Under a rainbow, Davis Love III wins PGA Championship;
Tiger falters
By RON SIRAK AP Golf Writer
MAMARONECK, N.Y. (AP) - Davis Love III was born the day after
his father played in the Masters and decided to be a pro when
he watched him in the PGA Championship. On Sunday, he won that
championship for the man who died in a 1988 plane crash.
A year ago on Father's Day, Love slumped in despair on the
final green as he let the U.S. Open he so desperately wanted for
his namesake slip away with a three-putt to finish second by one
stroke.
On this day, Love didn't let matters get to the 18th green.
He started strong and closed with a 66 at Winged Foot Golf Club
to win his first major championship by five strokes over Justin
Leonard.
Playing most of the last four holes in a driving rain and finishing
as the sun broke out and a rainbow appeared over the majestic
clubhouse, Love washed away any chance Leonard had for a miracle
comeback by playing the difficult final six holes one under par.
A finishing birdie gave Love a 72-hole total of 11-under-par
269.
"It was hard to get through those last three holes without
breaking down," Love said, choking back emotion. "It's
been a rough trip getting to this point."
After the final putt fell, Love took off his visor and swung
it through the air and hugged Leonard. Then, with tears welling
in his eyes, he fell into emotional embraces with his brother,
Mark, who caddies for him; his wife, Robin; and his mother.
"It's been a long time," he said. "I know I
lost a lot of tournaments by pushing too hard, but my family and
friends stood by me."
Love, who now has 11 career victories, has long labored under
the label of being one of the best golfers in the world not to
have won a major title.
"He's been under an awful lot of pressure for four or
five years," Leonard said about Love. "Having shed that
title or whatever you want to call it, that takes a lot of pressure
off him. Now, the sky is the limit."
This victory on a very difficult Winged Foot course against
a very deep field should go a long way toward making up for past
disappointments for Love.
Leonard, 25, was trying to make it a clean sweep in the four
Grand Slam events for the twentysomething golfers. He won the
British Open last month, Ernie Els, 27, won the U.S. Open and
Tiger Woods, 21, took the Masters.
But while Love is not in the under-30 crowd, his victory did
mean that the last 13 major championships were won by 13 different
people.
Love and Leonard started the day tied at 7-under-par, seven
strokes ahead of anyone else. And with no one making a move, it
was clear by the time they teed off that the tournament would
be decided in their group.
The outcome was all but settled shockingly early as Leonard
struggled off the tee and Love played with calm precision to shoot
a 32 on the front nine to Leonard's 37.
Leonard never got closer than three strokes the rest of the
way.
"I'm disappointed," Leonard said. "I felt good
coming into today. He just played very well."
Jeff Maggert closed with a course record-tying 65 and was third
at 276 to earn enough points to qualify for the U.S. Ryder Cup
team. Lee Janzen was at 279. And Tom Kite, making a case to select
himself as a captain's choice for the Ryder Cup team, finished
at 280.
Woods shot a 75 and finished at 286 along with John Daly, who
tossed his driver over a fence on the 12th hole Saturday and had
another rocky round, engaging in a tense verbal exchange with
a rules official on the sixth hole.
Love handled the final-round pressure like a man who had won
a bundle of major championships - not like a man looking for his
first.
"We threw away a lot of them," Love said about his
past disappointments in major championships. "But we got
this one."
Leonard made a bogey on No. 2 when he drove into the right
rough behind a tree and could only pitch back to the fairway.
Love picked up another stroke when he made a 23-foot birdie putt
from just off the fringe on the third hole.
The lead grew to three strokes on the next hole when Leonard
bogeyed after driving in the left rough and the advantage became
four when Love hit the par-5 fifth green in two and two-putted
for a birdie.
Leonard missed a 3-foot birdie putt on No. 6 but rolled in
a 45-footer for a birdie on the next hole. A two-stroke swing
on No. 8 gave Love a five-stroke lead going to the back nine.
Love simply never let Leonard get back into the match.
When Leonard cut it to three strokes with a birdie on No. 15,
Love stepped to the 16th tee in a driving rain and split the fairway
with a pressure drive.
"Those two shots he hit at 16 in a downpour were just
incredible," Leonard said.
Then it was just a matter of fighting back the tears the final
three holes.
The elder Love, a respected teaching pro who finished 34th
in the 1964 Masters, was killed in a 1988 plane crash, and his
son always saw winning a major championship as a special gift
for his father.
His father taught him the game, and watching his father play
made him decide he wanted to be a professional.
"In the summer after I turned 10, in 1974, I went with
dad to the PGA Championship," Love wrote in "Every Shot
I Take," his recent book.
"That was an eye-opener," Love wrote. " My father
played in the tournament and I was mesmerized by the atmosphere.
I thought to myself, "Man, this is the life."
Love's best previous chance at a major came in last year's
U.S. Open at Oakland Hills. A birdie on the final hole would have
given him almost certain victory. But he missed a difficult 12-footer
and then missed again from three feet, opening the door for Steve
Jones.
That disappointment was made doubly painful because it happened
on Father's Day.
It was not until Love's 28th major - the 1995 Masters - that
he was able to muster even a top-10 finish in a major. He was
second at that Masters through no fault of his own. Ben Crenshaw
simply made every putt he needed to make.
He had a chance to win the U.S. Open later that year at Shinnecock
Hills but missed a series of important putts on the back nine
on Sunday and Corey Pavin took the title.
Love left nothing to chance on Sunday. He took the game right
to Leonard and never let the pressure ease.
The performance was something a teaching pro like Davis Love
Jr. would have appreciated.
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