THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

June 1, 1996

Davis Love III

DAVIS LOVE III: And the leader in the clubhouse.

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, I had an another good day yesterday. I played real well -- yesterday I played real well and missed the fairway at 10 and 11, made bogeys. And other than that, had a great day yesterday. And today, I drove the ball again real well and made some putts and took advantage of three of the par fives off good drives, so it was, you know, a good solid day. Hit a lot of good bunker shots. Missed some greens early, and missed two of the par fives in the bunkers, and got them up-and-down and got a good up-and-down on 18 out of the bunker. So I had a good scoring day and, you know, there was a lot of opportunities out there for me today because I drove the ball real well.

DAVIS LOVE III: Okay. Starting on 5, hit a good drive around the corner, a 4-iron, just right of the pin in the bunker; blasted it out about 10 inches and made that. 6: Hit a driver and a 9-iron to about ten feet behind the hole and made that. 7: Driver, 3-wood, in the front bunker; blasted out about six feet, made that. 10: Driver, 9-iron, about five feet. 11 -- I parred 11. 12: 8-iron about 18 feet behind the hole, made that. 13: Driver, 8-iron, about 15, 18 feet right of the hole, made that. Missed a 3-footer at the next hole for birdie. And then driver, 4-iron about 20 feet at 15 and left it a couple of inches short and then parred it.

DAVIS LOVE III: 18? Yeah, I did, just short in the bunker.

DAVIS LOVE III: On 3, hit it in the bunker just through the green and got it up-and-down, made about a 10-footer. And then 4, hit it in the right bunker about pin-high and knocked it down to about three feet and made that.

DAVIS LOVE III: I was. I hit a lot of good ones. I should have hit it in the sand more.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, I got up here and wasn't hitting the ball exactly the way I wanted to and worked a little bit on my swing and wasn't 100% comfortable when I went out on Thursday and hit a few bad drives and a few bad shots, but the main thing was I just didn't make a putt all day long. I mean, my only birdie was a 2-putt and, you know, if I could have made a par-putt or two; could have hit a better chip maybe a couple of times and could have hit a fairway a couple of more times, you know, I wouldn't have had that bad a round. I felt, like Greg Norman said, I didn't play that bad and shot 4 over; that is the kind of course it is. If you get a little bit off track, you can shoot 76 just as fast as 68. And yesterday, I didn't feel all that different going out there. I just hit a few more fairways and few more greens and made a few putts and just turned around. I made eagle yesterday, that helped, but today I hit a lot of good solid shots right at the flag. And my swing seems to be getting better today. I knew I was hitting it good about in the middle of round today. My brother said, "you want to play a lot at home next week." I knew he was saying, you know, you just need to keep playing, because you are hitting the ball good and we can be ready for the Open. And I think just getting out and playing Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, got me back swinging again a little bit better. I need -- I definitely need to play some next week to keep it going.

DAVIS LOVE III: I guess it is possible any time when the conditions are calm and the greens are this good, but you just don't expect it on this course. I came off yesterday with 68; thought I played pretty good and felt like I played great today and he beat me by 4, so... John is that kind of player, though. He is capable of shooting 8 under a day, four days in a row. I mean, when he gets on a roll, he is not wasting a bunch of time. He is just getting up there and hitting it, but that -- I think sometimes that hurts him when he gets going bad, too. He gets going real fast and loses his rhythm real quick, but that was one of the best rounds I think I have ever, you know, heard about or I got -- we walked out and watched him play 18. If he had parred 17, that would have been something coming down 18. But it still was -- I mean, it was a round worth going out and congratulating him on. That is incredible on this course.

DAVIS LOVE III: Very rarely. You know, I have gone out to watch some of my friends finish if they are winning or close to winning. Like Jeff Sluman at Colonial, we said, we should run out there and watch him play 18. We said, no, we are going to jinx him. We stayed in. I guess we should have gone out. I wanted to see it live. I didn't want to be standing on the range and hear a big cheer go up. He hit a good putt. That was pretty close, you know. I think they just need to get out there and support guys when they do something like that.

DAVIS LOVE III: I have never played it.

DAVIS LOVE III: I would bet he did.

DAVIS LOVE III: I think we played one hole that Chrysler great 18 there, if I am not mistaken. Like 16 or something, big huge dog leg to the right?

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, we played one hole there early one morning.

DAVIS LOVE III: I -- vaguely.

DAVIS LOVE III: I think I made par. Big dog leg right, with a big lake?

DAVIS LOVE III: Keeps going and going and going.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah. We played 9 holes in two days all over the Midwest, so I don't -- I don't really remember it, but big old white clubhouse and a lot of long rough is what I remember. But it is -- it is obviously a hard course and there is going to be a premium put on driving it in the fairway and hitting greens like any Open. And, you know, they say how hard it is. I don't see it being a whole lot harder than Shinnecock last year, but I know it will be very, very tough like last year.

DAVIS LOVE III: I don't know how much the equipment has changed in the last five, six years, but....

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, I am using the wooden driver and forged blade clubs and same Ping putter, so it is not helping me any, the new Titanium, but I don't know -- I just always think that all of Jack's courses are very, very far off the tee, even if the hole is 460 yards long or however long, some of these holes, they are very fair off the tee and they favor a guy like John Huston or myself or Greg Norman or Tom Lehman, strong players that hit the ball a good long way and can get shorter iron shots into the green. Everybody jokes that Jack builds courses that would favor his game, but it is hard not to. I know, I am designing courses; it is hard not to. This would be a great course in Jack's prime. I mean, you'd pick him to win here every time he played. You look at the tournaments that are held on his courses, if the wind is not blowing or, you know, if the greens aren't ridiculous, you can shoot a low score. Jack's courses are very fair, I think, tee to green. And you know, if a guy gets going good with irons and with the putter, you can shoot a low score. But I have played some of my worst rounds on Tour on this golf course, too, and I think -- you know, you see the spread from, you know, John's 61 yesterday to a lot of guys shooting 5, 6 over par. I mean, it is not easy just because there is a few guys shoot some low scores. I think it is still a very, very good golf course, and the year -- what year did Curtis win? Wasn't that the last time the scores were kind of low?

DAVIS LOVE III: I mean, high. That was the last time --

DAVIS LOVE III: 14 under.

DAVIS LOVE III: I don't remember it being that dry. I mean, it is fairly dry, I think for the last few years here right now, but again the fairways are just plentiful. I don't think with the USGA that we are going to have at a U.S. Open that they would allow the fairways to be this wide. The PGA, where Daly won, I mean, that was big wide fairways which is fine with me. I don't mind it. But I think guys like I played with, Andrew Coltart, it is a hard course looking at it from his perspective. For me, if I drive it in the fairway, you know, I feel like I can get around it pretty good if I am hitting the irons.

DAVIS LOVE III: I don't know offhand. Tom Kite and Justin Leonard, maybe John Cook, he is kind of back and forth. The problem is you can't get them. It isn't really that guys don't want to use them. I mean, go to a tournament sometime and just a regular Tour event where all the trailers are there and say, all right, I want a wooden driver and you walk in each trailer; everyone of them is going to laugh at you. So it is not like a guy who comes out on Tour or who signs with a new company or breaks a wooden driver has anywhere to go. I mean, you go to Guido, the club selling guy that we see a lot of tournaments, and try to pick up an old MacGregor or something and you are looking at old MacGregors spending 5, 600 bucks and go over here and they have got great Big Berthas that he will just give you, so it is hard to these days to find them and I know when I came out on Tour, there was a few you know, few ways to get wooden drivers and Roger Cleveland was making good ones and Wood Brothers, but it just seems like now you don't ever see a guy come out with 20 wooden drivers and say all right take your pick. Now 40 different manufacturers out here giving away metal woods. I think that is the biggest difference. You know, you are not going to make any money. You can make a metal wood ten times cheaper than you can a wood wood so the manufacturers don't have any interest in it either.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, I would say on bad misses, a wooden driver is probably a disadvantage, that is why the average guy doesn't want one. My problem is the good shots aren't any better with them with a metal wood, so you know, I am sure as I get older, my swing doesn't create the speed and it doesn't hit it as solid, I will go to a metal wood. I have got 6 or 8 really good ones sitting at home that are ready to go and I don't have -- if you said, all right, switch to wooden drivers today; I will go home in a panic. I wouldn't know which one to use. I don't have -- I have got a bunch, but I don't have any that I am in love with. I have been using the same driver for almost 10 and a half years, so it is just a driver that works. It doesn't really matter to me if it is a wooden driver or, you know, a metal driver. It just works, so there is not much reason to change.

DAVIS LOVE III: Old Cleveland. About a 15 year old Cleveland.

DAVIS LOVE III: I am going to buy a bunch of heads then.

DAVIS LOVE III: I don't know if it will because, you know, when I grew up, you know, the swing was a little bit different and everybody was learning with wood wood drivers. Now everybody is learning with metal woods. The difference -- the reason why I can't find a great Big Bertha or Big Bertha I like is they say hit it high on the toe, the high toe part of the club face. Well, I have been using a wooden driver my whole life and I have been hitting it low and in the heel. That is an inch difference where you want to hit it on the face. So that is why it is hard for me to switch. Now a guy who has been using a metal wood his whole life and hitting it high in the club face or towards the toe, he is going to get a wooden club and he is going to hit it out there; it is just going to go way right and he is going to hit it in the heel expecting a draw out of the heel and it is going to cut. So it is not -- I don't know if it is -- you know, you just can't go back, I don't know, if you grew up with a metal wood, it will be hard to go back to a wooden driver, but I don't see any company all excited about spending a lot of money making them. It is time and effort and you can buy -- I don't know what -- buy a metal head for 10 bucks and a shaft for 20 bucks and a grip, you know, they charge a "pow" for it. Obviously, the titanium is very, very expensive but just your average metal wood is a heck of a lot cheaper to make than a wood wood.