Laser-straight drive at No. 16 saved day for Love
Posted: Sun August 17, 1997 at 9:22 PM ET
MAMARONECK, New York (CNN/SI) -- Davis Love III took it one hole at a time.
Love battled the rain showers and hit a perfect drive at No. 16 Sunday to relieve some of the mounting pressure. He hit two super shots to set up a clinching par on the hole, which helped him win his first major
championship in style with a birdie on the 18th hole for a five-stroke victory over Justin Leonard.
"The two shots he hit at 16 in a downpour were just
incredible," Leonard said.
A three-stroke lead with three holes to play might have seemed safe just about anywhere else but Winged
Foot, just about any other time but Sunday in a major championship.
Love knew as well as anyone how difficult the final
three holes can play. Just two days earlier, he was leading the tournament until he chopped his way through the rough on the
par-4 16th to take double bogey.
Love and Leonard started the final round tied at 7 under, but
Love put three strokes between them after four holes and led by
five at the turn.
Leonard, even though he lost the touch on his short game, never
backed off. He cut the lead to three strokes by coolly tapping in a
10-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole in a hard rain.
Having seen Leonard lose his drive to the right on the 457-yard
16th, Love emerged from under the umbrella held by his caddie and
brother, Mark, adjusted his hands around his 3-wood, and belted it
down the middle.
Leonard's errant drive, which came to rest on a cluster of maple
leaves, set up a bogey. Love followed his drive with a 6-iron to 10
feet for a par.
After that, the only thing Love had to keep straight were his
emotions.
"It was hard to get through those last three holes without
breaking down," he said. "But it was the thrill of my life."
Even before a hot, sunny day turned into steady showers over the
closing four holes, Love knew it would take a score better than par
to win, and he knew how to do it.
"There are a few good scores out there, but you're going to
have to drive the ball in the fairway to do it," Love said on the
driving range before the final round.
The drive on No. 16 was symbolic of how Love played the most
important 18 holes of his life.
Leonard used his short game wizardry to start with rounds of 68
and 70, but when he shot a course-record 65 on Saturday to take a
share of the lead, he didn't miss a single fairway.
That changed Sunday on the second hole, when Leonard shoved his
drive into the right rough for a bogey, then pulled his driver into
the left rough for another bogey on No. 4.
Love, who led the tournament in driving distance, kept it
straight and kept putting distance between him and Leonard. A
perfect drive on the par-5 fifth hole set up a two-putt birdie from
12 feet; another drive that found the short grass set up a 12-foot
birdie putt on No. 8.
"Except for the drive on 12, I played very, very well," Love
said. "And I never gave him too much of an opportunity."
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