MCI CLASSIC

April 13, 2000

Davis Love III

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, it's always nice to come back. I always look forward to playing here. Because I've won here, it makes it even more special because I enjoy the golf course, being back in my home area. And after the Masters, I'm always excited about playing more golf because I get very -- I always want to keep going, and you always want more after a good tournament like that. I'm always excited to play this week and to play now.

DAVIS LOVE III: When I tripled 8 -- it was tough to come back after that. No, I think the majors you get up more than any other tournament. You feel like you've got a chance to win or something -- something knocks you back. It definitely has more of an effect at a major than at anywhere else.

DAVIS LOVE III: It's very good. I think a lot of comments today were: I can't believe they are going to dig the course up. And you always -- people don't see it, people don't see it the rest of the year who see it just this week like us, it's perfect. But the rest of the year I guess they struggle with it. The greens are very good. Just overall, it seems to get better and better every year.

DAVIS LOVE III: Last year? No, it's hard. I'm going to be disappointed that I didn't play better for a long time. I think once this tournament starts, you can concentrate on this tournament. But that doesn't mean, you know, when I make a 20-footer out there tomorrow, I don't think: If only I could have made one of those last week. It's always going to be around for a while. Obviously, coming close last year; but, yeah, I'll think about it until the U.S. Open. It will motivate me toward the U.S. Open to be ready for the U.S. Open. That was my disappointment last week was that I was really, really ready, as ready as I've ever been to play well. And like David Duval said, I don't make any bones about it. I'm going to be ready for the Masters. This is year, and I'm not going to leave any stone unturned. I was ready. I just didn't do it. And that disappointment will be around for a while.

DAVIS LOVE III: I hope so. I've been close, around the Top-10 a lot, and haven't won. So hopefully, you know, something that always happens to me every year will happen to me again. But I said each one of my wins here are different, special for different reasons; and, you know, playing good this week would be -- after a long break, it will be special again. But I've got to play like I did last week and eliminate a few of the mistakes so I have a chance. But I have a good feeling about this like I did last week.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, I should have been a little bit more patient. Should have put maybe a few shots that I hit -- I probably didn't hit the right club. I should have been experienced enough to know better. But, it's (inaudible) -- I remember coming in on Friday -- no, Saturday, and Lehman had four holes to get away from me again, and I sat down and I was disappointed. And guys were asking: What did you hit on this hole? And I said: I can't hit it the right distance. I can't hit it the right distance. And it was like: Welcome to the club. Don't feel like you're the only one. It's just not quite fair what happens out there sometimes. But I know there's some mental mistakes that I made, bad decisions I made, because I was trying to be a little too perfect, rather than -- I was trying to get a 10-footer uphill rather than get it on the green a couple times, trying to hit the miracle high-cut soft 7-iron to get it back to the pin rather than just get it on the top level, things like that. That boils down to patience, having a game plan, sticking with it; and I didn't quite do it. Swing-wise and putting stroke-wise, I hung in pretty good. Came back from my mistakes with some pretty good shots.

DAVIS LOVE III: I still never figured out what he said, but Greg and I have always gotten along very well. And you know, we keep getting asked about Tiger Woods so much that no matter -- eventually, you're going to say something that another guy goes: Well, I can't believe he would say that. And it was just like Colin Montgomery or whoever. I've been asked, you know, approaching a million questions about Tiger Woods now in the last couple years. So eventually one other guy is going to say: Well, I can't believe you think that he's that, or whatever. And then, you know, honestly, you're going to get -- your point is not going to get out there, what you're trying to say is not going to quite get out there, and your answer is not going to quite go out there, and you're misconstrued or misunderstood and the guys take offense to it. But, you know, I talked to him for 15, 20 minutes in the tournament about that and other stuff. Greg and I have never had a problem. He's come to see and said, "Wait a minute," and said, "You said what about me?" And I said, "Well, let me explain what I was trying to say." And he said, "Okay, I understand." We've always gotten along good that way. I'm lucky I've gotten along good with most guys out here. That's the way that I find out that he might be upset with me or disappointed, something like that. I just go straight to him and ask him.

DAVIS LOVE III: I've always been one -- I told him, I said, "Greg, when you were the No. 1 player in the world, you were hard to beat," and I admitted it. And when Nick Price was the No. 1 player in the world, I admitted he was hard to beat. And I'm going to admit that Tiger Woods is hard to beat. If I came in here and told you all that Tiger Woods is getting lucky and that I should be beating him every week, I would be dishonest. So I'm going to tell you: Hey, the guy is hard to beat. Whenever the next tournament he plays in, I'm not going to go in there and go: Well, I don't have to do anything different; I can beat him no matter what I do. I can beat Tiger Woods. There's guys in the field out here that say: Hey, it's going to be tough to beat Vijay Singh, whoever else, Greg Norman, they are going to be tough to beat. I don't think there's a problem admitting that, and Greg agrees with me. The No. 1 player in the world is hard to beat. That's why they're the No. 1 player in the world.

DAVIS LOVE III: Wednesday. Because we were playing Thursday and Friday, so otherwise, you know -- but I made it a point to talk to him. And if I'd have been playing with Colin and he'd been mad at me or something -- mad is not the right word -- but questioning what I said, I'd talk to him about it, whoever.

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, I think you've got to speak your mind as long as you don't hurt somebody else. You know, certainly not hurting him or hurting anybody else to say how long -- (inaudible) -- pulled it off at Jacksonville last year. He took whatever, three or four weeks off and said: Look, I'm going to practice every day; I'm going to play out of my bag; I'm going to be ready; I'm going to win The PLAYERS Championship. And he did it. Everybody made a big deal about how smart he was to take time off and played the course and got ready and all the stuff that was said, how smart it was for him to practice together with his family and all that. Now he goes to the Masters and he finishes third, fourth, or whatever he finished, now it's a bad idea to say: I'm getting ready. You know what, it doesn't matter what you do, somebody is going to criticize you for it no matter how you handle it. He gets second-guessed a lot more than other guys. But as long as he doesn't hurt anybody else, I don't think it's bad to say your goals.

DAVIS LOVE III: I think it's nice to get back to normal. Coming here where millions of people love to come for vacation, we get to come and play and relax. And a lot of guys come here to completely relax (inaudible). So it's nice to come to a course like this, and it's great that we can combine our work with, you know, a fun place to go. Like Mike Hulbert, he came up here Saturday with his family, and he's driving back and spending next week here. So this is a place that everybody loves to come and enjoy it. There are a lot of great tournaments in towns that, you know, are just known for great tournaments. This place is known for a lot more than just golf.

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, you know, part of it is the Masters, getting ready to play, part of it is getting used to this kind of conditions. The better and better the greens get here, I think probably the less advantage -- like in Florida, now that the greens have gotten -- the greens? Jacksonville are like the greens at Augusta, so there goes your southern-guy advantage. Or the West Coast advantage is probably the only place now that Mark O'Meara, Phil Mickelson can putt well on those bumpy greens. My local knowledge is kind of lost now that the greens are so smooth. It's a lot of factors. Once you get something going good at a place, you always have a good feeling; you're excited, a little bit more excited about it.

DAVIS LOVE III: No. We don't approach it any different. Right now the hottest player is Vijay Singh, and he's here. That's the way we look at it, is there's a lot of great players out here, and the scores are going to be the same. You're still going to have to play very, very well to win. Just like, again, when Greg was No. 1 in the world, you know, that tournament just got a little bit harder to win if he was in the field. If he wasn't, there's still a whole lot of tough guys to beat.

DAVIS LOVE III: The course plays a little different. You had to make more birdies than in the past to win. You have to take the bad holes and make up for it with a birdie or an eagle. It seems like it's more of a methodical -- "get it on the green and 2-putt, get it on the green and 2-putt" kind of deal now. The greens this year were easier to get on, so maybe they were a little bit softer than they were last year. The one thing that I found interesting and I wanted to look it up before I left was to see how many eagles everyone made year after year. And I would be willing to bet that eagles were dropping off more and more each year. Obviously, the wind made a difference. But the 15th green keeps getting higher, and 2 gets longer, and bunkers and trees on 15. And the par 5s just get harder and harder. So it does play different.

Now, does that mean that Tiger Woods and David Duval, Vijay, the long hitters still have an advantage -- I think they get there a little bit differently than they used to. It used to be how bad could you beat par 5s up and how many mistakes could you make on the other holes. And it doesn't seem to be that way anymore.

Now, to see the par 3s, if you can play the par 3s around par, you have a great chance of winning. The par 4s, everyone is kind of playing them the same now, and 5s, you're hitting -- (Inaudible.)

DAVIS LOVE III: Oh, no, definitely not. I come in trying to win. But that's the great thing about golf is nobody -- nobody has any advantage when you step on the first tee on Thursday. You know, some of that perception has been put on out there like with Tiger at the Masters, like, well, if he doesn't win, something is wrong. Well, no, someone else has to play very, very well to win. And he played pretty good. And some other guys played very well to beat him. No, I come in with confidence. And I'm looking forward to it, excited about it. But no, I don't think anybody has more of a fair cut, or this guy isn't going to win if he screws up.

DAVIS LOVE III: I think he's been -- probably has not gotten credit for what he has done. And a lot of players have been -- in the last few years, kind of overshadowed. I mean, how quickly you forget how well David Duval played the first few months of last year. It wasn't that long ago. But he was -- he was the guy that everybody looked to to be the next, you know, great player, leader. Talk about him being the guy that put Tiger back on the back shelf. And now all of a sudden it's flipped around. And Vijay, he's right there. He's a hard worker. He's very competitive. And like I said it back at Bay Hill, all these -- the first round, and everybody thinks he's going to win. Well, I saw Vijay hit 68, and my first thought was: When Vijay gets out in front, he always plays well. And it was a couple weeks later that he did come out and win, but he's tough. Now, when he -- when he's a little off, he gets frustrated at himself. And he's such a hard worker that he almost can't accept not playing well. And when he gets behind, he probably doesn't do as well as when he gets ahead. But when he's ahead, he's one of the toughest guys to beat out there. When he starts making a couple putts, you've got to watch out. He's going to for sure hit the ball in.

DAVIS LOVE III: I'm looking forward to it, and it's a great golf course, got a lot of tradition, and things always have to be updated. You know, hopefully they will get a little bit more length and get better drainage in the pins that they are looking for, and keep the field the same. The course, I really couldn't change it. Probably my best idea was bigger tees so that they would be in better shape, not a strategy thing.