SPRINT INTERNATIONAL

August 19, 1999

Davis Love III

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, I got off to a great start, obviously. When you start on the back 9, you want to get through 10 and get to the par 5s and without getting into trouble. Actually made three birdies right out of the box. 6, and my first 7. So, it was a great start. And I never really did much after that, but I still hit the ball pretty good. Seemed like I was a half a club off a couple of times. I had 20-, 30-footers rather than 15-, 20-footers, I had starting off. I hit a couple actually real close, so I feel real good about it. I only got into trouble really once on the last hole, hit a bad drive. But all and all, it was a pretty solid day. It was a day to score. I am glad I did, because if you miss the opportunity today, if you went out this morning, you feel like you are going to get behind.

DAVIS LOVE III: I have had a shoulder -- some kind of shoulder problem the last couple of weeks. And I have been kind of iffy. The PGA I didn't do very good because I couldn't hit longshots very good, long irons, especially. And the guys in the fitness truck worked on me Saturday, and I felt better Sunday. So then I went ahead and committed the last minute. And I've really been holding off, committed. Reason I hadn't committed months ago, because I was going to -- wondered if my back or hip was going to be better to climb the hills. Gotten better with that. Kind of felt I was going to play, was going to commit kind of last minute. But Friday, I felt like I was going to be okay. Then the guys fixed me up on Sunday. It was kind of a provisional commitment.

DAVIS LOVE III: I wanted to play, yeah. I'd hate to miss it. But the way I was hitting it over the week before the PGA, I didn't know if I was going to play in the PGA, much less get to play this week. So it's gotten better. Talked to Dr. Job yesterday. He said, as long as I don't hit too many. Because I ought to make it through this week, then few days off, then play Akron, then take a couple weeks off before the Ryder Cup.

DAVIS LOVE III: Actually, just got some kind of a pinched nerve. I didn't hurt anything. I just get some tingling and some weakness in my arm, kind of like that outfielder for the Braves. Every time he throws it, his finger tingles. Have you heard? Is it -- I don't know. It is not Andrew Jones. But maybe it is Jordan. But anyway, I have the same thing when I hit a big full shot. I get tingling down in my arm. And as the day goes on, I kind of lose a little strength. And today felt pretty good. I have been doing shoulder exercises everyday. It gets better and better, seems like.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, I have done well. I have really felt pretty good, except for missing a couple of weeks with my back and hip around, you know, mid-May. Other than that, I have been feeling pretty good. I have been consistent. Haven't been great, but I have been consistent. I have been around the Top-10 a lot. And, you know, it showed after last week. I finished -- whatever, 60th or whatever I finished, and guys were coming up to me this week saying: What happened last week? You weren't in the Top-10. It shows that you have had a pretty consistent year. Even though I haven't won, I have been right there a lot. And I have been pretty happy with the consistency. I just need a win or two and this time of year would make it a great year. Unfortunately got through the majors without winning one, so I am hoping for -- this is really, outside of the majors, my favorite time of year playing here, Akron, you know, Columbus, Georgia and Vegas. A lot of good tournaments left for me.

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, when we started there was no wind, the greens were perfect. I don't think the greens have ever been this good. There might have been times when they were close, but I don't think they have ever been this good. So you felt like starting off you were going to make putts. If you got it on line it was going to go in.

DAVIS LOVE III: U.S. Open?

DAVIS LOVE III: I don't remember.

DAVIS LOVE III: I didn't win, so it was disappointing for me. But no, I don't know. That was a frustrating week. It was a major and played very, very hard, and seemed like everyday I played fairly well, but I don't know what difference that makes right now.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, you can always learn the greens better and you never really 100% learn how far it is going off of like 11 or No. 7. Off the tee you know you can just smash it out there and it doesn't really matter but when you are hitting it into the green it is hard to judge sometimes. You take ten or fifteen percent off then it is downhill, it is downwind, you don't know you are hitting 9-irons from, you know, 190 yards downhill, you know, it is hard -- I think you don't think you ever really learn that. I am more comfortable with it because I know that I have always hit between 9-iron and 7-iron on No. 7, but -- or I have hit between 9-iron and 7-iron on No. 11, but it is still a little bit of a guessing game. I don't think you ever get 100% comfortable with that.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, I'd say it would be a real disappointment if I got through this year without winning. Last year I just won once and I came close a couple of times. So it has been over a year since I have won, so I am not in a panic, but obviously I have played pretty well and had some chances, but certainly would like to win. I'd hate to miss Kapalua and Mercedes next year. It is hard to be sitting where you feel like you are doing pretty good, but you haven't won and it is a tough position to be in because I feel like I have been playing good enough to win. So hopefully one of these next few weeks everything will kind of come together.

DAVIS LOVE III: Definitely playing next week and I may, depending on how I feel, play something in between Akron and the Ryder Cup and then after the Ryder Cup I will play Buick southern, Buick Challenge, whatever -- Challenge now, and Vegas for sure, Tour championship, Spain, stuff like that.

DAVIS LOVE III: No.

DAVIS LOVE III: Right, I am going -- I think most of the guys are going, I am not sure how many but I think most of the guys are going.

DAVIS LOVE III: Sure. 10, had a little bit of a cut into the right rough, almost to the cart path and hit a 7-iron about 35 feet, I guess. Made that from left of the hole. 11, an 8-iron to about 20 feet, made it. Driver and sand wedge to about eight feet on 12. Driver, 3-wood and pitched over the bunker about 15 feet, made that. Then 15, 3-wood and pitching wedge to about a foot and then a 6-iron to about a foot at 16. Then driver and 5-wood just over the green at 1 and chipped up about two feet. 13, I hit it just through the green in the fringe, about 25-footer, just in the medium stuff. Had a couple of those, you know, hit just on the green and went into that, so you really didn't have a makeable putt and had a couple -- I missed a green at 5, didn't have a putt at it, missed it just to the right, chipped up there close, but pretty much every hole I had -- I never had any 50-footers, but I had 20- to 35-, 40-footers that on these greens you think you might sneak one in there every once in a while. I really didn't except for the 10th hole.

DAVIS LOVE III: 5 and then 9, I hit it left of the bunkers down the hill, hacked it out and it actually bounced off the 10 into the bunker and got it up-and-down.

DAVIS LOVE III: Or 8. I smoked it on 8. You know that little ridge that goes across, hit that ridge and kicked dead left in the rough. I would have had a 6-iron in. I hit a 4-iron out of the rough and it hit and it ran up the hill almost went on the green came back down. But I got lucky at 9 to get away with a par.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, it evens out in the end.