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DEL.ICIO.USLove 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.
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Comments
By Atown
December 19, 2008 10:09 PM | Link to this
Nice piece on Davis. I’m a SSI native and it’s always great to have our favorite son winning. He’s a hall of famer, but one more major and he is in a completely different stratosphere as far as his legacy goes.
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 20, 2008 11:49 AM | Link to this
Golf is nothing more than pool with a smaller, rounder puck.
and the hockey moms wear the masks, but both are played on a green.
By Chuck
December 20, 2008 1:00 PM | Link to this
Davis Love III has always beena country club boy who’s had many advantages over a tour player who really had to work to be a PGA member. Furman, why not do a story on the guy who finished second to Love at Disneyworld, Tommy ‘two gloves’ Gainey? Tommy somehow got a ‘Big Break’ invite and won the event. From there the former water heater assembly line worker wrangled his way into a few PGA events after getting his card. The ‘Davis Love III’ country club stories no longer resonate.
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 20, 2008 2:34 PM | Link to this
I think we need to talk about golf as our racist heritage. My brother calls Tiger Woods, “Tigger”. Okay? I mean, Tiger Woods is the greatest sportsman in our history, and yet that’s not good enough for my racist p-hole of a brother.
I meant a-hole.
I’m sick to death of golfers who dont know when they’ve been exposed for the lunatic racists jackasses they truly R.
You’ll never be considered on a par with Tiger, and you’ll always be second rate, you horrid white hackers from hell.
By Black Reverand
December 20, 2008 3:31 PM | Link to this
Bog Father you appear to be a black racist. PLease find another forum. This is golf, not a rap blog.
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 22, 2008 10:45 AM | Link to this
Fumble, Fumble, Foiled by Fumbles, Timeouts burned, and Vikings humbled.
Are there deep mystical forces working for the Falcons? Surely it would take a spell to make the football take flight from the scrimmage line and scramble backwards purposefully toward the Falcon’s end zone twice in a few minutes.
Or do the Falcons have an angel? A mischievous angel with a sense of humor that harkens back to the keystone cop silent movie era. An angel who turned the vikings into bumbling fumblers. The image of the vikings chasing the pigskin dozens of yards behind thier line of scrimmage is one of the lighter moments of the past 300 years.
This is no ordinary season. The Falcons have won improbably again.
Inconceivable.
There can be only one reason that supernatural beings would favor our Falcons: The ghosts of Vicks Dogs will be avenged even if it takes an unholy aliance of witches, angels, and willful pigskins. OMG I just invented the cheerleader eligible play.
By Mickey Moose
December 22, 2008 11:12 AM | Link to this
I just picked and flicked a BlogFather of Scroll…or a booger. Same thing.
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 22, 2008 3:03 PM | Link to this
Glad you liked the material, Poose, feel free to steal. Then folks’ll think that YOU’RE the genius, instead of the Global Positioning Sphincterthon your ungloved index finger truly is.
bwa
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 22, 2008 3:53 PM | Link to this
Any of you honkies want to play Race Card with me? It’s easy. The rules are similar to Hide the weenie. I’ll be glad to teach you. I play it all the time. No silly, not Hide the Weenie. Giggle, giggle.
By The BlogFather of Scroll
December 22, 2008 9:45 PM | Link to this
D’OH!
By JackP
December 24, 2008 9:27 AM | Link to this
Love is washed up on the PGA Tour. The age 50 requirement for the Senior Tour should be waived so he can move to it immediately.
By Pi$$onaDawg
December 24, 2008 11:58 AM | Link to this
Have a Blessed Season and keep painting the Sports World with Your Pen & Prose.
By JG
December 24, 2008 10:02 PM | Link to this
I was lucky enough to play with DLIII 3 years ago at the last “Bellsouth” Pro Am. He is an excellent person and true golf gentleman.
I hope he continues to climb the ladder back and win a great deal on tour!
I did outdrive him on one hole….must have been a fluke!!!!