Love Comes From Nowhere at Pebble Beach

By THOMAS BONK

Feb. 5, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

PEBBLE BEACH —

Just to prove it’s a slippery path to victory, we bring you Davis Love III, who had to rush across the street to his rental house and change his pants after he accidentally smeared grease on them at the driving range.

So that’s what it takes to win. Pretty soon, players are going to be changing pants, socks, shoes, hats, shirts and caddies between holes.

Hey, whatever works. Sure, Love had Roman numerals, but he had no victories, not in his last 62 tournaments anyway, not since he won the MCI Classic in April 1998.

Love had no problem remembering how to win, which he managed to do in rousing fashion Sunday at Pebble Beach, where he turned in a final-round 63 that featured a 28 on the front, good for a one-shot victory over Vijay Singh in the AT&T; Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Seven shots off the lead as the day started, Love set a PGA Tour record for a consecutive birdie-eagle streak by going eight-under the first seven holes.

That’s how he started, once he changed his pants after smearing them with the greasy grip on the nine-iron he used at the driving range. Love figured that grease had dripped into his bag from the garage door opener at the house where he was staying, across the street from the driving range.

“It was one of those days when everything just kind of went,” said Love, whose 16-under-par total of 272 earned him his 14th PGA Tour victory, worth $720,000.

Love trailed 54-hole leaders Phil Mickelson and Olin Browne by seven shots when he teed off, but even then, he didn’t feel that to be an insurmountable gap to close.

“I’m only seven back, that’s where Tiger was last year,” Love said. “It can be done.”

As it turned out, he was correct. Love’s comeback equals the best come-from-behind victory here, matching Bob Rosburg in 1961. And Love’s 63 matched the lowest 18-hole score at Pebble Beach without the lift-clean-and-place rule.

Love finished 40 minutes ahead of Mickelson and waited on the driving range to see if either Mickelson or Singh could catch him. He caught a little bit on television, but mostly he just waited.

“It was a long 40 minutes,” Love said.

Down by a shot and trying desperately to catch Love, Mickelson hit his second shot into the water at No. 18 and wound up with a double bogey. Mickelson’s 73 dropped him into third place with Browne, three shots behind the winner.

Love was staying loose on the driving range in case there was a playoff, but that didn’t seem like much of a possibility. Mickelson had done little all day and was three shots back with three holes to go. But he birdied the 16th and rolled in a five-footer to birdie the 17th and close within one shot of Love.

With one chance left, Mickelson went for the green with his second shot at the par-five 18th. He had 257 yards to the hole and hit a driver, but the ball never reached the green, veering left and landing instead on the rocks, bouncing crazily into the water.

Singh’s best chance reached a similar conclusion a hole earlier. One shot behind Mickelson, Singh’s seven-iron at the par-three 17th was too much and the ball went over the green, onto the rocks and into the water. Singh, who had missed a five-foot birdie putt at the 15th that would have caught Love, needed to eagle the last hole to catch up, but his shot from the greenside bunker rolled past the hole.

Singh finished with a 69, one shot short of Love.

It wasn’t as if Love was sorry he won, but he was sympathetic to what happened to his two closest pursuers.

“I’ve been where Phil and Vijay are right now many times in the past three years,” Love said. “Obviously, it’s not a lot of fun.”

Tiger Woods also fell short in the fun department. Woods couldn’t make any kind of charge and tied for 13th at eight-under 280 with a closing round of 72. It was the first time Woods was out of the top 10 since August at the Buick Open, where he tied for 11th.

And in what has become common in his post-tournament critiques this year, Woods laid a large part of the blame on the greens.

His putts wouldn’t hold the correct line, he said.

“I had to just send them in the general direction and hope they bounced in,” Woods said. “I hit the ball all right and it wouldn’t go in the hole. Not on these greens.”

Woods’ winless streak is now six consecutive tournaments, three of them this year. Woods, who plays next week at the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines, says he just needs some putts to fall.

“I’m not that far away,” he said. “It’s nice to see some of the things I’ve been working on with my swing come around.”

Love’s strategy was to get off to a quick start and try to put pressure on the leaders before they even got to the first tee.

What Love hoped to do was “scare them maybe.”

He started his record streak when he made a 20-foot birdie putt at No. 1, then eagled No. 2 when he holed a pitching wedge from 108 yards after driving into the right rough. Love went four under through three holes when he made a four-foot birdie putt, persuaded a 25-foot birdie putt to drop at No. 4 and a four-footer at No. 5 when a five-iron got him close.

Then six under through five, Love came out of a bunker to six feet and made the birdie putt, then hit a sand wedge from 101 yards on the par-three seventh and stopped the ball two feet from the hole.

Suddenly, Love was leading.

“It was an emotional roller-coaster,” he said.

For almost three years, since the last time he won, it was not as much of an emotionally charged period, Love said. He stayed focused, kept his mind on his business and reminded himself how hard it is to win on the PGA Tour.

“It’s hard, geez,” Love said. “You never know how or when you’re going to win, but if you tee off not thinking you’re going to win, then you aren’t going to win. I wasn’t frustrated, just a little disappointed. I just hung in there.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Final 72-hole scores of the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am:

DAVIS LOVE III

(-16) $720,000

VIJAY SINGH

(-15) $432,000

PHIL MICKELSON and OLIN BROWNE

(-13) $232,000

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

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