GTE BYRON NELSON GOLF CLASSIC

May 12, 2000

Davis Love III

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, the wind laid down after our first, I guess, ten holes. Started to lay down and made scoring a little bit easier over on that side. And without seeing the scoreboard, I don't really know what's been going on, but it got a little bit easier over there. It got hot as soon as the wind quit. So we've been asking for the wind to quit; now I wish it would start again, because you can feel the heat. But other than the first two holes, I played very, very well. I 3-putted the 1st hole from the fringe and hit a bad shot at the 2nd hole. And after that I hit the ball very, very well. I let a couple opportunities get away from me on 11 and 12, but other than that, I played great. Nine birdies is an awful lot, on any golf course, and I was very happy with the way I played, the consistency that I had today.

DAVIS LOVE III: I rolled it pretty good, but I didn't have a whole lot of hard putts. I had a lot of short ones, a 2-putt for birdie. Hit some in there pretty close. I didn't make any long putts like I did yesterday, but I didn't miss but maybe two inside of 10 feet, and that's where you score. The one I missed at the 1st hole, I left my first putt about six feet short and missed it. And then on 12, I hit it in there about five or six feet and missed it. And other than that, I made them all within 10 feet. It wasn't spectacular, but I didn't miss any and that's what gets you a low score.

DAVIS LOVE III: It's about time. These courses, you know, I come here every year -- or every year that I've played here, I'm thinking I should do better than I have, and it's nice to put two good rounds together. 1, a driver and 7-iron in the back fringe, about 35 feet away, and I just left it six feet short and missed it. 2, hit an 8-iron long and left in the back bunker. Blasted out about 20 feet and missed that. And then a driver, 9-iron, four feet. Then a driver and a 7-iron about 10 feet. 6, is a par 4, a driver and then a pitch shot over the bunker to about 10 feet and made that. And then a driver and a sand wedge from about 80 yards to about five feet. And then 10, driver and pitching wedge to about six feet. 14, 3-iron off the tee, 9-iron about six feet. And then 15, a driver and a pitching wedge from about 95 yards to about four feet. And 16, driver and a 4-iron, 30 feet behind the hole and 2-putted. And then 18, a 3-wood off the tee and a 9-iron to about six feet in.

DAVIS LOVE III: I have a feeling that if I keep doing what I'm doing, yeah, I can -- I feel better than I have in a while, and I'm more comfortable with my swing. You know, hopefully the weather will cooperate and get a couple good days to play and keep the rain away, because I really feel on top of it. You know, you never know. I felt on top of it before, but I feel pretty good about it right now.

DAVIS LOVE III: Every time I practice. When I'm home, my teacher videos my swing, Jack Lumpkin. He's a camera addict. He doesn't always show it to me, but we look at a few swings every lesson I take at home, which is, you know, like last week, two or three times. And when I'm out on the road, when I'm playing and he's with me, he videos a little bit, but we try not to tinker too much. If I was way off, he would video it and show me, but I would say every practice session when I'm home.

DAVIS LOVE III: He records them on little tapes, and then he makes me a big tape of everything he does so I can take it home and watch it. And then he has, you know, master copies that he saves so he can go back and say, you know what, you were hitting it great at Hilton Head and we changed something before you went to Dallas and let's see what the difference was. You know, you played good when we did this and you played good when we did this, and you played bad when we did this. He keeps good track of it. That's how those guys learn, studying that stuff. And I just want to see -- show me the good and show me the bad, and I don't want to waste a whole lot of time looking at it. I get into going: "Now, wait a minute shouldn't I try to do this, too, because that should be prettier." No, no, no, don't worry about that, just get those two or three things done. I learned a long time ago that I'll pick at it until, you know, until I tear it down, if you leave me to my own devices. So, I just look for two or three things and make sure we're doing that. But it's fun to watch. Fun to compare. I watched swings of Hogan the other day, Monday with him, trying to work on getting through the ball a little bit, you know, more fully, and I haven't watched somebody else's swing in a long time. And that was fun to watch Hogan swing and try to, you know, go out and see if I can get through the ball as good as he can.

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, Jack Lumpkin was working on me getting through the ball more completely, and he said, "Well, let me show you something." And he hardly ever tries to bore me with other stuff. He says, "But watch this video of Hogan I just got last week. Look how cranked he is all the way through every shot." He says, "Sometimes you just kind of give it the halfway. You turn through, but you don't really turn through." So it was good to see something to compare to.

DAVIS LOVE III: If there's one thing I'm working on is just going ahead and hitting it and not -- you know, not trying to get cute and not trying to, you know, curve it too much. Just going and hitting right at it and making a full swing at it. Especially off the tee in long shots, I've been hooking a few at wrong times, trying to just pretty a shot in there rather than hit one hard, and that's what I've been working on.

DAVIS LOVE III: You know, I think I got four on the front, too, but I think if any time you get the ball in the fairway and you get wedge in your hand a lot, and you get a par 5 that you can get to in two, it makes it a little bit easier. I did hit a 5-iron close and missed that, but, you know, really, I was right at it all day whether the wind was blowing or not. There's maybe only two or three shots where it was more than a club wind all day. So it never was anywhere near yesterday.

DAVIS LOVE III: You know, you get a lot of questions on Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon. You know what, I'm not going to win tomorrow; so we're going to come right back here hopefully and talk about it again. It ain't going to happen until Sunday afternoon. So, I've been around long enough to understand that. And I promised myself when I came here this week, I wasn't going to think about it all weekend. You know, do I want to win? Yeah, that's why I committed to play here. But am I going to think about it tonight? No. I'm going to go eat some of Mrs. Leonard's cooking, and, you know, relax and come back tomorrow and try to do the same thing I was doing today, and that's try not to think about winning, just play.

End of FastScripts….