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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDE INSURANCEMay 29, 2013Davis Love IIIDUBLIN, OHIO DAVIS LOVE III: Actually I was kind of surprised because he kind of did his own thing the first couple of times he did it. I really actually wasn't expecting it because we hadn't talked about it. But he and Jay were playing in Mississippi and they called me on speakerphone and I was excited. Obviously, to be around a team again so soon is really great for me, because we had a great experience for two years. And it would be nice to jump right back in and let him make the speeches. Q. In your own mind, how does it differ from being the captain, the assistant captain? I know you talked about the fact back in the day when you were making sure that they had towels and all that other stuff, but obviously you have a little more experience now? DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, a little more experience. I have maybe a little more voice in the pairings or the strategy. But just because I just saw it. But Freddie was right there with us, too. And Jay should be, could be, a captain. So I'm just going to try to help out wherever I can. I enjoy the behind the scenes stuff as much as‑‑ I certainly don't enjoy the speeches and the out‑front stuff. But, you know, like Stewart Cink said about the Ryder Cup, the hardest thing about the Ryder Cup was asking me to go get him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I enjoy that. I enjoyorganizing the towels and organizing the locker room. Jeff Sluman and I were in the locker room at Wales sometimes until 10:00 at night and up in the hall at 5:00 in the morning making sure the guys had on their right belts. I enjoy that part of getting involved in the team on every level. Dustin Johnson broke his driver and I spent a couple of hours working on new drivers. I enjoy that part of it. This will be a lot of fun and a lot less pressure for me. Q. It's not the Ryder Cup, it's The Presidents Cup, but you mentioned what a great experience you had over the last two days, you had one bad day that didn't end up the way you wanted it to. Is there a part of you that can maybe not wipe that away but have a different experience? DAVIS LOVE III: As I told Zach Johnson, we're either going to have some of the best memories of our lives from that Ryder Cup or some of the biggest disappointments from that experience. And my Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup experience has been like that. We had the best time in South Africa, except that 4‑iron I hit into 18 when I chunked it into 18 and hit a terrible chip and made Tiger go out and play more in the dark. That whole situation could have been handled a lot better if I had a 4‑iron in the middle of the green and two‑putted for birdie. It would have been over. And I played so well that week to not finish well. I had so many great experiences. The wins and the losses eventually will go into the background and you just remember‑‑ like they announced me at this charity breakfast over across the street, six‑time Presidents Cup and six‑time Ryder Cup player captain. They didn't say whether we won or lost. You represent your country. It's to say this person was in four Olympics, they don't say they finished 5th in this race and 4th in that race. So it's an honor to play. It's an honor to be with the team. I know Robin, I just talked to Robin, we're excited about helping. She wants to know what is going on, all the decorations, and her and Jan, what do they get to do. It's fun and exciting. And obviously I want to go out to play. I've had three months off. I'm excited about playing. Michael Thompson asked me yesterday, how do I make The Presidents Cup team. I said you make a whole lot of points. You need to win a couple of times. That's my goal to be out here playing with these guys and talking about it. Fred and Jay, their time will be on other Tours. Q. What's made‑‑ (inaudible.) DAVIS LOVE III: I think we both enjoy competing. We're both relaxed when we're out there playing. My brother and Joe a /KAF a had a good group, we enjoyed being around each other. Obviously I enjoyed playing with Fred Couples, one of the best players in the world, a nice partner. I'm good at picking partners, Kite, Couples were my main partners over the years. I've been very fortunate. It's just great that, again, for Jay and Freddie and I to get to do something together, be part of a team. Fred and I don't get enough time together. In thinking about playing the Champions Tour, the only‑‑ I saw David Frost, Tom Lehman, Corey Pavin last week at home. Man, I miss seeing all these guys.  And I think that's going to be my biggest draw to the Champions Tour, all my buddies are out there. It will be great to spend time with Freddie over the next year. Obviously I got to do a lot last year with the Ryder Cup. It will be fun to partner up with him. Q. Davis, you were sidelined a bit at the beginning of the year. I'm wondering what it's like for you to see all the headlines coming out of golf that don't necessarily involve Tiger winning four of his first seven‑‑ DAVIS LOVE III: We were talking about it yesterday, it's too bad there's so many great stories in golf on the golf course right now and it's getting overshadowed. And I've been saying it a lot in the last two or three years, what's the matter with Tiger? Nothing is the matter. As long as he plays, he wins. When I was out three months, I didn't have a chance to win. When he was out six months at a time, he didn't have a chance to win. But when he's been playing, he consistently wins one out of four times he plays. And I think we expect too much as fans out of Tiger, like we expected too much out of Michael Jordan. Like Michael should make every jump shot at the end of the game or something is wrong. Because they do it so many times, they raise people's expectations. In the same respect, you don't give them enough credit because people think, well, Tiger hasn't won the last three weeks, what's the matter with Tiger? Odds are the fourth week he's going to win. And I don't think we give him enough credit for the level of consistency he's had through injuries. You can tell when he walks he's not Tiger. We're not what we were when we came out on Tour, none of us. But I don't think we give him enough credit for how consistent he's been. It is too bad, the long putter is overshadowing. And that's what we cautioned‑‑ and I think that's what Tim keeps trying to‑‑ what he's been doing, through this whole process, he doesn't want it to be a distraction from the game. He doesn't want to argue over long putter over short putter, he doesn't want a Tiger‑Sergio or a Vijay or a long putter to be the story. You want Tiger's great golf and Boo Weekley's great golf and all the great stories to be the story. And he just wants it all to go away. And it would have been easier if we could have convinced him, just make the long putter go away this year, not in 2016. Let's just get it over with. Q. In a way he's kept the conversation going by not saying we're going to support the USGA, R&A ban? DAVIS LOVE III: Well, we were asked to give our input and we gave our input, and it didn't come out the way we wanted. The PGA Tour, which is more than the United States, the PGA Tour represents the face of the game because Europeans are the players from the rest of the world that play here. So if you go back and look at Deane Beman's legacy and now Tim's legacy, they've always grown professional golf and that's their job. And he's continuing to try to grow professional golf and do what's best for the presentation of the sport as a whole. And that means what's good for our Tour is good for the Australasian Tour or good for the European Tour. He's trying to grow it forward. His comment last year, he said I just came from the Ryder Cup, it was so exciting. What's the matter with the game? Why should we change it? And I don't know, he probably wants long putters to be banned, but what he ultimately wants is for us not to be talking about it. Now the Board can, wherever the meeting is‑‑ Greenbrier, they can just not say anything and it's over as far as we're concerned. Tim is very smart. He's not going to let‑‑ he's not going to let nonaction be his downfall. He's going to explore every possibility. If we have‑‑ we listen too much to the noise of the players and try to keep everybody happy. That's a good thing. It's better than being a dictatorship. But we do spent a lot of time on listening to every player. It was an hour and a half yesterday and we could have done it in 15 or 20 minutes, if Tim would have been a dictator, but he's not. He listens to everybody's opinion. He represents a membership. He doesn't represent the rules of golf. So he's trying to represent his numbers well and doing a good job of it. Q. Do you think it's going away on Tour? DAVIS LOVE III: I would assume so unless we're going to rewrite‑‑ unless we want to be another rule‑making body. The USGA does so many things very, very well. And The R&A. But there are two organizations that make rules and they have to agree. We've just got to get a bigger voice. Maybe we don't need to write the rules, but we need a bigger voice, because we've had a few issues that could have been handled differently. And going forward‑‑ the best thing I heard yesterday is Tim said, look, there's always a silver lining if going forward we have more of a relationship and a voice with the USGA. He's not trying to fight them. He's trying to get everybody to go in the same direction. He said let's just get this done and then golf ball or driver or dropping over your shoulder, whatever the next rule is, we'll have more of a voice. He's thinking ahead. Q. Obviously after Ryder Cup not being another assistant captain, are you open to the possibility of a captaincy in The Presidents Cup coming? DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, I told the Tour and the PGA of America, I'll be the behind‑the‑scenes golf cart charger or whatever, I would love to do it. Hopefully down the road a Presidents Cup captaincy will come up. It would be fun. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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