The emotions are undoubtedly still stirring inside Davis Love III after the suicide of his brother-in-law/business manager last month. But after missing the U.S. Open cut by eight strokes Friday, Love refused to use any lingering anguish as an excuse.
“I missed 15 fairways, and I didn’t make any putts on top of it,” Love said. “I hit a 4-iron dead straight into the rough [Thursday] on the third hole and made double bogey, and when I got to 3 over, 4 over, the fairways started to narrow.
“Mentally I was fine. I just hit too many balls and wore myself out. I tried to practice myself into shape. I’ve been stiff and had headaches, which comes from overpracticing. That’s a trap you fall into in majors.”
After a 76 in the opening round, Love started with four straight bogeys Friday–on the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th holes–and basically blew himself out of the tournament with a 75 for a 151 total. It was a disappointing encore to his tie for seventh in last week’s Capital Open.
“I did kind of the same thing at the Masters,” Love said. “I was behind the 8-ball the whole time.”
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Love said he had been hitting his driver well in practice but lost the magic somehow.
“I hit it good [Thursday] but didn’t score,” he said. “I told myself: `You have 24 hours to play. Let’s see how good you do.’ But it was a bad 24 hours.”