Love Will Try to Get His Life Back on Course

Davis Love III is not on vacation in Florida this week with his family.

Instead, he is spending his nights in his motor home, parked in Lot E at Olympia Fields Country Club. He is spending his days hard at work, trying to win the U.S. Open.

It is a difficult assignment all around. Love has entered his 15th U.S. Open, still searching for his first victory. If he can’t get that, maybe he can break par, achievement enough, and something Love has accomplished only once when he tied for second, in 1996, when Steve Jones won at Oakland Hills.

Love says he feels guilty about not being with his wife, Robin, and the family for the big vacation in Florida.

There, four children are asking questions and looking for answers, trying to do something that’s at least as hard as winning the U.S. Open.

They’re trying to cope.

Next Monday, it will be a month since Love drove to the family’s fishing estate in South Georgia and found the body of his brother-in-law. Jeff Knight, who was married to Robin Love’s sister, had killed himself, distraught and depressed after admitting to Love that he had embezzled from him in his role as a manager of some of Love’s business affairs.

Love’s two children and Knight’s two children, ages four to 15, are on that vacation in Florida. Love wishes he could have spent even more time with them in the last few weeks, explaining as much as he can to children who lost their father, uncle, or friend.

So although he might be worrying about how to win the U.S. Open, Love says what he really is worried about are the children. He admits this is not good preparation for the Open, but believes it might be the best preparation for life.

The real world, Love says, isn’t about golf. That’s only a game. Maybe the pros don’t always realize how lucky they are to be so talented to play it well, he says. He also says he knows for sure that golf is not the biggest thing in the world.

What’s real, what’s important, are family and loved ones ... how they make you feel and how you feel when they’re no longer around.

Love has now been reminded of that twice through tragedy. His father, Davis Love Jr., died in a plane crash in 1988.

It was sort of a strange day Tuesday at Olympia Fields.

In the morning, a cold rain pounded the course and in the afternoon, strong winds blew through the trees and against the rows of white, canvas tents at the entrance near the train tracks.

Love seemed distracted, slightly edgy, both perfectly understandable, but totally out of character for the veteran player who is stoic by nature and now is strong enough to share intimate details of his personal life as well as his most private feelings.

It was a great day for Davis Love.

Here he is, a 39-year-old on his way to the best year of his career, already with three victories and nearly $4 million in the bank. He thinks he has a shot at winning the U.S. Open and is explaining that he is worried more about what’s happening on the family vacation.

We do not know what is in store for Davis Love this week. The fact is, the U.S. Open has not proven itself to be a sentimental venue. It is short on love.

Still, this could be a very good week, said Love, who believes this may be his best chance to win the Open.

He bases that on his confidence and peace of mind, and if that sounds like a contradiction, it really isn’t. Inside the ropes, playing golf, that’s where Love finds refuge. He says the U.S. Open is a welcome challenge and the correct place to become distracted for a while.

And that’s not saying the Open is going to be any easier than it ever is. Love went so far as to say that the typical U.S. Open demeanor is to beat on golfers, wear on them and knock them down by the end of the day.

He didn’t say so, but Love must feel prepared. And, he could ask you, isn’t this only a golf tournament?

Here is what Davis Love believes: The most difficult challenge is to show people who lost someone vital to their lives that you are strong and you can help. To show that life goes on. To show that Dad has gone back to work.

Only Monday at the PGA Tour tournament in Washington, Love shot a 67 and tied for seventh. It was the first tournament he’d played since driving to the fishing retreat May 16.

He said some people told him that they couldn’t believe he was playing again. Love said he told them he couldn’t believe he made three bogeys in the last round.

And so it goes for Davis Love and his family, separated by miles, but connected by something else. He says that last week, his kids were following his scores in the tournament at Washington in the usual way. Casually. It went like this, Love said: “How did you play, Dad? Guess what we did today.”

Love interpreted that exchange as a good sign, for everybody. The idea is to be normal. Sure, Love said, it’s a new normal, but after all, life goes on.