Davis Love III

Davis Love III

Born: April 13, 1964
Age: 60
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Biography

Davis Milton Love III (born April 13, 1964) is an American professional golfer who has won 21 events on the PGA Tour, including one major championship: the 1997 PGA Championship. He also won the prestigious Players Championship in 1992 and 2003. He was in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking for over 450 weeks and reached a high ranking of third.

Love captained the losing 2012 U.S. Ryder Cup team.

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Background and family

Love was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Davis Love, Jr. and his wife, Helen, a day after his father competed in the final round at the 1964 Masters Tournament. His father, who was a former pro and nationally recognized golf instructor, introduced him to the game. His mother is also an avid low-handicap golfer. His father was killed in a 1988 plane crash.

He attended high school at Glynn Academy, Brunswick, Georgia, and later the University of North Carolina (1983-85), where he was a three-time all-American and all-Atlantic Coast Conference golfer. He won six titles during his collegiate career, including the ACC tournament championship in 1984.

Love turned professional in 1985, earning his PGA Tour card in the autumn of 1985, on his first attempt. He quickly established himself on the PGA Tour, winning his first tour event in 1987 at the MCI Heritage Golf Classic, at Harbour Town Golf Links. He would later win this event four more times, setting a record for the most victories in the tournament. Love and Fred Couples won four straight times from 1992-95 for the United States in the World Cup of Golf, a record for this event.

Love was a consistent contender and winner on the PGA Tour in the 1990s and early 2000s, but the most memorable win came at the 1997 PGA Championship, his only major championship victory. The 1997 PGA Championship was played at Winged Foot Golf Club, and just four players in the field finished under-par for the week. Love's winning score was 11-under-par, five strokes better than Justin Leonard. When Love sank his birdie putt on the final hole of the championship, it was under the arc of a rainbow, which appeared as he walked up to the 18th green. In the telecast, CBS Sports announcer Jim Nantz made the connection between the rainbow and Love's late father, Davis Love, Jr., who was a well-known and beloved figure in the golf world.This victory was the last major championship win achieved with a wooden-headed driver.

In 1994, Love founded Love Golf Design, a golf course architecture company, with his younger brother and caddie, Mark Love. The company has been responsible for the design of several courses throughout the southeast United States. Completed in 1997, Ocean Creek is his first signature course and is located on Fripp Island, South Carolina. Love also designed the Dunes course at Diamante in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, which is ranked among Golf Magazine's Top 100 courses in the world.

In 1997, Love published the book Every Shot I Take, which honors his father's lessons on life and golf. The book received the 1997 United States Golf Association's International Book Award. That year, he developed and designed his own golf course in Harnett County, North Carolina. The course, Anderson Creek Club, won an award for "Best New Course in North Carolina" in 2001. He and his wife Robin have two children.

On November 9, 2008, Love earned his 20th PGA Tour win at the Children's Miracle Network Classic, which gave him a lifetime exemption on Tour.

His victory in the 2015 Wyndham Championship—at age 51—made him the third oldest winner in PGA Tour history, trailing only Sam Snead and Art Wall, Jr. This win also brought Love into select company in another PGA Tour distinction: he became only the third player to win on the Tour in four different decades, joining Sam Snead and Raymond Floyd.

After failing to qualify for the 2014 FedEx Cup, Love made his Champions Tour debut at the Pacific Links Hawaii Championship.

Love was named the captain of the U.S. 2016 Ryder Cup team in February 2015.

Love is the oldest PGA Tour winner in the Champions Tour era (since 1980), having won the Wyndham Championship in 2015 at 51 years, 4 months, 10 days.

Love is the tournament host of the RSM Classic. In 2015, son Davis IV (better known as Dru) earned a sponsor exemption into the event. Dru missed the cut.

Legacy

  • Has a portion of I-95 named after him. In 1998, the segment of I-95 which extends in Georgia from the McIntosh County line to Highway 341 at exit 7A and B was designated the "Davis Love III Highway."
  • Love hit the second longest drive ever officially recorded in competition play at the 2004 Mercedes Championships. His 476-yard drive was still 39 yards short of Mike Austin's record.
  • He also has a restaurant named after him in his hometown of Sea Island, Georgia, called the Davis Love Grill.

Amateur wins (2)

  • 1984 North and South Amateur, Middle Atlantic Amateur

Professional wins (37)

PGA Tour wins (21)

Legend
Major championships (1)
Other PGA Tour (20)
No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory
Runner(s)-up
1 Apr 19, 1987 MCI Heritage Golf Classic −13 (70-67-67-67=271) 1 stroke Steve Jones
2 Aug 19, 1990 The International 14 points (8-0-15-14) 3 points Steve Pate, Eduardo Romero,
Peter Senior
3 Apr 21, 1991 MCI Heritage Golf Classic −13 (65-68-68-70=271) 2 strokes Ian Baker-Finch
4 Mar 29, 1992 The Players Championship −15 (67-68-71-67=273) 4 strokes Ian Baker-Finch, Phil Blackmar,
Nick Faldo, Tom Watson
5 Apr 19, 1992 MCI Heritage Golf Classic −15 (67-67-67-68=269) 4 strokes Chip Beck
6 Apr 26, 1992 KMart Greater Greensboro Open −16 (71-68-71-62=272) 6 strokes John Cook
7 Jan 10, 1993 Infiniti Tournament of Champions −16 (67-67-69-69=272) 1 stroke Tom Kite
8 Oct 24, 1993 Las Vegas Invitational −29 (67-66-67-65-66=331) 8 strokes Craig Stadler
9 Apr 2, 1995 Freeport-McMoRan Classic −14 (68-69-66-71=274) Playoff Mike Heinen
10 Feb 11, 1996 Buick Invitational −19 (66-70-69-64=269) 2 strokes Phil Mickelson
11 Aug 17, 1997 PGA Championship −11 (66-71-66-66=269) 5 strokes Justin Leonard
12 Oct 5, 1997 Buick Challenge −21 (67-65-67-68=267) 4 strokes Stewart Cink
13 Apr 19, 1998 MCI Classic −18 (67-68-66-65=266) 7 strokes Glen Day
14 Feb 4, 2001 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am −16 (71-69-69-63=272) 1 stroke Vijay Singh
15 Feb 9, 2003 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am −14 (72-67-67-68=274) 1 stroke Tom Lehman
16 Mar 30, 2003 The Players Championship −17 (70-67-70-64=271) 6 strokes Jay Haas, Pádraig Harrington
17 Apr 20, 2003 MCI Heritage −13 (66-69-69-67=271) Playoff Woody Austin
18 Aug 10, 2003 The International 46 points (19-17-5-5=46) 12 points Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh
19 Oct 8, 2006 Chrysler Classic of Greensboro −16 (69-69-68-66=272) 2 strokes Jason Bohn
20 Nov 9, 2008 Children's Miracle Network Classic −25 (66-69-64-64=263) 1 stroke Tommy Gainey
21 Aug 23, 2015 Wyndham Championship −17 (64-66-69-64=263) 1 stroke Jason Gore

PGA Tour playoff record (2-7)

No. Year Tournament Opponent(s) Result
1 1989 Nestle Invitational Tom Kite Lost to par on second extra hole
2 1991 NEC World Series of Golf Jim Gallagher, Jr., Tom Purtzer Purtzer won with par on second extra hole
3 1992 Nissan Los Angeles Open Fred Couples Lost to birdie on second extra hole
4 1995 Freeport-McMoRan Classic Mike Heinen Won with birdie on second extra hole
5 1996 Buick Challenge Michael Bradley, Fred Funk,
John Maginnes, Len Mattiace
Bradley won with birdie on first extra hole
6 1996 Las Vegas Invitational Tiger Woods Lost to par on first extra hole
7 2000 GTE Byron Nelson Classic Phil Mickelson, Jesper Parnevik Parnevik won with par on third extra hole
Mickelson eliminated with birdie on second hole
8 2001 Buick Invitational Frank Lickliter II, Phil Mickelson Mickelson won with double bogey on third extra hole
Love eliminated with par on second
9 2003 MCI Heritage Woody Austin Won with birdie on fourth extra hole

Japan Golf Tour wins (1)

  • 1998 The Crowns

Other wins (15)

  • 1990 JCPenney Classic (with Beth Daniel)
  • 1992 Franklin Funds Shark Shootout (with Tom Kite), World Cup of Golf (with Fred Couples), Kapalua International
  • 1993 World Cup of Golf (with Fred Couples) (2)
  • 1994 World Cup of Golf (with Fred Couples) (3)
  • 1995 World Cup of Golf (x2) (team title with Fred Couples (4) & individual title), JCPenney Classic (with Beth Daniel) (2)
  • 1996 Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (with Fred Couples and Payne Stewart)
  • 1997 Lincoln-Mercury Kapalua International (2)
  • 2000 CVS Charity Classic (with Justin Leonard), Williams World Challenge
  • 2003 Target World Challenge (2)
  • 2012 Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (with Jason Day and Nick Watney) (2), PNC Father-Son Challenge (with son Davis IV "Dru")

Major championships

Wins (1)

Year Championship 54 holes Winning score Margin Runner-up
1997 PGA Championship Tied for lead −11 (66-71-66-66=269) 5 strokes Justin Leonard

Results timeline

Tournament 1986 1987 1988 1989
Masters Tournament DNP DNP CUT DNP
U.S. Open DNP DNP CUT T33
The Open Championship DNP CUT CUT T23
PGA Championship T47 CUT DNP T17
Tournament 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Masters Tournament DNP T42 T25 T54 CUT 2 T7 T7 T33 2
U.S. Open DNP T11 T60 T33 T28 T4 T2 T16 CUT T12
The Open Championship CUT T44 CUT CUT T38 T98 CUT T10 8 T7
PGA Championship T40 T32 T33 T31 CUT CUT CUT 1 T7 T49
Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Masters Tournament T7 CUT T14 T15 T6 CUT T22 T27 DNP DNP
U.S. Open CUT T7 T24 CUT CUT T6 CUT CUT T53 DNP
The Open Championship T11 T21 T14 T4 T5 CUT CUT CUT T19 T27
PGA Championship T9 T37 T48 CUT CUT T4 T34 CUT CUT CUT
Tournament 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Masters Tournament DNP CUT DNP DNP DNP DNP T42
U.S. Open T6 T11 T29 DNP DNP DNP
The Open Championship CUT T9 CUT DNP DNP DNP
PGA Championship T55 T72 CUT CUT CUT CUT

DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

Summary

Tournament Wins 2nd 3rd Top-5 Top-10 Top-25 Events Cuts made
Masters Tournament 0 2 0 2 6 10 20 15
U.S. Open 0 1 0 2 5 10 23 16
The Open Championship 0 0 0 2 6 11 26 15
PGA Championship 1 0 0 2 4 5 29 16
Totals 1 3 0 8 21 36 98 62
  • Most consecutive cuts made - 8 (2001 U.S. Open - 2003 Masters)
  • Longest streak of top-10s - 3 (1998 Open Championship - 1999 Masters)

Results in World Golf Championship events

Tournament 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Accenture Match Play Championship R64 4 DNP R32 R32 2 R16 2 R64 DNP R32
CA Championship T16 DNP NT1 8 T40 T41 T11 DNP WD DNP T28
Bridgestone Invitational T10 35 T5 T11 3 T4 T13 T4 T6 DNP T19
HSBC Champions - - - - - - - - - - DNP

1Cancelled due to 9/11
DNP = Did not play
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = Tied
WD = Withdrew
NT = No tournament
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

PGA Tour career summary

Season Wins (majors) Earnings ($) Rank
1985 0 0 -
1986 0 113,245 77
1987 1 297,378 33
1988 0 156,068 75
1989 0 278,760 44
1990 1 537,172 20
1991 1 686,361 8
1992 3 1,191,630 2
1993 2 777,059 12
1994 0 474,219 33
1995 1 1,111,999 6
1996 1 1,211,139 7
1997 2 (1) 1,635,953 3
1998 1 1,541,152 11
1999 0 2,475,328 3
2000 0 2,337,765 9
2001 1 3,169,463 5
2002 0 2,056,160 21
2003 4 6,081,896 3
2004 0 3,075,092 10
2005 0 2,658,779 13
2006 1 2,747,206 16
2007 0 1,016,489 96
2008 1 1,695,237 48
2009 0 1,622,401 52
2010 0 1,214,472 73
2011 0 1,056,300 88
2012 0 989,753 100
2013 0 303,470 165
2014 0 284,800 173
2015 1 1,263,596 75
Career* 21 (1) 44,060,343 6

*As of the 2014-15 season.

U.S. national team appearances

Amateur

  • Walker Cup: 1985 (winners)

Professional

  • Dunhill Cup: 1992
  • World Cup of Golf: 1992 (winners), 1993 (winners), 1994 (winners), 1995 (winners), 1997
  • Ryder Cup: 1993 (winners), 1995, 1997, 1999 (winners), 2002, 2004
  • Presidents Cup: 1994 (winners), 1996 (winners), 1998, 2000 (winners), 2003 (tie), 2005 (winners)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]


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