Sunday,
following a four-hole playoff with Woody Austin, Davis Love III
claimed his fifth title at the MCI Heritage and his third of the
2003 season. He ties Masters winner Mike Weir and Tiger Woods for
most wins this year. Following his win, he spoke to journalists.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Congratulations
on your fifth MCI Heritage Classic title. Also, your third win of
2003, joining Tiger Woods and Mike Weir. If we could get some opening
comments, it was certainly an exciting playoff for us and exciting
for you as well.
DAVIS LOVE III: Exciting
is one word. It was a little too long and it's unfortunate, both
for Woody and myself that we didn't hit a good putt or a good shot
when we needed it and finish it earlier. But somehow, that's the
way playoffs seem to go. They tend to drag on more than you would
think. I would give anything to go back and hit that 6-iron I hit
it the third time around the first playoff hole. I just hit some
bad shots in the wind and didn't hit the good ones when I needed
to, either putts or whatever. Just didn't hit them quite solid enough
all the way around until that last one.
But, you know,
I hung in there all week. I hit a lot of funny shots and uncharacteristic
shots for me in this tournament and I got away with it and you never
know, you never expected Ernie to finish like he did and never expected
Hal Sutton. He had been hitting his irons good all week, to miss
the green from 18 in the fairway. With little greens and tricky winds,
you never know what's going to happen.
Q.: It must
be humbling making putt on the final hole, almost a 70-footer and
then what happened in the playoff?
DAVIS LOVE III: Well,
it was a chip. Yeah, it was a bad shot in, obviously. I knew that
I needed to make par to have a chance for birdie which is really
what I needed if I wanted to win the golf tournament and close it
out. I just hit it -- I was shooting it in the middle of the green
instead of shooting at the pin and just didn't finish my swing and
knocked it out there to the right. I did tell my brother when I walked
up to the chip, I said, "I'm going to chip this one in." We've been
saying, you know, hit it close or try to chip it in or whatever but
I told him emphatically, "I'm going to chip this one in." That's
why I was so excited when I made it because I finally put my mind
to it rather than I was wishing everything up to the hole it seemed
like, whether it was putts or chips.
Even the second
time around, I had the exact same chip and didn't hit it as freely
as I did in regulation. Yeah, it was kind of a disappointing playoff
after that because neither one of us really did anything great until
my second shot, the last hole.
Q.: Did
you think both the second and third playoff hole, did you think Woody
was going to make those putts and be over?
DAVIS LOVE III: Well,
I thought for sure he was going to make the one at 16. I kept telling
myself, concentrate on your putt because you never know what's going
to happen. When I missed that little one at 17, I really did feel
like it was over; that it was time for him to hit a good putt. I
don't know, there was a lot of conversation before he putted that
putt. It was kind of, the longer he stood there and closed his eyes,
I said, you know what, I've got to be ready to play more golf because
you never know what's going to happen and sure enough he missed it.
It kept feeling
like I was going to win but I just never could hit a good shot to
pull it off. I know he was feeling a lot more nervous than I was.
I was just excited and trying to hit a good one and I kept trying
to be too precise and too smooth and too relaxed and finally on 18,
I just said, I'm going to hit it at the hole and quit screwing around
and I finally hit a good one.
Click
here to read the complete transcript of Davis Love III's interview.
