The Week: Grating Expectations

Why did Davis Love win at Hilton Head? Because he was barely trying

By Alan Shipnuck

The edgy Austin (above) blew two short putts in OT, allowing Love to win. Jim Gund GOLF PLUS EXTRA Big Play: Craig Shankland TRUST ME This week's Legends of Golf is the best tournament of the year on the Champions tour. It celebrates what senior golf is supposed to be about -- good fun, decent competition and the game's history. NEXT UP PGA Tour: Shell Houston Open Champions Tour: Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf LPGA Tour: Chick-fil-A Charity Championship PGA European Tour: Canarias Open de España INSTANT POLL Which 2003 major was the best? The Masters The U.S. Open The British Open The PGA View Results

Forget the yips, divorce lawyers and bad backs -- the most destructive force on the PGA Tour is expectations. Stewart Cink is a former rookie of the year and a two-time winner who went 4-0 in his first Presidents Cup, yet he recently called himself one of the Tour's biggest underachievers. Cink has begun working with a psychologist to free his mind and unlock his potential. He led last week's Heritage through 54 holes, but on Sunday he was squeezing the club so tight it looked as if it might snap. He shot a 73 to fade to 10th.

Cink's demise opened the door for Ernie Els, once pegged as the next Nicklaus -- at least until Tiger Woods came along. Cink's goal is to achieve Els's success, but after opening the season with four wins worldwide, Els saw his own rising expectations squashed. During the final round at Bay Hill, Els shot a 77 and was blown away by Woods, his would-be rival. In his next competitive round, at the Masters three weeks later, Els rang up a 79. He is still No. 2 in the World Ranking, but by the time he arrived at Harbour Town Golf Links, on Hilton Head Island, S.C., he seemed somehow diminished.

On Sunday, Els shot a front-nine 30 to surge into the lead, but down the stretch he came undone again. He fanned his drive O.B. on the short, par-4 16th hole, beginning a closing kick in which he finished double bogey, bogey, bogey, setting the stage for Woody Austin and Davis Love III.

Austin is the intense Kansan who grinded his way to the 1995 rookie of the year award, at age 31. He is self-taught and displays none of Love's natural ease. Austin put increasing pressure on himself to follow up his surprising rookie year, with calamitous results. By '97 he was 180th on the money list, and he has been squeaking out a living ever since. "The last six years have been golfing purgatory for me," he said last week. "If I'm not playing to my potential, then to me I'm wasting my time."

Potential -- specifically of the unrealized variety -- has long been Love's bugaboo, too. With rousing victories at Pebble Beach and the Players Championship, he was suddenly a favorite at the Masters, but he dashed expectations with an opening 77. Hilton Head is where golfers go to sleep off a Masters hangover, and in this relaxed setting Love had strolled to four previous victories. It's where he plays his most carefree golf.

On Sunday, Austin's mechanical swing was in perfect tune, and Love was a stroke back playing the famous 18th. Wide right of the green with his approach, he willed a 66-foot chip-and-run into the cup, one of the boldest strokes of his career. Boats tooted their pleasure in Calibogue Sound, but the inelegant playoff that followed quieted the crowd. Austin was playing not to lose, Love trying too hard to force a victory, not surprising given his 1-7 playoff record. On the third extra hole Austin had a three-footer for par and the win. In advance of the putt he closed his eyes for an eternity to meditate, but the fates did not smile on him. "It would've meant the world," a crushed Austin later said.

Love prevailed on the next hole, the 18th, precisely because he did not get caught up in that kind of thinking. Afterward he reveled not so much in the victory but in the smaller triumph of having perfectly executed a six-iron from 166 yards, clanging it off the flagstick to four feet for the deciding birdie. "I said to myself, I'm going to hit it at the hole and quit screwing around," Love said, "and I finally hit a good one."

O.B.: A Blast from Phil's Past

Last Friday, in the parking lot of San Diego's Torrey Pines Golf Course, Scott Peterson was arrested for the alleged murder of his pregnant wife, Laci. It was an incongruous setting for an arrest but hardly Peterson's only connection to the game. Peterson, who was on his way to join his father, Lee, for a round at Torrey, played for the University of San Diego High team from 1987 through '90 and as a freshman was a teammate of Phil Mickelson's, who was a senior. After twice earning MVP honors at University High, Peterson followed Mickelson to Arizona State on a partial golf scholarship but left school after six months. Mickelson is known for his total recall of everything from NFL rosters to astrophysics, but he "could not remember Peterson," according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. ...

Tiger Woods took care of some unfinished business at the Masters champions dinner. "I was the first person he came over to," says Byron Nelson, "and he told me how much he enjoyed my tournament and how sorry he was to miss it this year. I told him I was sorry as well but looked forward to him returning next year when he didn't have a conflict." Woods is jilting the Byron Nelson Championship in favor of the Euro tour's Deutsche Bank-SAP Open, at which he will get a multimillion-dollar appearance fee to defend his title. ...

Steve Haskins is the Crash Davis of minor league golf: Last week at the Nationwide tour's First Tee Arkansas Classic he extended to 311 his record for starts on the PGA Tour's developmental circuit. "How can I quit when I'm so close to breaking through?" asks Haskins.

Issue date: April 28, 2003