it great any day. The first day I drove it bad, but not bad enough to shoot 77. It was really a couple of shots into the wind that got I got tricked with, and then four or five putts that should have, could have made. Ten that I had, four or five that I could have made, that would have made the difference.

I think I hit the ball all week good enough to hang in there, certainly to be around even par or 2 over. The way I drove it, I could have been easily right around par. So all we're looking for right now is five shots or six, and that would have been easy to do.

Q. Retief is a guy who has a reputation to being impervious to pressure. With a 3 shot lead coming in, and he's 5 over on the first six, is that surprising to you?

DAVIS LOVE: All you have to do is make one mistake, and you can make a double. I mean, we saw it all week. You make a mistake and don't hit some really good shot or make a nice putt, you're going to make bogey or double, especially when the pressure is on. It gets harder and harder.

There's some pins coming in, 15 is tough, and I guess 18 they really only one they're really giving you a chance to hit it in the middle of the green doesn't not have an uphill birdie putt. 17, if you get it right at the flag, you might have a chance.

When you stand off the green when you finish and watch the guy putt, you say, wow, I'm glad I didn't see it from this angle. Monty and I yesterday said we both would have played better if there were no pins in the green, if we tried to put it in the middle, flat part, and putt from 20, 25 feet every time, as soon as you'd shoot at one, or maybe I can get it back to that one, you'd go over.

Q. Do you think the USGA passed the test this week?

DAVIS LOVE: Yeah, I think the green speed never got out of control. The pins were difficult. They were very hard. But I've been saying all along, if we designed the course today that had this much crown and slope and this speed, you'd say, well, that's not fair, that's not right, it's too much slope, not enough, as they say, less than two percent, not enough flat places on the greens to play. They weren't meant to be this fast, and it makes it extreme golf.

And it's perseverance and patience. I learned a lot the last three days on how to play when it's this extreme, but unfortunately, I dug myself too big a hole.

Q. Are you going home now?

DAVIS LOVE: I'm getting out of here, but I won't leave town. But I don't think there's much hope. I figured even with the last after I bogeyed 15, I said if I birdied the last three, I still have a chance. That was before everybody was crashing. But getting even par out there, somebody is going to get it in.

End of FastScripts.

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