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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL

August 24, 2006

Davis Love III

AKRON, OHIO

Q. How was your day, Davis?

DAVIS LOVE III: It was nice. A little rainy and then sunny (laughing).

Q. Talk about the round.

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, I hit the ball pretty well in spots, and I missed a few fairways and I missed a few greens out there after I hit the fairways and it made me have to scramble a little bit.

I putted real well and gave myself some birdie chances, and I felt like I could have had a really good score, but I hung in there and got a decent score out of it.

Q. On 17 was that just a mis club?

DAVIS LOVE III: I was in between 7 and 8, and it just seems lately whichever one I pick is going to be the wrong one. I was just a few yards off. I had basically the same yardage at 4 and I hit a hard 8. And hit it over the green and made a bogey from the middle of the fairway.

That's just the way it's been going. I felt like telling Tom that he ought to pick somebody that's feeling lucky because it just seems like every time I hit a shot, it's either the wrong club or the wrong decision or I get a bad bounce. Like I hit the most perfect drive at 16. It didn't even go in the fairway. It doesn't have to go where you knock it on in two, but it could have very easily been down there where I had a 4 iron, 3 iron in.

Q. What do you have to hit on that one?

DAVIS LOVE III: You've got to go down the right side. I guess you've just got to get lucky because I've only done it a couple times.

Q. That was a good 4 there obviously. A hard working, old fashioned 4. Do you like the yardage there given the way that green sits behind the water? Even if you put it in the fairway, is that reasonable?

DAVIS LOVE III: Not really, no. It's one when you hit it way down there, one in a million, and then you go for it, you're going to end up over the green anyway because there's no way to hold the green with a 3 iron or a 4 iron. You're going to be pitching back, but maybe it's an easier up and down from just over than it is from 100 yards, which has always been a tough shot.

You see guys hit it close and you see guys hit it over and you see guys hit it in the lake. It's not an easy wedge, but it's a tricky hole for sure. I was telling Wes Short, it seems like it's gotten 100 yards longer since I started playing it, and it's still the same thing. If you can bomb it over the hill, you can get down there where you can have a go at it, but it's not really worth it.

We used to do it with wooden drivers. We'd hit it down there to the bottom of the hill and then we'd hit it off the bleachers. Nobody ever hits a high cut 3 iron in there and gets it to stay on the green.

Q. Does it feel like the 20th anniversary of the first time you played here because it is?

DAVIS LOVE III: No, it doesn't. But this place has been fun to come to for a lot of years. I've always enjoyed playing the golf course. It's a challenge. It always feels like back to back majors. This golf course is set up a lot like last week where if you hit the fairways and hit good shots and hit the greens, you can make some birdies, but if you hit bad shots, you can make some bogeys, too. It's set up real nice.

Q. For 17 years in a row you played here and for most of those 17 years to play here you had to win. No one else is even close. The next guy out here is Fred, and he's like 13 or 14, so you're kind of lapping the field.

DAVIS LOVE III: I'd like to keep the streak going for another five or ten years.

Q. What will you do next year the week before a major?

DAVIS LOVE III: I think it'll be a good warmup. It'll be like playing Westchester the week before the Open up in the northeast. It'll be a nice place to play. These greens just it's funny, they seem to get better and better every year. I don't know what they're doing, but this is probably the best I'm trying to remember the hole. 20 tournaments I've played in, but I think this is probably the best greens we've putted on so far this year.

It would be great to do that the week before a major, play a course that looks like a major, feels like a major and has really good, fast greens.

Q. I think it was around '87 when they had Nicklaus come in and do the first rebuild on the greens and then they kind of undid that in '96 and '97. How has the course changed in those 20 years?

DAVIS LOVE III: It's gotten longer since I've played. Basically the same set of greens, but it's just gotten longer, and deeper rough.

Q. You mentioned hitting persimmon drivers out here in '87. Is the course really playing that radically different? Are you sitting more club, less club?

DAVIS LOVE III: Not that different because, like I said, they've backed quite a few holes up. The course really hasn't gotten any easier, hasn't really changed that much. A lot of holes you have to hit it in the right spots. Some holes have gotten where you don't think you used to think on 11 downwind you could hit it right up there in front of the green, or 14 you could hit it down there right in front of the green, and now they've backed the tee up so far you can't do that anymore. I would say it's just gotten longer.

End of FastScripts.

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