GTE BYRON NELSON GOLF CLASSIC

May 14, 2000

Davis Love III

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, obviously, I'm disappointed. Like Phil, we both feel like there probably should not have been a playoff. You know, if I'd have taken care of business yesterday and today, you know, I could have put it out of reach. So the playoff was exciting. And, you know, it was nice to get back in it after making a couple bogeys. But, you know I'm a little disappointed in not making the putt in regulation; and not making the putt, obviously, the second time around in the playoff. You know, that was the difference today. I missed, you know, maybe four or five little putts, and probably three or four fairways that cost me.

DAVIS LOVE III: No I hit it just short of the green. Chipped it by about five feet and missed it.

DAVIS LOVE III: You know, I don't think so. I think I played good in spots, and I just hit some drives to the right that I had not been hitting. And I think I was getting a little excited and swinging through it a little bit too much, you know, and cutting them off to the right, which I haven't really -- I had not missed any fairways really that bad. But I missed three or four. Just getting a little excited, I think. Yeah, I think if anything, the excitement got to me as much as the nervousness.

DAVIS LOVE III: I just peaked it a little bit. Pulled it.

DAVIS LOVE III: I guess Phil hit a bunker or something down there, and that whole area was sodded, resodded.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, about five feet, and the first one was probably about seven feet.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, that's what I mean. If I had just played decent and shoot a couple under a day, it would have been close. And that's the disappointing thing. That's the position I put myself in yesterday, letting everybody back into it. And then I had to play a good round today and I didn't do any good today. And I'm sure Phil -- he came from farther back, but bogeying the last hole to let us have a chance, you know, he's feeling the same way; that we shouldn't even have been out there playing off.

DAVIS LOVE III: Of the playoff?

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, Tiger got going. You know, it was what, four guys right there within a stroke or five a couple times. You know, it was just a -- it was a tight tournament. You know, you put behind you what's happened. You can't be out there going, "Well, I'm 10-under and everybody else is 10-under" and "if only." You're out there playing and trying to get ahead. You know, when I made an eagle and a birdie and got ahead, you know, I was feeling pretty good. And then to let it get away from me -- from there was the disappoint thing.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah. I bogeyed 12 and then I bogeyed 14, both, hitting it in the right rough. I chipped out on 14 and hit it about 15 feet and missed it.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, I think it probably makes it a little harder, you know, keep coming so close. I got out to the start of the playoffs going: "Okay, well, now you're getting closer; you're in a playoff." I just took that attitude, well, I'll try and win this playoff. So many times those things are so much luck. Maybe I'll be the one to get lucky and hole a long putt. After we all hit bad shots in there the first time around, figured that's where it would end; somebody will make a long one and nobody did. And then when I made the long one at 17, I thought that might be the one that did it, and Jesper made a great putt. Yeah, it was a -- it's hard to -- hard to tell you it doesn't matter; if you're two back and you don't get a run at it or if you're tied or two ahead; if you don't win when you feel like you have a chance. And you know I got where I wanted to be, what, a stroke up, I guess with four or five to go and a par 5 sitting out there. I knew Mickelson would get to 12. Somebody would. I didn't expect Jesper to make -- he birdied a couple. Made a long putt, I guess, at 15. But you had to figure somebody was going to get to 12 or 13, even after we were in the middle of the back nine.

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, I think if he'd have made 3 at 16, I think it would have made -- I don't know what he did on the other holes. But we didn't hear anything out of -- when we went up the hill, we didn't hear a whole lot of yelling and screaming; so we figured he was not making eagle. But he got himself back in there where if we all didn't finish well, he had a good chance.

DAVIS LOVE III: Oh, yeah, I knew between Huston and Parnevik and Mickelson, somebody would shoot a good score. I guess Phil, you know, had it going probably as good as anybody.

DAVIS LOVE III: All that whole area looks -- I don't know, because I haven't played here in a few years. Looked like they resodded an area that was bunker. So there was a big huge area, that whole dip was all resodded; so it was all little patches of sod. I had a decent lie, but I had a sod line, just in front of me, a seam.

DAVIS LOVE III: Obviously, you want to chip it up there real close, not put yourself with a -- I had a decent chip, but not a great chip.