THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 29, 2003

Davis Love III

DAVIS LOVE III: I'm in a good place, two back and not in the last group and chasing position. Should be nice. Other than place in the last group, it seems like maybe it would be nice to come from a little bit behind and chase a little bit.

Q. A substantially different mindset that you get in when you're not in the last group?

DAVIS LOVE III: I think you know what you've got to go when you're at the end of the field, whether you're in the last three groups or something, you know everybody is right there around you, the guys that are playing well. But, you know, if you're a couple back maybe you play more aggressively and more confidently and you don't have a feeling of watching the board and protecting, you're just going out and being more aggressive. Hopefully tomorrow I can start off and get the bit in the teeth and run with it a little bit.

Q. Do you have a preference when it comes to weather or is there any advantage of guys that go off early?

DAVIS LOVE III: We certainly don't need any rain. I mean, the fairways are wet already, there's still mud balls a lot of times if you drive it in the fairway you get mud on your ball. So we don't need any rain and the greens are soft enough. We'd all be disappointed if it rained and we don't want another stoppage in play at this point.

Q. Let's talk about your tee shot on 14 where you knocked it to the right out of bounds somewhat but your second shot was a great shot into the green.

DAVIS LOVE III: I've been on that hill before unfortunately, but, you know, it was just a bad tee shot and I felt like I was swinging really well and I got a little aggressive and hit it a little too hard and sliced it up there with the wind, but I had a decent lie and it came out really good. It shot across the back of the green. You're figure when you get up there you want to punch it down there in the front of the green or in that left bunker and have a chance to make a par and I was fortunate to get par out of that one.

Q. Kind of an interesting leaderboard with Jay Haas, Fred Couples up there, Perks, not a lot of guys getting a chance, and Tiger is there but not like he was last week.

DAVIS LOVE III: No surprise with Jay Haas on this golf course. You talk about length but this is a precision golf course and Jay is a precision player who's been putting very well. These greens are perfect for Jay's stroke and the faster the greens get and the more precise the course becomes -- even at Augusta Jay tends to do really well. I'm not surprised. Freddie is excited about his game and I'm not surprised about that, either. I've been playing pretty well so some names from the past are names you're used to seeing on the leaderboard, it's nice to have them back on the top.

End of FastScripts....