In a smashing off-Broadway performance, Davis Love III won the 1997 PGA Championship Sunday. He thereby left Winged Foot with this huge trophy, yet quite a bit lighter in the department of excess baggage. To wit:
Love no longer will be labeled as the best active American golfer without a major title.
Love needn’t have to hear how he three-putted on the 72nd hole to avoid any chance of victory at the 1996 U.S. Open.
Last but not least, Love won’t be remembered primarily for giving Michael Jordan his first set of clubs when they were athlete-students at the University of North Carolina.
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“What a thrill,” said Love, free at last, although his reference was to a resounding conquest on such a splendid course. He and pal Justin Leonard lapped the field after 54 holes, so on a steamy afternoon, they went off to exercise a medal version of the match-play format once preferred by this tournament before television intervened.
However, Sunday’s tableau lacked suspense for the allotted time, too. Love romped by five swings, and his 11-under aggregate equaled the total by which the only other three golfers to break par did so. In other words, Love basically was a onesome, walking alone, occasionally on water.
Leonard, a baby-faced assassin, had little game to offer as resistance, but a lot of heart. You have to admire a guy who wears black pants in sauna conditions, then eschews rain gear during a cloudburst. He squeezed a 71 from his bag while Love cruised with his third 66 in four rounds.
Leonard, the British Open champion, began the week in a group with big boppers Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, who seized the Masters and U.S. Open, respectively. Leonard thanked them for being so courteous. They let me hit first on all my second shots, he noticed.
Leonard then finished with Love, who, for the statistically inclined, led here in driving distance with 307.4 yards to Tiger’s measly 298 average. But Love had the short strokes down, too, so he wasn’t in a yielding mood.
“I’ve never felt so comfortable on a golf course,” said Love, who closed poorly in the aforementioned U.S. Open at Oakland Hills, Mich., even before that putting pratfall. He tried to finesse shots instead of going after the ball, and he got dusted by Steve Jones.
“That was probably our low point,” said brother Mark Love, who caddies for Davis, a popular 33-year-old with serious golf bloodlines. Their father, Davis Jr., taught and played until he died in a 1988 plane crash. Davis III wrote a book about Dad, and when he saw twin rainbows above the clubhouse late Sunday, the symbolism was overwhelming.
“My dad represented everything the PGA is about, as an instructor, competitor and credit to the game,” mused Davis III, who really could have used a case of Kleenex as he made the tour of multiple interviews. And to think, while a boy in Atlanta, he dared imagine himself a hockey player.
Golf prevailed. He turned pro in 1985 but labored 10 years before he cracked the top 10 in any major. Meanwhile, he shortened his swing, exchanging power he didn’t need for control. When he did err, the ball usually went long left.
This week, though, Love trusted everything about himself except his emotions come twilight time. That’s where Mark came in, and now they eagerly look to Spain. How convenient to forget that Davis III canned one of the most important putts in Ryder Cup annals–1993, to beat Costantino Rocca–as the Americans won on foreign fairways.
“I’m disappointed,” said Leonard. “But what happened today is good for golf.”
Davis Love III can handle that. It’s not too heavy and, besides, it fits just right.