BAY HILL INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY COOPER TIRES

March 19, 1999

Davis Love III

DAVIS LOVE III: What are we going to talk about? (laughter). No really, it is funny, but it is not, because there's guys playing behind us, and it's actually happened to me before in that hole. I had a buried lie and hit it real hard, and hit something in the ground and saw water coming up. And the more sand I dug off the top of it, that cracked the PVC pipe and it was under so much pressure that it ended up blowing up. Filled the bunker up, just -- I don't think there was as many groups as there are today; but, you know, those things are under tremendous pressures. Arvin just told me you don't have to do much to pop them. And it actually wasn't a sprinkler head; it was the valve cover. And the valve cover was already laying there broken. So I was just hitting the valve cover -- that little plastic cup. It is usually very, very hard around it. Just, I guess, went right through it. Anyway, I hit a lot of sprinkler heads in my day, on things like that. And usually you do more damage to the back of your golf club than you do to anything else. But I am sure those maintenance guys aren't real happy with me -- twice in the same hole filling their bunker up.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, because usually you hit it; then you get mad and you walk around a little bit, try not to let everybody see you that you are looking to see if you hurt your club. But, yeah, it hit the plastic pretty hard. But it didn't hit whatever was under there very hard, and that is what Arvin came to tell me, the maintenance guy said: Look, those things are under so much pressure sometimes that if you touch them, like I did a few years ago, if you just touch those pipes, they will blow up and, you know -- but I feel bad. I saw Vijay had to move his ball to the right side of the bunker, looked like. And you know, maybe -- maybe tomorrow the bunker will be firmer than it was today, because it was six inches of sand in there and surprising to bury a 4-iron when all the other bunkers have been that firm. But I just got frustrated and lost my patience a little bit. And usually if the bag is lying there, you can hit it and go on, but --

DAVIS LOVE III: Oh, yeah. Very fineable. You hit a lot of sprinkler heads and nobody sees it. You miss a putt and whack the sprinkler head or something and/or it hits your bag or you kick a box or whatever it is, and nobody sees it. I have a feeling that somebody saw that one (laughter). They are not going to let it go away. But you deserve it for something like that. And -- talked to the maintenance guys, and tell them I am sorry. And hopefully Arnold will send me a bill for it when he gets it at the end of the month.

DAVIS LOVE III: Far from it. I didn't hit it that hard. I mean, I have torn clubs up, and I have hit my bag and bent three or four them inside the bag. I have done a lot of things that I am not proud of. And so has everybody else out here. Kicked water coolers and hurt your foot and stuff like that, and bashed your toe with your club, and -- but, no, I would rate that as hitting something hard as a three or a four. And as I said, the thing didn't take much to break it. And the top was broken already, which aided the club getting through to whatever it hit. So.... But, suffice to say that I am embarrassed and, you know, hopefully it doesn't cause anybody behind me a problem. That is -- maintenance guys are popping whatever on there and the bunker will be fine. But it is just the guys playing behind me that had to wait, one, and then hopefully didn't have to alter too much the way they played the hole.

DAVIS LOVE III: I have putted a lot when I am embarrassed. We play a lot out there hitting bad shots and being, you know, playing bad, bad situations. But you know, I have been putting good, so I was just trying to hit a putt and get out of there before the calvary came to fix it. Hopefully keep play moving. I was lucky, I made that putt after getting an unlucky break in the bunker and unlucky break on the sprinkler head. Then came back and birdied 18. So I was playing good. Just a strange occurrence in the middle of playing good.

DAVIS LOVE III: Thank you for changing the subject. Yeah, I'd love to win here. Every time I come down, see the sword and Arnold Palmer Bay Hill Club, things like that, always picture these guys with the gray jackets with Arnold. I'd love to win this tournament just because it is Arnold's tournament. It is a good golf course and a good field. Because I have been very close here a couple of times, so, you like to win against fields like this and courses like this. I am off to a good start again, and hopefully this weather continues, you know. Scores are going to be pretty good. So got to just try to keep it up.

DAVIS LOVE III: I got in trouble a couple of times and got out of it, yeah. All but 14 or 13. I guess I got out of trouble pretty well. Hit a bad shot into 5, way right of the green. Got it up-and-down for birdie -- or 6, I mean. Got it up-and-down for birdie after a bad second shot. And you know, that save there, so when I did get in trouble, I kind of got out of it. But I hit a lot of fairways and hit a lot of good shots. And I missed a few birdie putts, but also made a few longer ones. So all in all, it was a good solid day.

DAVIS LOVE III: Not routinely, I have. Usually can't get it on that green, is the hardest thing. But both 4 and 12 were playing into the wind and hit good 3-woods woods at both of them. Mickelson got on with a driver that one time. So everybody has to try and change their approach. Pound it down there off the tee. If you get it way down there, then you can take a shot at it. Yesterday I tried to hit it in the rough. Laid up, hit a wedge. If you catch it downwind, I have hit irons in there before if you catch it down wound, but that was the best I have ever done without any help from the wind. That green is so hard, it is just almost impossible once you do get a chance at it to get it on.

DAVIS LOVE III: I had like 244 to the front; which is a pretty good number for my 3-wood. Hit it just -- hit a big high-cut in there and I got lucky that it stopped.

DAVIS LOVE III: That was a long weekend in one day. That was -- that was talking about putting when you are embarrassed, that was an embarrassing day. After the first round you are playing with the leaders and you are not one of the leaders. It was a long day, and, yeah, it would be nice to come back and play well again after that, but I have had a couple of chances. You know, last year, I had a chance after two rounds but after 3 I really didn't. But I have had a couple of other times where I have had a very good chance to win and not pulled it off. I am just looking forward to another chance. Building this -- starting this week all the way through Hilton Head, this is a big stretch for me, so I am excited to get off to a good start.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah.

DAVIS LOVE III: Pretty good. I was right there. I don't remember how we started the last day, but, you know, I played very solidly just didn't let anything happen and seemed like Ben was, you know, his typical you-think-he-is-out-of-it-on-a-hole and he holes it from off the green or, you know, hits a bad drive and somehow gets it up around the green and gets it up-and-down. He hung in there and I really didn't, but I did have a good chance then. When Kite and I both botched up the 18th hole I had a real good chance to win that. So I feel like I have had my chances.

DAVIS LOVE III: No.

DAVIS LOVE III: No. My brother has been a couple times and played. We were going to try and play last week but there was -- the weather just turned so bad on us last Sunday and Monday, that we ended up not going.

DAVIS LOVE III: I think everything they do to make it "harder" is better for the long hitter. The more difficult, the longer, the deeper the rough, whatever it is, that always goes to the advantage to the longer hitter. Back in that tee up on 17 can only help the long hitters because we don't -- still don't have to worry about the tree and the other guys have figured out a way around it. 15, you know, the long hitters never try to hit it off that mound much. We were hitting it over way down the fairway from that mound. So, you know, taking that out, maybe gives us a little bit more of an advantage on that hole that a lot of guys can't get to it. You know, little things like that, like 13, they took that little area with your can blow right up through the fairway, took that out. That helps the longer hitter. They can get it way around the corner. The other guys can't. I don't know. Everybody has to play the same golf course is what it boils down to. It is amazing in the last maybe three years people have really gotten into the changes in the golf course. Well, they have changed it every year since the tournament started. They shut it down, took all the sand out of the bunkers. They rebuilt a few greens, you know, it is a course that has always evolved. When you shut a course down for the whole summer what are you going to do? You are going to fix things that are wrong. Go back and -- How many times the 8th green has changed? That really doesn't get that much, you know, nobody talks about it that much. You look at the old pictures sometime, walk through the clubhouse and look at the old pictures of the holes the way they were when it was black and white film only, I mean, it is amazing, every hole. There is not a hole on the golf course that hasn't changed somehow. And so, you know, doesn't really -- we are not going to change the way we play. The greens are still going to be the trick. Going to have to be patient, and what I have heard about, whatever they are calling that stuff, there is like on 1, it keeps the ball from running off into the trees, or 14, it keeps the ball from running down the hill, it kind of stops it up there. So, maybe in some respects it won't be that bad. It is still going to come down to whoever hits the ball in the right place on the greens the most and stays the most patient.

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, 2, you couldn't get it on the green anyway. I mean, how many people actually drove it down there and knocked it on the green? So, again, the advantage of long hitters, they can hit it to the top of the hill, hit it down there in the right front bunker like we always try to do and get the ball up-and-down. It will make a difference to some people, but again the long hitters, they are going to figure out a way to do it. I will hit it short of that bunker down the right; take a 3-wood instead of a 3-iron and hit down there in that bunker and you know, we will figure out a different way to play the hole. They keep changing 15, 15th green's higher, it is deeper, guys still have figured out ways to make birdies on it. Not as many but they still way do birdie it and eagle it. Anyway, like you said, it is always -- they have always -- 2 tee used to walk off one green and go that way to 2 tee. And now it is here and then it was here and now it is going to be straight off. So it is always changing. We will adjust somehow.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, hitting shorter clubs in.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, I would think -- that would still help hit it in the fairway. But what is always interesting about that course is it's always so firm and fast and everybody gets the ball -- like on 9, everybody gets the ball to the bottom of the hill. Seems like if it was not so firm and fast, if they'd water the fairways like a month ago you had gone and played, you would get no roll. Well, if they'd get it like for the tournament where you didn't get any roll, it would make the course play at least longer and, you know, froggier fairways would like make a lot of those shots more difficult without doing it with the rough. That course has gotten -- it is kind of locked in there. It can't get much longer, and you think about Winged Foot, how much that course has changed over the years, new tees, and, you know, moving bunkers out farther out in the fairways and courses change and that one has always evolved a little bit. St. Andrews you can't argue that you shouldn't touch a golf course because St. Andrews keeps backing it up a little bit every Open, back it up just enough to where you keep it up with the game a little bit. So.... It will be interesting. It is -- but it is always something. You always find your caddie that is a local caddie, say: What -- how does the first green break now that they rebuilt it? What did they do to the 16th green and they always find out the little tricks from somebody that goes there a lot. You know, we will sort it out again.

DAVIS LOVE III: Second hole a 4-iron to about 20 feet, made it for birdie. No. 4, driver and 3-wood to about four feet, made it for eagle. 6, driver, a 4-wood right of the right bunker and pitched it over the bunker about 20 feet and made it. And 12, a driver and 3-wood to probably 50 feet behind the hole, 2-putted. 16, a driver and a 4-iron about 40 feet, back left of the pin, and 2-putted. Skip over 17. 18, driver and 7-iron about twelve feet, made it.

DAVIS LOVE III: We both have been playing good the last two days and he has been up-and-down and, you know, it is nice when you are making putts. He made a lot of putts in the beginning yesterday and, you know, that gets you thinking that you can make them too, and it is nice to play with guys that are playing with -- you can do it with guys that are playing not that good, but Olin is a good guy, fun to play with and so is Andrew. Olin and I talked fishing all the way around. Andrew is loose as it gets. He is a lot of fun to play with. So we had a good group and it is nice to get a good pairing like that; especially get a guy that is playing good, get to the weekend and everybody will be playing good, so, it will be a nice tournament.

DAVIS LOVE III: You know, pretty well. Not that well. We don't do a lot together, but I know him fairly --

DAVIS LOVE III: A little bit. Not a lot, though.

DAVIS LOVE III: I'd say it was 45, 50 feet probably. 40 -- I'd say 45 feet.

DAVIS LOVE III: That was a pretty good shot to get it where I could putt. I mean, just -- that is what made me so mad is how can, you know, I get in the bunker at 13 and the sand is -- literally there is no sand, I mean, hard as a rock. I shot it 15 feet by the hole; missed it coming back. Get in that bunker you hit a 4-iron in and it is -- I mean, it is underground. Just didn't make any sense that there would be that much sand in that bunker. There -- won't be as hard tomorrow once that water dries out -- I mean, it won't be as soft tomorrow. That is what made me so mad is you get a bad break, you hit -- I hit a little bit of a miss-club and the wind got up, when you are playing good, you hate to see a little mistakes like that cost you. Then you are figuring it is going to cost you because you -- best you can do is get it on the green and I was pretty happy with it. I mean, the fans when I hit it they were like: Whoa, it is a good shot. It kept on going, kept on going, because the green is so hard and fast you are just not going to get it close.

DAVIS LOVE III: I expect him to give me a hard time; like he did last time. I mean, came up on 18th green: What are you doing making new hazards out there. Luckily that was on Sunday, actually, I think a few years ago. But, you know, it is good for you to get embarrassed every once in a while, take you down a notch.

DAVIS LOVE III: Same, water would fill the bunker out just as fast.

DAVIS LOVE III: I don't know what you can do. You know, guys I have hit sprinkler heads at Augusta too, but, you know, if Arnie doesn't want to invite me back next year it is his tournament maybe if I win he will have to.