One year after injury, Love returning to past form
By Bruce Berlet, Special to PGATOUR.COM
VERONA, N.Y. -- Davis Love III celebrated a double anniversary Thursday, one he didn't want, and one he did.
The opening round of the Turning Stone Resort Championship marked the first anniversary of surgery to repair tore ligaments in Love's left ankle sustained when he stepped into a hole playing a casual round of golf.
It also was Love's first round on the PGA TOUR since Aug. 17, when he tied for 60th in the Wyndham Championship. Unfortunately, that kind of finish has been commonplace for the future Hall of Famer since his misstep 13 months ago.
But a 6-under-par 66 Saturday that started with four birdies in a chilling rain and ended as the low round of the week at Atunyote Golf Club dramatically improved Love's psyche.
"It's nice to be playing again on the weekend and teeing off (Sunday) at 1 o'clock instead of at 10 in the morning," said Love, who vaulted from a tie for 38th to a share of ninth entering the final round of the second leg of the Fall Series. "And it's nice to be where I am after being 3 over after (six) holes Thursday."
Ah, Thursday, that wanted and unwanted anniversary.
Now, Love is only three shots behind co-leaders Charles Howell III and Tag Ridings, but by the end of Saturday's round, he felt right in contention, playing behind the leaders who had teed off on the opposite side.
After the weather-delayed second round was completed in the morning, Love was in the first group off the 10th tee and promptly made four lengthy birdie putts and another on No. 16. He added birdies at the fourth and fifth holes before a three-putt at No. 7 produced his only bogey, preventing him from tying his low round of the year.
"I've been close to playing well for a while, but I kept hitting it 40-50 feet (from the hole) and three-putting," said Love, who entered the week in the unfamiliar position of 155th on the money list.
"But I did it only once today, hit it closer and took advantage with some good putts. I've been rolling it better every day, so I'm excited about seeing a few go in and looking forward to tomorrow and four or five more of these Fall Series events to get back on a roll.
"I'm moving in the right direction as long as I can just stay out of my own way, get into my routine and play one shot at a time. As long as I don't get wrapped up in the tournament, I'll do well."
Love needed a confidence boost after the ankle injury that sidelined the 19-time PGA TOUR winner until the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in February. When he returned, he got so wrapped up in trying to keep his majors streak alive --- it ended at 70 at the Masters --- and trying to make the Ryder Cup team that he overextended himself.
"It was a long six months of coming back to try to play," said Love, who is fifth on the PGA TOUR's career money list. "Now I know what football and basketball players, when they have surgery and try to come back to their sport, how hard it is and what goes into it. But I came back as fast as I could to try to play some tournaments before the Masters."
But more mediocre finishes and missed cuts kept Love out of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, so he had had six weeks off since his last start.
"[The layoff] definitely helped. I needed it," said Love, who has one top-20 finish, a tie for 19th in the British Open. "I went straight from the Wyndham to my surgeon and said, 'What's going on? He said, 'You over-rehabbed and overplayed and now you need to take a break.' "
Now Love would like to replicate close friend and frequent Ryder Cup partner Justin Leonard. A year ago, Leonard was struggling and won the Valero Texas Open that he'll defend next week.
He carried that success into 2008, when he has had nine top-10 finishes, including a victory in the Stanford St. Jude Championship, and made the Ryder Cup team for the first time in nine years.
Love had been on every Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup team since 1993, when he holed the winning putt at The Belfry. Love would love to be on the 2010 U.S. Ryder Cup team that defends in Wales.
But his first international goal is making the 2009 Presidents Cup team, which will be captained by close friend Fred Couples, whose longtime caddie, Joe LaCava, is working for Love this week and much of the Fall Series.
"I know what Justin did, so that's what I've got to do: Get my confidence back, get in contention, get a few wins and then Freddy won't have to pick me," Love said. "He said he wanted my son, Drew, and I to make the team, but he didn't want to have to pick us. We're both going to have to pick it up."
Perhaps fittingly, a victory Sunday would come 12 days after Love received the Payne Stewart Award at THE TOUR Championship Presented by Coca-Cola. 
"It was nice to get it there because there were some friends from town," Love said. "Obviously the players that my dad introduced me to growing up and then the players that I hung around with when I came out on TOUR, like Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw, were a great influence on me.
"And as some of my mom's friends said at home, congratulations on your mom's award because I listened to my mother and did as I was told, and obviously I listened to what he said to my mother because my dad told me so.
"But the award is an honor because it's there to point out what a great guy Payne Stewart was, what a great ambassador he was to the game and what we want our TOUR players to strive for," Love added. "Brad Faxon said it best when he got the award (in 2005) that every player should try to win the Payne Stewart Award. That should be their goal. You can't win it by hitting any golf shots."
But hitting more good golf shots Sunday could give Love something else to celebrate.
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