U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 16, 1999

Davis Love III

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, if I listen and read very much more I'll think that I lived here, but I've played here a few times, the NCAA and the North/South a few times and played a few rounds around here as a kid with my dad doing the Golf Digest schools here. I played the No. 4 course probably more than any, but it's covered up with tents; so there goes my advantage. But this is a special U.S. Open and a special place, and I think anybody that's been there is thrilled to be back. And that's a lot of guys in this field have great memories from this golf course, from NCAAs, and growing up in the area like Scott Hoch, and that's a lot of guys that have been looking forward to this Open for a long time. It's going to be a great week for a lot of players.

DAVIS LOVE III: When you say you hear a player say I like a traditional golf course, or I don't like the golf course setup when it's tricked up, you know you're not going to get that golf course. When you've got a great golf course that can't be set up with deep rough around the greens, you know you're going to get a fair test of golf. When you think about the U.S. Open, and they can handle the people here because they have Darlington twice a year, everybody has been elaborating about it ever since they announced it, and ever since they announced the Tour Championship. It's a great golf course and one that a lot of players my age and a little older never thought that they would play again after the World Opens and stuff.

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, yeah, I've played one or two, because no matter who the owner was at that time, that's the prize, and that was expected. We didn't get out on No. 2 a lot, we played No. 4, mostly. I did get out and play 15, 16, 17 a few times, because it was around the driving range, but most of my memories are playing the North/South here, or the NCAA tournament, with my length being an advantage, this golf course is set up well for my game. But I learned a lot of little things here that have been important to my game, swing things from Jack Lumpkin, and he taught me how to pitch down on the 15th green one day in one of the deep holes, side of the green, told me how to get the ball up in the air. And just little things. But I was lucky, I got to do a lot of Golf Digest schools a lot of nice places, and this was my favorite place to come.

DAVIS LOVE III: That's what I've been getting at, nobody has an advantage when it's set up for a U.S. Open. I don't think sentiment is going to save you any strokes or knowledge of the golf course, because it's set up for the U.S. Open. North/South I had an advantage, because I played some rounds, and length was an advantage, and it was match play. At the time I knew the golf course pretty well. But now the U.S. Open makes it -- levels the playing field, turns it into more of a patience test. I'm looking forward to the U.S. Open competition, and it's special, because I get to go to Pinecrest, and the Carolina Hotel and my friends are in town, and that part of it is where the sentiment comes into play. But when you start playing, you better start hitting the fairways and the greens or sentiment is not going to help you very much.

DAVIS LOVE III: The rough makes a difference, they've got it just the right height, rather than just lay it up every time or chip out every time, the greens are in much better condition. The grass is fabulous, on the greens and around the fringe. Before it was a little spotty, and now it's in great shape. And it seems to me like the slopes are back to original design, a little steeper, and with this kind of grass where they can mow it down, that is even more. It's firm, fast and harder than it was in the past. It got soft there for a little while, whether it was maybe perceived as not much of a challenge, but the Tour Championship proved that if the greens are firm and fast, they can really cause a problem. If it rains this afternoon like they say it's going to, tomorrow will be a pretty good scoring day. If it gets bright and sunny and the greens dry out on Sunday it could get very, very difficult. It's really all depending on the weather right now.

DAVIS LOVE III: When you get to the U.S. Open, you know it's going to be slow the first two days, you prepare yourself; it's part of the patience test, you hope for early tee times. And if you're late, you know what to expect. On the Tour, we've gone to all but one of our tournaments are going off two tees, which really made a difference. We finally convinced Arnold Palmer to go to two tees back at Bay Hill, and it helped weather-wise and pace of play time. You say we can't play threesomes at Augusta. Well, we did it and it didn't slow the tournament, everybody played the same course. Hopefully someday when the field is this big they will realize that it's a more level playing field in golf, but that's something you have to deal with. It's going to be slow on Sunday afternoon. If the greens are hard and fast, too, with twosomes.

DAVIS LOVE III: If you could play it faster, everybody would go for that.

DAVIS LOVE III: We had some soft conditions at Oakland Hills, and it still seemed like -- it was very tough at the end. So it really depends on if that weather holds up all week. But I would say if you can throw it at the pin, yeah, it brings a lot more players into play.

DAVIS LOVE III: No, not really. We had a lot of time, a lot of lessons, a lot of ball-hitting. But every week on the range, whether it was here or anywhere else, we did a lot of stuff. But, no, nothing that really stands out. But I just -- I rather spending a lot of time with my dad and Jack Lumpkin pounding balls, and winning the long drive contest off the 14th tee. No. 2, North and South has a long drive off that hole.

DAVIS LOVE III: I don't know. Longer than everybody else (Laughter.) But I learned a lot, really, no matter where we were. We hit a lot of balls while we were here, though.

DAVIS LOVE III: My back is perfectly fine today. And it's kind of like the weather; you never know. It feels great the last few days. And I played decent last week; so it's U.S. Open time. You never know until you get out there, but it feels pretty good.

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, since I grew up in Georgia, I only lived in Carolina for a year, but going to school here and I've gotten used to it playing a little bit in Greensboro. Again, it's the U.S. Open. If this was the Pinehurst Invitational, say, it would be a little different, but this is the U.S. Open and you can't put any more pressure on yourself than that. I'm excited, as I said, to see my friends, to see old places, and get to eat breakfast in the Pinecrest are a lot of fun, and that makes this more special than other Opens for me. But this is like playing the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach or playing the British Open at St. Andrews. This is a great golf tournament. Every one is great, but this will be a notch above for the guys that have been here. I played well in the Masters the last few years, and I'm trying to keep that going, trying not to pay attention to the rest of it. But I have noticed, we all talked about, we have never seen a town and fans so excited. It's like they are nuts about it. They are really -- it's like maybe a Monday crowd at the Masters. They know they are not coming back, they only get to see one day at the Masters and they are jacked up about it. People feel like maybe this is our only chance to see a U.S. Open at Pinehurst, and they're thrilled. And it really is amazing, the autographs, the pictures, the excitement of the people, the waitresses in the restaurant, they are just geared up and it's really great to see that part of it. It's great to see, but it's a little bit unnerving that all those people are so excited so early. It makes you start to get nervous a couple of days early.

DAVIS LOVE III: The putter. In fact, Jack Lumpkin yesterday when we were practicing around the course, he said, maybe you ought to try something other than a putter, and that's my safest shot, the one I feel most comfortable with. That and if it rolls way down the hill into the short cut I've been putting it up with a 3-wood, something that I haven't done much of in the past, but I think those two, basically the chip and runs -- the grass is so good and so tight and the greens, if they are hard and fast, I don't think I'm going to have much success pitching it up that, so there will probably be a lot of putts and bump-and-runs.

DAVIS LOVE III: I don't think it puts anybody at an advantage or disadvantage. Tom Lehman was in the last group the last four Opens. He has an advantage maybe because of that, or Tiger Woods has won the last two tournaments, maybe he has an advantage to that. You can point to whatever you want. What it boils down is who is the most patient and who is the most focused and who makes the most putts for par, and who hangs in there. I don't think local knowledge -- Scott Hoch would be the favorite if local knowledge played a part or Curtis Strange; so I don't think that makes a big difference, because it's a U.S. Open. If it was Atlanta Country Club and I grew up on the golf course and played it every day, yeah, maybe it would be a little bit of an advantage, or John Houston or Randy Bean in Florida, maybe I would have an advantage. But I don't think at the U.S. Open you can give anybody a clear advantage. I'm going to be more excited maybe than somebody that grew up in California that's never been here. Just like I'll be more excited at the Masters, maybe, than a guy from Europe that didn't grow up looking at that golf course and dreaming about playing it. That makes it more fun, but I don't think it gives you much of an advantage.

DAVIS LOVE III: No, because we play U.S. Opens and Masters. When you do that, you're used to it. Greens hard and fast, Players Championship this year you didn't need a pin sheet, hopefully you can get the ball on the green. No, I think we've learned to deal with that.

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, they'll be softer, it's rained, they're softer than they wanted them. They wanted it to stay dry, so they're not going to have this at least until the sun comes out. With this humidity and a little bit of steady rain, they're softer than they want. I'm putting fairly well, I putted pretty good last week, but -- you can hit the ball and keep it on the green right now, and that's probably not what they wanted.

DAVIS LOVE III: No, I think Tiger summed it up the other day saying you have to hit the ball in the fairway enough times to get the ball on the green and have some chances for birdies. You're not going to win unless you make some birdies, nobody is going to make 72 straight pars and win. You're going to have to make some birdies. It's going to be -- the simplest way of saying it, who can be the most patient and put their misses in the right spots. Miss too long every day and you can make three pars and a bogey. Miss No. 2 short and right every day and you can make three bogeys and a double. So that's where you're going to have to be patient enough to say look, I can't shoot at any pins on the front right of that green, I have to keep it over to the left. And when you get to No. 5, you can't miss the green short and left, every miss has to be long. And playing that kind of patience game is going to be hard. So I think that's where it's going to be won or lost, the guy can't get frustrated, I'm 1-over at 4, and I'm going to shoot at the pin at 5, and then you know you've lost control of your game plan. Sticking with it and being patient and not putting yourself on your short side all the time. You short side yourself on this course, you're going to be dead. Short and left of 5 and then putting it over the green and then coming back so maybe you can get up and down, that's going to be the secret. Holing a few putts and hanging in, that is going to be very, very valuable. But it's not just a chipping contest, you've got to put yourself in the right place to putt or chip from, that means you better hit some fairways to keep control of the ball.

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, I feel like I have the last five years, I guess, since '95, I've improved my play in the Masters, and just tried to get steadily better and better. Yeah, I would have liked to won more, but all I can do is try to win this one right now. This is the main focus, and then after this we'll go across the pond, you know. So it's just going forward. I've gotten to the point where I feel like I have the game to win, but it's going out and beating the other 50 guys that have the game to win. And it's a patience test, and hopefully I can hang in until the end this week.

DAVIS LOVE III: No, I dreamed of hopefully being good enough to play in the North and South one day, hoping I would get in the North/South, Junior and never have to qualify for it. This is a U.S. Open course, and you thought about Oak Hill and Brookline and Pebble Beach as U.S. Open courses, and Tom Watson in 1982, that kind of stuff sticks out. But North/South Amateur to me when I was growing up was the biggest tournament that I could ever imagine playing.

DAVIS LOVE III: You're going to have to when they have 489 Par 4s, you better hit a lot of drivers. There's a few holes you won't, 3 and 7. But holes that we used to hit iron off the tee, like 12, they've backed the tee up, so you're going to have to hit more drivers than the past. But it depends on the conditions. Holes like 13 -- 3, 7 and 13 will be layup holes for sure, and the rest of them will be odds on drivers. But you're talking about 2 and 4 and 8 and 10 and 11 and 14 and 16, that's a lot of long holes out that, the guys are going to have to pound it out. I can see a little bit of wind in on 16 and maybe only a handful of guys getting on the green, because it's basically a par 5 into the wind. Yesterday there was no wind and I hammered a drive and could have hit a 3 iron in the middle of the green, that's an awful a lot of golf. Everybody else in my group was hitting woods. And that was Freddie and Tom Watson. That's a long hole. So I think a driver is going to be an important club.

DAVIS LOVE III: I think you'll see bigger numbers for it. Because normal U.S. rough you hit it in, hack it out and hit it on the green and one putt or two putt. Now you get a guy that hits a rocket over the third green, he might be talking to the guys down on the five green, deciding who's away. So you could see some interesting stuff. Hit you a little flier over the 14th green, you know, which I've done in the North/South, and it's down at 10 fairway. So, yeah, you could see some big, big numbers because of that, rather than a guy laying up. And I keep thinking about Nathaniel Crosby winning the U.S. Amateur, hitting the front of every green and staying out of trouble. If the greens are hard and fast, you're going to see that. You're going to see guys going the 15th hole hitting a club they know they can't get that, put it in front of the green, at least not go over and make double. But again if it rains you can hit a 5 or something on the front of the green and it will stop. But there's going to be some shots out of the rough, the gallery is going to get some business, you know. That's going to be more interesting than every time you hit it in the rough just hacking it out.

DAVIS LOVE III: I would say 10 or 11 until -- through my college years. They were having schools I think pretty steady in through that.

DAVIS LOVE III: I wouldn't want to get ridiculous, but I think every year I played the North/South I won it.

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, that was around -- I probably played in '83, '84 and '85 in the North/South, somewhere in there.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah. In the North/South. I probably only played about three times. Again, I was just hoping to get in the thing, much less win.

DAVIS LOVE III: I used to, but the line is too long this week. You can't even --

DAVIS LOVE III: I don't think I ever won anything, because I couldn't chip in college. I don't think I ever won that game.

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