Home > Furman Bisher > Archives > 2008 > December > 19
Friday, December 19, 2008
Love working to get back in the swing of things
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
St. Simons Island — They played the Masters without him, “A tough pill to swallow.”
He missed all the major championships. At the end of the year his name was on a list of candidates for a title he hopes never to be a contender for again — “Comeback of the Year.”
The regular season ended with the Tour Championship and while the other winners and champions packed up for home and an off-season of leisure, Davis Love III packed his clubs and hit the PGA Tour trail known as the Fall Series, tournaments with such oddball names as Fry’s and Ginn sur Mer.
Even that didn’t get off too well. He missed the cut in the Texas Open, but he never missed another. He stayed with it, and when asked why he was playing this “bush league” tour, he answered cheerfully, “The money is out here, and I’m going to get all I can. I need to move up in the rankings.” And he did.
And in the process, he vaulted from l33 to 48 on the earning list and improved his stroke average to 70.30. And not only that, he kept moving up week after week until the Children’s Miracle Classic at Disneyworld. There he won, for the 20th time on his PGA Tour career, in position for a place in the sun again.
The 2007 season had been a virtual wipeout. He stepped in a hole playing on an island course back home and had to have surgery to repair torn tendons. So playing the Fall Series made sense.
“The only way to see how you’re playing is to get out there and play,” he said. So he played, sometimes when the golfers outnumbered the gallery.
“I needed to get back on my game,” he said. “Getting back to the Masters is important to me.”
In the meantime, the PGA Tour has come to grips with problems that have beset the economic world, and that’s high on the list of its concerns. Auto-makers, financial firms and resorts have been vital to the health and prosperity of tournament golf. Check those names: Buick, Mercedes-Benz, FBR, Northern Trust, Wachovia, not to mention those constant sponsors of telecasts, the Masters especially. Love has served on the Players Policy Board over the years and keeps the line open to Commissioner Tim Finchem.
“Tim has positioned us very well,” he said. “We have a big reserve, for he has always been strong on that. It’s there. We’re not going to go dark for weeks, but we’re going to have to tighten our belt,” Love said. “The Atlanta situation was a sign of what’s ahead. It’s going to be hard to find new sponsors, so we have to keep the old ones happy.”
In case you weren’t keeping track, the Sugarloaf Club lost its AT&T connection to Tiger Woods’ Washington tournament, and no new sponsor stepped forward. Nor did either the Champions or Nationwide event find the route to Gwinnett County.
Then there’s the FedEx, a constantly vexing creation modeled after NASCAR’s original FedEx Series. After two seasons, this thing has become an intrusion on the happiness of the Tour. Worst of all, if a player doesn’t hold his place on the eligible list, he has nowhere to play for nearly a month and a half.
“And if somebody wins two of the playoffs, it’s out of control. I’m upset at the term ‘playoff.’ It’s not playoff, it’s golf,” Love said.
Then there’s the design business, which he and his brother Mark have been into for some time, and quite successfully until lately.
“It’s not just slowing down,” Love said, “it has hit bottom. Can’t get any worse, and we’ve got all this machinery sitting idle.”
So the grand old game of “goff” is looking into a grim season ahead. The Tour apparently is locked in for the year ahead, but there are no guarantees, with auto-makers sitting before Congress begging for a handout, and Buick bailing out on Tiger Woods. Wonder if they’ve thought of knocking on Finchem’s door and making a hit for some of that reserve. Just kiddin’, Tim.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Post your comment | Categories: Other
