Davis Love interview

[Steve_ Shaffer]

from today's Ft. Myers News-Press:

Love designs in classic way
Although focused on course architecture, he’d like to win another major

By Seth Soffian
Originally posted on March 07, 2007

As he often tends to do, Davis Love III, a 19-time PGA Tour winner and only modestly prominent golf course architect, spells it out plainly: He’s a copycat in a business full of them.

Walking the grounds of River Hall Country Club east of Fort Myers, Love and his design team were reminded of greens from many of the game’s classic courses: Chicago Golf Club, National Golf Links and even Brunswick Country Club, a Donald Ross design in Georgia that Love’s design team is restoring.

“The classics work,” said Love, paying homage to “masters” such as C.B. Macdonald, Donald Ross and Seth Raynor. “Like Dodge going back and building the Charger again. The classics always come back around.”

During his visit last month to River Hall, about six miles east of Interstate 75 on Palm Beach Boulevard and scheduled to open in October, Love discussed more about course-design philosophy, his health and, yes, his desire to win a second career major championship.

Here's the full article:

http://tinyurl.com/355uol

www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070307/ENT10/70307012/1010/SPORTS

[TEPaul]

It's good to see a current tour pro/designer with so much respect for the classic style architecture and continuously says so, as Davis Love does. I'm almost certain he's not just saying that----he really believes it and studies it. Frankly, I'm pretty sure Davis Love is one of those people who just flat has good taste!

[BCrosby]

I do not know Davis Love, but I know of many kind things he has done for kids and junior golfers during various Tour Championships at East Lake. Including, specifically, kindnesses to my nephew and niece.

But at last year's Tour Championship he did something very special. After posting an 81 in the first round, Love was the first off the next day as a single. The night before the Atlanta Journal Constitution asked him who he would want as his spotter if he could have one.

He said it would be Charlie Harrison. Charlie was a great amateur player in the  late '50's and early 60's. He played in several Masters (held the course record jointly with some others until Price broke it in the late '80's.) Charlie also had gone out of his way to encourage and play with a very young Davis Love at Atlanta Country Club when Davis's father was the pro there in the 70's.

Davis was kind enough to remember all that to the AJC. Charlie is a friend. I can't tell you what a thrill Davis gave him.

The next day Davis's mother, Charlie and I followed Davis at East Lake. We were pretty much his only gallery.

Everywhere Charlie went that day on the grounds at EL people said how much they had enjoyed Davis's mention of him. Not many people knew Charlie's history so they wanted to know more. Charlie was in heaven, retelling story after story. Thanks to Davis.

I'm not the maudlin type, but it's a great day when a leading pro of our era takes the time to highlight publicly a great amateur and friend from an earlier era.

Well done, Davis.

If the same thoughtfulness carries over to the design work of Davis's group, they have it licked.

Bob    

[Rick Shefchik]

If you've ever played fantasy golf (roster of PGA pros with a salary cap, compete to see how much money your roster makes at each tour stop), you know that Davis Love III is the most frustrating big-name player on Tour. You can never guess how he's going to do, except that, before and after his PGA win, it's a pretty good bet that he's not going to play up to his ability level. You are almost forced to conclude that he's just too comfortable to push himself as hard as he would need to in order to win as often as he should.

But after reading this thread, my impression of the guy has changed. He seems like a very good man whose priorities are quite well in order.

[Kalen Braley]

Hey,

The guy can't be too bad.  After all he had OCC make a custom bike for him. Checked out the sweet raked forks....very very nice.

[George Pazin]

Rick -

I have a very different take on Davis and the whole idea of judging  performance.

I believe people are too wowed by length, ball striking ability and stats. The real talent, the real gift, is the ability to win, which usually means (quite obviously) shooting the lowest score that matters at that time.

I don't think this is something that is entirely work related, nor do I believe it's something that is effort related. As evidence, I say look at Tiger at The Masters last year. Arguably the greatest player ever, unquestionably the greatest player and winner of the last 30 years, Tiger himself said he never wanted to win a tournament as badly as he wanted to win The Masters last year, due to his father's failing health. His caddie Steve Williams said he's never seen Tiger try as hard to win a tournament. He quite obviously didn't. Did he fail? Not by my standards, he just didn't win. I feel the same way about a lot of Davis's play.

When it comes to evaluating DLIII's career, I think people need to take a good long look at just how deep the competition is these days. Forget how effortlessly he hits the ball a mile, just look at what it takes to win. And, most importantly, don't be warped by the inhuman standard that Tiger has set. If Tiger hadn't come along, people would be speculating as to whether a career like Davis's, Phil's, Ernie's, Vijay's, Freddie's, etc., would be now as good a career as anyone would ever have again.

-----

As for Davis's views on architecture, I encourage everyone to read his heartfelt book, Every Shot I Take. He discusses his views on gca a bit, even relates a few stories about his burgeoning business.

The other thing to take note of is Paul Cowley's (paul cowley? ) posts. In spite of his self-deprecating attempts to portray himself otherwise, he is one of the most insightful and thoughtful posters on the site. He's kind of like the east coast version of Slag - almost every post reeks of a pure insight that most can only dream of attaining. The fact that he would choose to work with Davis speaks volumes of the man's judgement, imho.

Thanks for posting the link to the interview, Steve.

[John Kavanaugh]

Hey,

The guy can't be too bad.  After all he had OCC make a custom bike for him. Checked out the sweet raked forks....very very nice.

I watched that episode and thought the boys mailed it in that day.  I really hate the detail on what you might call a back rest, the gas tank is horrible in proportion and paint scheme and the bike did not seem to fit a man of Davis's build.  I do love Kinderlou Forest though.

[Kalen Braley]

I suppose everyone has thier interpretations...and yes the tank is out of proportion.

But....look at the forks, the custom sissy bar, throwback wheels, one of a kind exahast pipes, and the old school spring seat.

I wouldn't turn it down.

It was designed to be a "minimalist" bike and they did pretty damn good with it I think...

[John Kavanaugh]

Thanks...I forgot the backrest is called a sissy bar.  What was the detail on the bolts...were they supposed to be tees?  I don't see why it would have been wrong to give Davis a bike that could be rode.  I have quite a few friends that would love to have a bike with room for a small carry bag.

Did you see where Jesse James settled out of court because of emissions problems with the state of CA...Never heard what happened to OCC.

[Kalen Braley]

Thanks...I forgot the backrest is called a sissy bar.  What was the detail on the bolts...were they supposed to be tees?  I don't see why it would have been wrong to give Davis a bike that could be rode.  I have quite a few friends that would love to have a bike with room for a small carry bag.

Did you see where Jesse James settled out of court because of emissions problems with the state of CA...Never heard what happened to OCC.

Well those bikes ain't made for riding long distances and such. The bolts being tees sounds feasible, I think I remeber them saying something about that.

I did read about Jesse James settling for his Monster Garage gig as none of those modified rigs had emissions permissions and such.  But man that was a great show...

OCC is based out of New York or New Jersey or somewhere back east so doubt they had much to do with CA.