Proud golf father Love big name at Shaw classic
Davis Love III grew up around the greats.
And then became one of them. Long before he was a major champion and a World Golf Hall of Fame inductee, Love would shadow his father — a legendary teaching pro and a heck of a player in his own right.
“It was inspiring,” said Love, one of the marquee additions to the field for the Shaw Charity Classic, which tees off Friday at Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club.
“My dad wasn’t a steady tour player, but he was always around tour players in one way or another from when I was a little kid all the way up until in college. He knew the tour players. He played with them some or taught some of them.
“So when I got out on tour, I didn’t walk into a locker-room and not know anybody. I could make a game with Tom Kite or Ben Crenshaw. I knew Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus and if they walked in, they’d say hello to me because they knew who I was. I was not a rookie that they were uncomfortable with and had to figure out, ‘Who’s that kid and where did he come from?’
“And I think the biggest thing for me was growing up with a tour event in my backyard in Atlanta. My dad was the pro at Atlanta Country Club and we had a tour event there every year. Actually, the first Players Championship was at Atlanta Country Club — Jack Nicklaus won and my brother (Mark) and I sold lemonade on the second hole.
“So it was more of an inspiration to me that I want to be like my dad and play golf. I want to be like my dad and be a pro. I want to be like my dad’s friends and win tournaments.”
Check.
Check.
Check.
Love has claimed 21 tournament titles on the biggest stage, highlighted by a five-stroke romp at the 1997 PGA Championship at Winged Foot and a pair of wins at the Players Championship, triumphs that presumably earned him a lot more loot than his lemonade stand all those years earlier.
Shaw Charity Classic organizers always manage to attract a couple of big-name newcomers and Love certainly fits that bill this summer.
After all, the 54-year-old still logs the bulk of his rounds on the PGA Tour, where the competition includes several of the sons of his longtime pals and playing partners.
In fact, Love has teed it up at several tournaments with his own boy Dru, who was raised inside the ropes and has been granted some tournament exemptions this season as the 24-year-old chases his own divot-digging dreams.
“It’s just such a blessing that I can still be out there playing,” said Love, a long hitter who has racked up nearly US$45 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour and made his 100th major appearance earlier this month at the PGA Championship at Bellerive.
“Nothing makes me happier than to get paired with Kevin Tway or Bill Haas or one of these kids that I have literally babysat. Jan Haas comes out to watch Bill and I play together and she gets tears in her eyes — ‘Oh, you used to give Bill shirts when he was little and you used to play with him in the locker-room.’
“And if Dru could make it out there, he’d have the same support and the same family of tour players around him that watched him grow up. I knew Bill Haas would do fine if he got there because he’d be comfortable. He grew up on the tour. It was just could he get from college to on tour? Sure enough, when he got there, he played great. Same thing with Kevin Tway. He’s gotten to be a better player on tour just because he’s comfortable out there.
“Hopefully Dru will make it out there, too.”
That would certainly put a smile on his father’s face.
Love was a golf son.
Then a golf star.
And now, as he arrives in Calgary for his first crack at Canyon Meadows, it’s clear he takes as much pride in his role as a golf dad as he does in trying to add to his own trophy collection.
“Dru, he’s a late start at being a competitive golfer. Really, he was 15 or 16 years old when he decided he wanted to get good and play in college,” said Love, who lost one of his biggest fans when his dad was killed in a plane crash in 1988.
“So he’s behind a little bit on where I started. And I can’t make him be me. He’s a different person. He’s way more talented and I just worry if I push him too hard he’ll lose interest or it won’t be fun.
“But we do have honest conversations. I disagree with the way that he does some things and he disagrees with the way I do some things. He helps me with my game probably as much I help him with his. It’s more like now we’re competitors and friends and bouncing things off each other …
“I just like being around him and watching him play and trying to keep up with him.”