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GTE BYRON NELSON GOLF CLASSIC


May 14, 2000


Davis Love III


IRVING, TEXAS

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: We'd like to thank Davis Love III for coming in and joining us in the media center. I think the best place to start would be with some of your thoughts.

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, obviously, I'm disappointed. Like Phil, we both feel like there probably should not have been a playoff. You know, if I'd have taken care of business yesterday and today, you know, I could have put it out of reach. So the playoff was exciting. And, you know, it was nice to get back in it after making a couple bogeys. But, you know I'm a little disappointed in not making the putt in regulation; and not making the putt, obviously, the second time around in the playoff. You know, that was the difference today. I missed, you know, maybe four or five little putts, and probably three or four fairways that cost me.

Q. What happened on No. 1?

DAVIS LOVE III: No I hit it just short of the green. Chipped it by about five feet and missed it.

Q. You said earlier in the week that you had become so obsessed with winning. Do you look back today and think that that was any part of the equation?

DAVIS LOVE III: You know, I don't think so. I think I played good in spots, and I just hit some drives to the right that I had not been hitting. And I think I was getting a little excited and swinging through it a little bit too much, you know, and cutting them off to the right, which I haven't really -- I had not missed any fairways really that bad. But I missed three or four. Just getting a little excited, I think. Yeah, I think if anything, the excitement got to me as much as the nervousness.

Q. The last putt on 18, was it just off-ine? What did you see on that last putt?

DAVIS LOVE III: I just peaked it a little bit. Pulled it.

Q. What was the ruling on the drop?

DAVIS LOVE III: I guess Phil hit a bunker or something down there, and that whole area was sodded, resodded.

Q. The distances on the two putts at 18, the last one was about four?

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, about five feet, and the first one was probably about seven feet.

Q. Shooting even par on the weekend, does that bother you as much as --

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, that's what I mean. If I had just played decent and shoot a couple under a day, it would have been close. And that's the disappointing thing. That's the position I put myself in yesterday, letting everybody back into it. And then I had to play a good round today and I didn't do any good today. And I'm sure Phil -- he came from farther back, but bogeying the last hole to let us have a chance, you know, he's feeling the same way; that we shouldn't even have been out there playing off.

Q. The excitement just of the horse race?

DAVIS LOVE III: Of the playoff?

Q. You said you let the excitement get to you.

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, Tiger got going. You know, it was what, four guys right there within a stroke or five a couple times. You know, it was just a -- it was a tight tournament. You know, you put behind you what's happened. You can't be out there going, "Well, I'm 10-under and everybody else is 10-under" and "if only." You're out there playing and trying to get ahead. You know, when I made an eagle and a birdie and got ahead, you know, I was feeling pretty good. And then to let it get away from me -- from there was the disappoint thing.

Q. 14, was that the hole where you were off to the right?

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah. I bogeyed 12 and then I bogeyed 14, both, hitting it in the right rough. I chipped out on 14 and hit it about 15 feet and missed it.

Q. Davis, after a loss like this, it's tough any time, is it harder because you haven't won in a while or does that make any difference?

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, I think it probably makes it a little harder, you know, keep coming so close. I got out to the start of the playoffs going: "Okay, well, now you're getting closer; you're in a playoff." I just took that attitude, well, I'll try and win this playoff. So many times those things are so much luck. Maybe I'll be the one to get lucky and hole a long putt. After we all hit bad shots in there the first time around, figured that's where it would end; somebody will make a long one and nobody did. And then when I made the long one at 17, I thought that might be the one that did it, and Jesper made a great putt. Yeah, it was a -- it's hard to -- hard to tell you it doesn't matter; if you're two back and you don't get a run at it or if you're tied or two ahead; if you don't win when you feel like you have a chance. And you know I got where I wanted to be, what, a stroke up, I guess with four or five to go and a par 5 sitting out there. I knew Mickelson would get to 12. Somebody would. I didn't expect Jesper to make -- he birdied a couple. Made a long putt, I guess, at 15. But you had to figure somebody was going to get to 12 or 13, even after we were in the middle of the back nine.

Q. You mentioned Tiger, how much aware were you of what he was doing?

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, I think if he'd have made 3 at 16, I think it would have made -- I don't know what he did on the other holes. But we didn't hear anything out of -- when we went up the hill, we didn't hear a whole lot of yelling and screaming; so we figured he was not making eagle. But he got himself back in there where if we all didn't finish well, he had a good chance.

Q. Did you feel like going into today that the surge would come?

DAVIS LOVE III: Oh, yeah, I knew between Huston and Parnevik and Mickelson, somebody would shoot a good score. I guess Phil, you know, had it going probably as good as anybody.

Q. Could you give us the ruling again?

DAVIS LOVE III: All that whole area looks -- I don't know, because I haven't played here in a few years. Looked like they resodded an area that was bunker. So there was a big huge area, that whole dip was all resodded; so it was all little patches of sod. I had a decent lie, but I had a sod line, just in front of me, a seam.

Q. (Inaudible)?

DAVIS LOVE III: Obviously, you want to chip it up there real close, not put yourself with a -- I had a decent chip, but not a great chip.

End of FastScripts….

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