WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 27, 2004

Davis Love III

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Davis, for joining us for a few minutes. A long day out there, so we'll get you out of here quickly. Two victories and a big match first thing tomorrow morning against Phil Mickelson.

DAVIS LOVE: Yeah, it doesn't stop here, one good player after another. I'm a little tired, but I finished a lot earlier than I thought we would because we didn't play that many holes and we played pretty quick. So given the late start, I'm happy to be done. You know, I saw the draw. I knew what I'd have to go through, probably Couples and Scott and Mickelson, so it came true. I'll just have to keep playing better every match to move on, which I have done so far.

Q. How is your neck?

DAVIS LOVE: It's good.

Q. What's the difference from last year?

DAVIS LOVE: Last year it was good, too. The year before it wasn't good.

Q. Didn't it bother you periodically?

DAVIS LOVE: Periodically, but yeah, it's going to -- it's like my lower back or Freddie's lower back. It's going to come and go.

Q. So no treatment necessarily?

DAVIS LOVE: Oh, yeah, I get stretched and massages.

Q. But no cortisone shots?

DAVIS LOVE: No, nothing yet.

Q. You had a long time between matches today. Was that an advantage or would you have preferred to play quicker?

DAVIS LOVE: I sat down for a while and I felt like I was getting sleepy. I said I wish they'd hurry up and finish so we could get going again, but then I went and stretched for a while and walked around a little bit. I didn't want to get back out on the range real fast, but I kind of got going again watching them play the last couple of holes. And then as soon as they finished I went out and putted and hit balls. I would have liked to have kept on going and been done earlier, but it worked out good, obviously.

Q. You talk about the guys that you looked at that you thought you might have to go through. Is there part of you that goes, wait a minute, they have to go through me, too? Are you the forgotten guy here?

DAVIS LOVE: I don't know. You always look at the brackets. If they're a 1 seed or 16 seed, you look to see who's in there. You see who you have to beat to come out of it. I don't know how they were looking at it, but I knew that I was going to have to play good to get through them, not that if I'd have been in a different bracket it would have been any different, just looking at Singh or somebody else other than Mickelson or Scott, Couples. You know, I hope Phil is worried. I doubt it.

Q. So do you believe these guys that say they don't look at the bracket?

DAVIS LOVE: I don't believe it. I think it's like a leaderboard. You have to look. Maybe you can block it out, but you have to look.

Q. How does your body feel?

DAVIS LOVE: Pretty good. Like I said, sitting down at lunch I was tired, and I'm sure when I sit down for a while tonight I'll be tired, but I feel good. You know, I'm hitting it good. I'm hitting it more solid and farther every day.

Wednesday, I hit it fairly poorly and scrambled around pretty good, but every day since then I've been hitting it better and better. Jack Lumpkin has been here all week and I just got off on Wednesday somehow. I had a great Monday, Tuesday, and got off on Wednesday, but he got me right back, so maybe the day off to practice and take a break was beneficial for me.

Q. Has that little setup change there to kind of reach the core a little more given you any more power? It puts a little more pressure on your back?

DAVIS LOVE: It was creating more on Wednesday. I got to leaning into it and getting ahead of it. I don't know if it's because I felt so good over it I was diving into it. I was working the last few days on staying centered over the ball or behind it trying to hit it and the power came back. I'm hitting it pretty long for the way I was hitting it earlier in the week. I'm hitting it longer and longer. I hit it by Freddie some and Adam Scott some, so that's pretty good. It's feeling good.

Q. Freddie said something about you being sick. Was he just teasing?

DAVIS LOVE: No, my wife has had this throat cold all week. I got it a little bit last night and this morning, but I don't feel bad, I just sound a little hoarse.

Q. You saw Phil last year and you saw him at the Presidents Cup. It looks like he's playing slightly differently. Have you studied that or have you seen a different Phil at all?

DAVIS LOVE: I haven't seen him play or played with him. Obviously, he's playing well. I talked to him at In and Out Burger yesterday for a while, but that's all I've seen him. You know, he's a determined guy. He was a great teammate at The Presidents Cup, but he didn't play very good, and I think he was just kind of in his own where he didn't really know what was going on. He wasn't happy with the way he was hitting it and didn't know what he was doing, and I think he just decided that he wasn't going to play like that anymore, came out determined, you know, like I did last year. If you have an off year, sometimes it makes you sit back and think what are the simple things that I do to play well, and it looks like he's gone back to, I've got to get the ball in the fairway, get my ball to the green and let my putter do the work, but he looks happy and obviously he's playing good, but I haven't played with him.

Q. You say he looks better. He looks like he's not spending as much time at the In and Out Burger, really.

DAVIS LOVE: He had it without a bun, so maybe that's the secret. I'll try that tonight.

Q. Why did you bring Jack out here?

DAVIS LOVE: He always comes out because his son Jay lives out here. This is a fun week for him with Jay, and they've watch me hit balls every day and we go to Titleist. It's a good week for him to come out. I like to have him out once every five or six weeks. He usually doesn't come out until The Masters. Well, The Players is right by home, so Players, Masters time, so to get him out a little bit before that, this is a good week.

Q. Your leading up to this hasn't been a traditional Davis Love West Coast. How do you feel your season has been so far?

DAVIS LOVE: Well, I didn't play that great at Kapalua and scratched around and got maybe a Top 10 out of it. I had a chance in Hawaii, and then didn't putt any good at Pebble. A little off of last year, but I can make up for that this week.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Davis.

End of FastScripts.