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On the Course Another tough day for Love
By Gary Van Sickle, Sports Illustrated LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- If Tiger Woods ever wound up in a playoff for the PGA Championship, we all figured it would be against a big name and a familiar face, someone such as Davis Love III. Not someone like Bob May. By Sunday afternoon, Love was off the leaderboard and not a factor, while May was playoff-bound. As recently as Friday, it appeared as if Love might be in the running during the weekend. As darkness fell at Valhalla Golf Club, Love was nine under par with two holes left to play in the second round. But Love finished bogey-bogey -- killing his momentum -- and he didn't make a move in the final two rounds, shooting 72-70. It has been a frustrating year for Love, who hasn't won in two-and-a-half years but has racked up a slew of disappointingly close calls, including six top-four finishes in 2000. The week at Valhalla was another letdown for him. Rushing to finish Friday before play stopped wasn't a factor, Love said. He hit a pair of poor drives, simple as that. "We weren't really hurrying," Love said Sunday after his round. "We got to 16 and said, 'We've got this locked.' We knew we could run up on 18 and hit, and we already warned the twosome in front of us we were going to hit into them. That wasn't it. "I just hung driver out to the right. I tried not to kill it on 18 and just pulled it. If I drive it in the fairway those two holes, I probably play them even or one under. I got excited because I was nine under and looking like I'd go par-birdie the way you're supposed to and be right in the middle of the golf tournament. It was more that than anything." Love got back to nine under Saturday on the front nine but bogeyed two of the closing five holes, including the 18th again, to take himself out of contention. "I hit a couple bad drives Saturday; that got me shaken up a little bit," he said. "I didn't start hitting it good right away Saturday and just got rattled. I haven't been rattled like that in a while. I was kind of hanging in there. Every time I got rolling, I backed up." Sunday, not that it really mattered, Love finally reached 10 under par with a birdie at the 14th after an exquisite three-iron shot to five feet. Then he dunked a nine-iron shot in the water at 15 and made bogey. "I'm swinging good, I've just got to somehow get out of my own way," Love said. "I came in hitting it great. The first day, four under par was the worst I could've shot. Then I bogey the last two for three under. The next day, I bogey the last two for three under. I'm just giving them away. I'm playing well enough to win every week. I'm just not getting it done. That's more frustrating than if I was searching for my swing. I'd almost rather struggle all week. "It's definitely mental. I'm not comfortable hitting five or six really good shots in a row. For some reason one slips in there that's bad. I went for a long time where I could hit great shots all day and if I make the putt, fine; if I didn't, fine. Now I'm squeezing everything. I'm not quite hitting enough good putts, not quite hitting enough good shots. It's close. If I can hit three-iron to five feet at 14, I know I can play. But why can't I hit a nine-iron five feet on the next hole? A little bit of misjudgment here and there and a little bit of tension. It's a major, I guess. So maybe next week I can relax and play well in Akron." Love finished his weekend at Valhalla at 279, nine under, and tied for ninth place. Gary Van Sickle is a Sports Illustrated senior writer. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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