WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 26, 2006

Davis Love III

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Runner up, Davis Love. Thanks for joining us. Probably a disappointing day for you today, but you did win five matches this week; you have to take some positives out of the week. A good week for you. DAVIS LOVE III: It was a good week, obviously. Not a good day, but a good week. And take a lot of confidence when I go to Florida and working my way into THE PLAYERS Championship. I wanted to make a good run today, and I just didn't hit enough good iron shots when I had to and Geoff did. And when he didn't, he hit a great pitch or bunker shot or a great putt and kept himself right in it. He played very, very well. I haven't played a whole lot with him, but I saw a lot of him today. He's a strong player and hits it a long way. And he wasn't going to give me a whole lot of holes. I didn't win enough of them with good iron shots or putts. Q. Seemed like you had two momentum swings. Which was the tougher one, which was more pivotal, the morning session at 14 or when you got back to 1? DAVIS LOVE III: I think either one of them, really. Those are the match play situations where when that happens, you know, you give the other guy some confidence. And I needed to get around and I never did. You always feel like you're in the hole. Little things like he misses the second green way right, I miss it in the left bunker. He pitches up close. I always felt like I took the pressure off of them when he hit a bad shot or when he hit a good shot. And I just didn't hit enough good iron shots. But after missing the little putt at 14, and then to miss the fairway at 15, I was compounding mistakes. I let him get back in it. I let him get away from me with 3 up a couple of times. You can't do that. Even in a 36 hole match, you let him get ahead of you, and he's going to get you. Q. It looked like you looked at the four footer on 14 several times. Were you not sure of the read, or was that just part of your regular routine there? DAVIS LOVE III: Well, it looked like it was very close who was away. So we had a little I just wanted to make sure that, first of all, I was away. I kind of jumped in there early. But, yeah, with the grain in these greens, sometimes you can't really get an angle on what it's going to do. I convinced myself that it wasn't going to go much right, and I guess it didn't. But, no, I was just making sure. I hit a lot of putts today that weren't as weren't quite as on line and had a chance and ended up lipping out, and that was the difference, that I just didn't make enough of them. Q. You looked most frustrated after hitting your iron on 9; I wonder if you can talk about that. Did you know what kind of shape he was in? DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, I saw. Obviously we played the pins before, I saw him bounce it up in the rough and I knew he wasn't going to be able to get it close. Those are the shots you just I'm aiming 20 feet left of the pin and I hit it 20 feet right of the green. That's the kind of shots that killed me. This morning I hit a nice shot in there left of the hole, and where was he, maybe in the he was right and got it up and down. I hit the right shot this morning, I just didn't hit the right shot this afternoon. But to me that was the one that killed me because I had a little bit of momentum. I was hitting good shots, and to drive it down there, that's the thing that kills me. I just hit my driver so good today all day, and to not get very much out of it, didn't get a lot of birdies. To drive it down the middle of 11, and I was in a little bit of a divot. He hits it way right and I hit it way left. Just kept missing par 5 greens and other greens. The iron shots just killed me. Q. Speaking of momentum, there must have been a lot of times out there where you guys were waiting on the consolation match in front of you? DAVIS LOVE III: We got to watch a lot of their match. Q. Any suggestions on what to do with that wet rag of a match? DAVIS LOVE III: We suggested that we go around them (laughter), but that didn't go over real well. Q. Did you guys talk to the officials? DAVIS LOVE III: I talked to Mark Russell about it several times. They were trying to get them going. Got going after them for No. 11 for a couple of holes, but dogged down again. I'm not going to win the last four holes, but it would be nice to win 15 and jump right up and hit 16. I told Mark it would sure be nice after making a birdie to hop up and hit it. It's a shame, two groups on the golf course and we were watching. But it was interesting to watch their match (laughter). Q. Could they put it behind you guys, maybe? DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah. They could put it behind us after nine holes, I thought. Q. More interesting than watching your match? DAVIS LOVE III: It obviously slowed us down, so we didn't finish too quickly. I've been told in this event to slow down. I've never been asked to speed up, but I've been told to slow down a little bit. Q. Did you have to wait in the last final? DAVIS LOVE III: No, we didn't. Q. Golf obviously is a day to day procedure, you never know. Yesterday you had six birdies, I believe, in the afternoon round. And I assume you came out today feeling good, boy, my game is here and then it wasn't there? DAVIS LOVE III: No, I did everything good except for five or six iron shots, really. Even a couple of 3 woods I missed the fairway with, give me the iron shots back and I hit them on the green, it would have been a different story. I hit an awful lot of good ones this week, but today I didn't hit as many good ones. But he kept the pressure on me. He didn't give me any holes to give me any confidence and make it easy for me. I had to work for it. And since he made me work for it, I didn't get as many good shots. What a beautiful shot he hit on 11 this afternoon. I'm standing with a 5 iron thinking of hitting it close. He hits it stiff, and now I'm grinding to hit it close rather than just trying to hit a good shot. That's where you win matches is with shots like that. Q. Were you aware that Geoff has a reputation of being a bit of a hothead, and is it something you thought you could get down on him early you might be able to bring it out of him? DAVIS LOVE III: No. Q. You didn't see that out there today? DAVIS LOVE III: No, played real solid, was very enjoyable to play with and to talk to. We sat together at breakfast and at lunch and had a totally enjoyable day with him, except for the outcome. Q. Did you find yourself saying, where has his game been hiding? DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, obviously he's won and he's been a solid player. But it just shows you how many good players are out on Tour these days. When he wants to hit it long on 8, he hits it a little longer on 8. When he wants to hit it long on 11, he just bombs it down there. I felt pretty strong on a lot of drives, and all of a sudden he was 10 or 15 behind me. He's got great hands and putts very, very well. I don't think he missed a whole lot of putts he really needed to make, maybe one, one glaring putt at 7 this afternoon. But he's a very, very good player. Just shows you how many good players that are out here that he doesn't win all the time. Q. You said you took away some lessons from your loss to Tiger two years ago. What, if anything, do you take away from this one? DAVIS LOVE III: Well, that I'm real close. I'm driving it great. I'm driving it good enough to win any week. I'm excited about going to Florida and I'm looking forward to the big tournaments. If you can drive it like that at places like Doral and Honda and players and Masters, I'll do real well. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thank you, Davis.

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