Hot start gives Love leg up on solid 2009 season

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Davis Love rode his red-hot putter all the way into a tie for second Thursday at Kapalua.

KAPALUA, Hawaii -- A year ago, Davis Love III had to watch the Mercedes-Benz Championship on TV.

Inside the Numbers

Love thru 18 Holes

Category Total Rank Eagles 0 N/A Birdies 6 T2 Pars 10 T23 Bogeys 2 T12 Double Bogeys 0 N/A Other 0 N/A Driving Accuracy 66.7% T19 Driving Distance 277.0 yds. 2 Greens in Regulation 77.8% T17 Putts per Round 28 T2 Putts per GIR 1.571 T1 Sand Saves 0 T7

But even if Love had managed that victory in 2007 that would have earned an invitation to the PGA TOUR's season-opener, he couldn't have played at Kapalua. Not with just one good leg.

Those tendons he tore in his left ankle when he stepped in a hole the previous fall have long since healed, though, and Love punched his ticket to Maui with a win the Children's Miracle Network Classic presented by Walmart two months ago.

Now Love is starting 2009 the way he ended 2008 -- in contention for what would be his second straight victory and the 21st of what is sure to be a World Golf Hall of Fame career.

"I've been working real hard on my putting, on my short game, and it starting to pay off," said Love, whose 4-under 69 Thursday on the Plantation Course included six birdies and left him two strokes behind leader Geoff Ogilvy.

"It's nice to have the confidence back and be able to take, basically, 2 1/2 weeks off in the snow, and then come right back and start playing good golf, just like I did. ... It's nice to be, you know, 80 or 90 percent healthy after where I was this time last year."

Love earned his way to Kapalua, where he won two unofficial PGA TOUR events, with a brilliant late-season surge that saw him play six straight weeks and finish in the top 11 three times before the victory. He was rested -- and extremely motivated -- after being shut out of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

Ironically, Love was a member of the PGA TOUR Policy Board when the FedExCup was created. He never expected not to be able to cash in on the $35 million bounty and compete for the coveted season-long championship.

"See, they ran these models and I was always in the model," Love said with a wry smile. "Here is what (would happen) if you had a year like '06 or '05, and I was always doing really good. ... It's been kind of boring watching other guys play for it.

The 43-year-old Love also wants to make the U.S. Team that his good friend Fred Couples will take to San Francisco in October for the Presidents Cup. The 1997 PGA champion wants to be a factor in the majors again, too.

"I'm excited about doing all of the things that I used to do," Love said. "And that means I've got to keep after it and keep working hard and working smart. I've got a lot of experience. I've got enough ball-striking ability.

"I've just got to do the little things, the short game, that keeps you in the game."

There was a time that Love was making that game harder on himself, though. As many players do, he became too mechanical as he strove to perfect his swing. Then a missed cut in at the 2007 Open Championship sent him straight to his sports psychologist.

"I sat down with Bob Rotella and said, 'What am I doing?'" Love recalled. "He said, 'You're working out to play better, you're pounding balls to play better, and everything in your life is to play better. That isn't Davis Love. Davis Love would go snowboarding for two weeks and know that he was going to play good when he came back.

"He said, 'You've got it all completely backwards.'"

Rotella's words struck a chord with Love. The payoff came in Orlando as Love closed with a 64 that included clutch par saves on the last two holes, to beat Tommy Gainey by one stroke.

The victory also was Love's 20th on TOUR -- only Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson have more among active players -- and gave him a lifetime exemption on TOUR. He didn't realize the magnitude of his accomplishment until later, though, as the congratulatory phone calls came in.

"So many people did that, that I started to realize how important it was to get to 20," Love said. "People start talking about me in the Hall of Fame. I didn't start off my career working towards 20 wins or the Hall of Fame. I just want to see how good I can get and try to win a lot.

"The realization is probably in the last couple of months, what it meant. I got a book from the TOUR of congratulations off the (PGATOUR.COM) Web site, it's that thick (holding his fingers two inches apart), and it's not one per page, it's two or three. It's incredible how many people acknowledge that, 20 wins, and that's not counting my Web site or my office. It's pretty amazing. It did hit me afterwards."

The win did not get Love back into the Masters, though, because the tournament does not award FedExCup points. But he still has two avenues to get to Augusta National, where he has six top-10s, including a pair of runner-up finishes.

Love's in if he moves into the top 50 in the world rankings by the end of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. Of course, he could also earn an invitation with another win -- and Kapalua would be a good place to start.

"(I am) just ready to go again," Love said. "Just looking forward to building on it and working hard and staying competitive. Somebody, I guess in the pro-am yesterday, said, The way you are hitting it, you could play out here for 10 more years.

"I said, yeah, exactly. That's what I want to do. I want to stay on this TOUR competitive longer than anybody of my generation. I want to keep on playing."