Thursday, November 17, 2016
Sea Island Golf Club
The RSM Classic Media Center
Jack Peter, World Golf Hall of Fame President
Davis Love III, Class of 2017 Inductee
Dave Cordero, World Golf Hall of Fame Communications Director
DAVE CORDERO: Hello again, everybody and thank you. It’s a special night for Davis Love III. My name is Dave Cordero, and I’m with the World Golf Hall of Fame. To my far left is Jack Peter, the President of the World Golf Hall of Fame, and of course next to me, our tournament host, Davis Love III.
I’m going to ask Jack to say a few words about the World Golf Hall of Fame. We’re going to turn it over to Davis for his comments, and then we’ll open it up for questions to the media. As soon as we’re finished with the questions and answers, we have a special toast that we’re doing – a champagne toast – that will be brought out for everybody tonight.
So with that, I’m going to turn it over to Jack.
JACK PETER: Thank you, Dave. Well, first of all, let me shake your hand, Davis. Congratulations and welcome to the World Golf Hall of Fame family.
I’m extremely honored to be here this evening. Sea Island and the golf club up here happen to be personally one of my favorite places in the world. I live in Ponte Vedra Beach just down the road. I know this isn’t about me, but an hour and a half later I’m in a completely different universe up here. This is the greatest place in the world.
I want to thank Melanie Trotter and the folks at the RSM for hosting us. It’s a great event. Congratulations on the success you’ve achieved. I know you had your press conference earlier in the week. It’s amazing the amount of charitable proceeds that continue to be raised through this event, so congratulations to everybody – including Davis – for making all that happen.
So we could go on and on. You just saw a 10‑minute video that chronicled Davis’ career, his wins, his Bobby Jones Award, his Payne Stewart Award. But tonight we’re going to acknowledge his impending Induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Last month, as you all know, we announced the class of ’17. Along with Davis, Meg Mallon, Lorena Ochoa, Ian Woosnam and the late Henry Longhurst will be inducted on Tuesday, September 26, 2017, in New York City. Much like we did a year and a half ago in St. Andrews, we’re going to kick off a major event with the Presidents Cup, which is going to be played at Liberty National Golf Club.
So when you talk about Halls of Fame, it’s interesting. Particularly in my position, you get asked a lot of questions about who is Hall worthy, whether it’s baseball, whether it’s football, did this person do this, did this person do that. I will tell you no one asked that question about Davis. Clearly, as the video said, from 1985 onward, decade after decade, what Davis has done inside the ropes, outside the ropes is a body of work that really is Hall of Fame worthy and we couldn’t be more pleased to welcome him into the family of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
We’ve had our eye on Davis for a while. You all know we changed our rules and our regulations, at the ripe old age of 52, but we’re looking forward to welcoming him into the Hall of Fame next September. So with that I’ll turn it over to Davis and ask him to comment on what it means to become part of the Hall of Fame and then we’ll open it up for questions.
DAVIS LOVE III: Well, it’s an incredible honor to just, over the last three or four years I’ve been on the Board of the Tour for so long, I’ve watched the growth of the Hall of Fame, the move to Ponte Vedre and St. Augustine, the commitment that the PGA Tour’s made to it. So I would like to think that I’ve helped it along a little bit.
But when Tim Finchem would always talk to me about being in the Hall of Fame, I always said, No, no, no, that’s for Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus and those kind of guys. It’s amazing. And Meg Mallon, I keep saying this, Meg Mallon in our first press conference, I just keep pinching myself. When they said they were going to have a toast and another press conference and when I saw the video, I’m pinching myself pretty hard. It’s amazing. Ian Woosnam and Meg and I have competed against each other, with each other for a long time. It’s going to be a great class to be a part of.
You know, it’s still mind boggling to me that 30 years after starting this journey that I would ever end up in the Hall of Fame. But to see guys like Jack and so many that have called me, texted me, emailed me, written me letters congratulating me. When I won my 20th win and I was a lifetime member, it wasn’t until my peers told me how important it was that I realized, wow, this is quite an accomplishment.
The same thing with this, to get a letter from Jack Nicklaus, to see what he said, so many of the great players have called and congratulated me. Then to walk around, this is only my second week back after a long layoff and the news and have literally every player, caddie come up and congratulate me on being in the Hall of Fame. And the nice thing is when they say “it’s about time.”
I watched Fred Couples go in and I said if Freddie’s going in, maybe I do have a shot. So I’m honored, thrilled that I’m in the family. I’m looking forward to going down to St. Augustine and checking out what kind of stuff I need to bring with me to put in my little corner. It’s going to be a fun journey this next year. I just hope Steve Stricker will give me a night off from my assistant captain’s duties to go to the ceremony.
JACK PETER: We’re working him hard.
DAVIS LOVE III: Maybe he’ll come.
JACK PETER: That’s right. Okay. We’ll open it up for questions.
QUESTION: Davis, this might have been discussed on the teleconference you did, so if it’s repetitive, I apologize. To you, what does Hall of Fame mean? Beyond anything you did on a golf course, beyond all the shots, what do you think goes into a Hall of Fame career besides that?
DAVIS LOVE III: Well, I think your contributions to the game certainly. I think that’s what I learned from our dad and from playing with guys like Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw; that it isn’t all just about what you shoot, it’s how you carry yourself. They said, Look at Arnold, that’s how we’re going to do it. To carry on that tradition, I think that’s a big part. Hopefully, that’s a big part of why I got into the Hall of Fame, that I carried on those traditions that my dad saw in Byron Nelson or Harvey Penick and he wanted to pass that down to the next generation. That’s what it’s all about.
You’ve got to shoot the scores and you’ve got to get the wins to get a platform to give back to the game and to do the right thing. So I’m blessed to have won enough tournaments that people have recognized my name and saw how I was acting. There are a lot of guys out here on Tour that do the right things, you just don’t know their names quite yet. I think that’s a big part of it. The comments like just Jack in the video, that’s what makes it all so special to me.
QUESTION: And finally, you talked about stuff in the exhibit. Have you thought about anything in terms of maybe a golf equipment standpoint, is there a club? I know the club you contributed to the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse from your couple of victories, are you going to ask for those back and give them to the Hall of Fame, or is there anything else you’ve given thought to?
DAVIS LOVE III: I do have like the wooden driver that I played with from 1985 to 1997 and it’s in a bag in our house. Probably that would be a better place to put it is in the Hall of Fame.
I asked Brandt and Kooch out there today, were you the last one to play with the wooden driver or was Justin Leonard? So it’s part of my history. I thought about metal spikes, but then Cody Gribble was wearing metal strikes out there this week, so even some of the kids still wear them. There’s so many things that we did back 30 years ago that they just don’t do anymore. So I’ll have some neat stuff to contribute and I have a lot of memorabilia that’s just sitting around where nobody gets to see it, so it will be great to publicly display it.
QUESTION: Davis, I know you said that Tim had been talking to you about this for a long time, but was it Freddie getting into the Hall of Fame that kind of put it on your radar that maybe this is something you should start considering?
DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, I think when I saw Fred was going in, saw him make that speech, that made me more nervous about it. But yeah, I think somebody that I really looked up to when I came out on Tour, that I competed with and against and had a very similar record to, when I saw Fred go in, I think I said you know what, maybe all this talk is not just talk, maybe I will one day get in. So it certainly made me continue to work hard and hope that I would get in one day.
QUESTION: Davis, on the golf side, from a 30‑year body of work, what makes you proudest?
DAVIS LOVE III: I would say obviously a major and THE PLAYERS Championships and all the Ryder Cups are great. I think equal to that, receiving the Bob Jones Award or the Payne Stewart Award.
I think Bubba Watson, he did so many great things in one week, or two weeks really. But what he said was, My goals are to be Ryder Cup captain and in the Hall of Fame. That made it hit home to me that, holy cow, I’ve done both now and that’s Bubba’s main goals. And he keeps telling me. He didn’t just tell me that at the Ryder Cup, he told me that before the Ryder Cup.
You think I didn’t know how hard it was not to pick Bubba Watson, to not pick him twice. It was a very, very emotional thing for me. I told Bubba, I said, If we’re picking friends, I might have two different guys on the team, but I had to do what was best for the team. And it turned out, and Bubba will tell you the same thing, it turned out it was the best thing for the team that he didn’t play.
Brandt said it again out there playing today, I wouldn’t have won my match if it wasn’t for Bubba. So to have him bring it home to me that two of the things that I’ve been honored with, Ryder Cup captain and Hall of Fame, are goals. And you’ve heard Jason Day and so many other players say that’s a goal of mine, to be in the Hall of Fame. Things like that really make it hit home for you.
QUESTION: Just picking up on that, you’ve accomplished all the goals that a golfer could ever hope to accomplish. What are your goals now for the future?
DAVIS LOVE III: Well, I don’t want to be done is my main goal. That’s why I went and had another surgery trying to keep this old body going. But I would like to continue to play. They say, Are you going to chase all these old guy records now? The ones that I can chase. I don’t think I can chase Tiger down, I’m not going to win another 50 tournaments and catch him. But can you win again at your age? Can you win older than Sam Snead, things like that.
The goal right now is to get in the Masters. I had a lot of fun this last April playing in the Masters and THE PLAYERS Championship. I’m not ready to give up on that. I would like to get to be about 20‑under par by Sunday afternoon here and have a chance to win this tournament.
So I still want to play. I’ve just got to ‑‑ I’m looking forward to the next year. Obviously the Ryder Cup, as Dru Love said, the last year and a half I haven’t seen a whole lot of him. It’s been a busy couple years so I would like to concentrate on my game next year and just see, like I keep saying, see how good I can get at 52 and 3 years old.
QUESTION: Has anybody ever said to you, here’s a goal, beat Sam Snead’s age record?
DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, they’re asking me now that I’m really old, they’re saying do you think you can win older than Sam Snead? You’re not going to win as many tournaments as him. But you know, honestly, back when Jack won the Masters at 46 years old playing basically part time and watching Greg Norman have a shot during The Open Championship, watching Tom Watson have a shot to win The Open Championship, I said, you know, there’s no reason for me to give in. I want to keep playing. You never know when you’re going to catch lightning in a bottle. I have a lot of experience. And I know, I feel it now, I felt it two years ago, I feel it now, I’ll know when it’s time when I can’t compete anymore. When Kooch and Brandt both drive it by me, start thinking, well, wait a minute, maybe I need to go play somewhere else.
I do love the challenge of it. I watch Vijay out there pounding balls at 53. We just don’t want to give up. He’s obviously had a Hall of Fame career and won plenty of tournaments, but he’s still out there grinding hard just because we love, as Freddie says, we love the four hours inside the ropes so that makes all the work worth it.
QUESTION: Davis, do you take any credit for sort of attracting all the pros that live here? And when did you go from Davis to Uncle Davis with the local guys?
DAVIS LOVE III: I think my mom gets most of the credit because she drove me down here from Atlanta. We moved down here when I was about 14 years old. And then you saw Jonathan Byrd in there, I was just in the gym with Jonathan and with his son Jackson.
Jonathan deserves as much credit as anybody because he was working with some of the pros here and coming down and practicing, and he moved here. Zach Johnson gives me a lot of credit, but if Jonathan Byrd hadn’t been here, I don’t think Zach Johnson would have been here. We all are friends and I think the three of us really started the ball rolling. And then they had a bunch of young kids and I like playing with little kids, so it’s been great.
Sea Island deserves a lot of the credit. It’s incredible golf facilities. Bill Jones kept building another great golf course after another great practice facility and a great hotel and it’s just an unbelievable place to play golf. And guys are coming here to get lessons from Jack Lumpkin and Todd Anderson, but you had to have one guy to put it on the map. I remember when I was out on Tour, they said why don’t you live in Orlando or Dallas or Atlanta where you can fly out easier. And then as soon as they came, oh, we get it now. And now the caddies walking across the range this afternoon, yeah, another terrible day at Sea Island.
They get it now. It’s a fabulous place to live. Zach moved here because of the people and the schools and the churches, not really because of the golf. We have a great community here and lucky to have so many guys. And we have a lot of guys that don’t live here that are in and out all the time, the Chris Kirks and Brandt Snedeker, Lucas Glovers, and Stewart Cinks. So we have a great community here that supports the PGA Tour players when they’re in and out. I shouldn’t get that much credit, but I helped get it started.
And I went to Uncle Davis when they figured out I had a truck and a trailer and I would come over and help with anything and I knew everybody on the island to get things fixed.
But it’s nice. When I came out on Tour, Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw did that for me. I said where do I fly into and where do I eat? They said come on, just come with us and we’ll take care of you. So I love being able to do the same thing for the kids that are coming out now.
JACK PETER: Ladies and gentlemen, if you would stand and join me. Davis, on behalf of everyone at the World Golf Hall of Fame and your fans worldwide, congratulations on your election into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
(Champagne toast.)
DAVIS LOVE III: I would like to thank all my family for coming. It was a surprise to see our son Dru back from the University of Alabama a day earlier than he said he was going to come. He’s been getting good at tricking us and coming home early. I’d like to thank my mom for coming. And here, Melanie was so sweet to get the flowers.
