Davis Love III talks Ryder Cup, Golf Courses, Michael Jordan, and Cigars

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of spending a few minutes interviewing Davis Love III.  We talked about the Ryder Cup and how he thinks we match up against the Europeans. You can tell that he’s excited about being a Ryder Cup captain and has been thinking quite a bit about what he needs to do to lead the team to a win next year in Chicago.

We also discussed his philosophy for course design, introducing Michael Jordan to the game (and the role Jordan may play at the Ryder Cup), and cigars.

You can check out the full interview below:

First of all, congrats on the Ryder Cup captaincy.

Thank you.

What does being a Ryder Cup captain mean to you?

Well it’s an incredible honor.  First of all to be the captain, I think there’s been 27 captains?  It’s a pretty small group.  I never dreamed that I … When I came out on Tour I just wanted to stay on Tour.  I wanted to see how good I could get.

I didn’t really come out on Tour really knowing much about the Ryder Cup. And then I wanted to play in it.  You play in it once and you want to play in it again.  And then I wanted to play for Tom Kite because he was my buddy.  I wanted to be on his team.  And now I’ve got young players that are friends of mine that say “God we really want to play on your team.”

It’s just amazing the journey to get from must a kid on Tour – I feel like I’m just a kid on Tour – to now people are calling me “captain” and I’ve got “captain” on my golf bag.  It’s just an amazing responsibility and an amazing honor.

But you know I’m looking at it as an opportunity to give back to the so many players that did so much for me… so many club pros and the PGA of America that did so much and help grow the game.

Hopefully a Ryder cup in the US in Chicago is going to be huge.  It’s a great stage for golf.  It’s going to be very exciting.

How do you think the US is going to stack up against Europe next year?

I’ve been to 7 Ryder Cups.  Played in 6 and was an assistant for Corey.  When we get up on the Stage we go “Man, we have an an unbelievably good team, don’t we?”. When they introduce them all you go “Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Zack Johnson.  Look at this team.  They’re incredible!”.

And then it always comes down to somebody misses a putt, somebody gets a bad bounce, the other teams holes a shot and you think “how did we lose?”.  And it’s always so close.

I think we will fare well.  Will we win or will we lose?  I think it just comes down to if we can get relaxed and just play like we know how to play.

Obviously we can beat them.  Obviously our players can win major championships.  We win more tour events than the Europeans win US tour events.  But we have to just go play like that.

It’s great to win 70% of your games during the hockey season but can you win the playoff series to win the Stanley Cup.  Can you handle that kind of pressure?  It’s a different kind of pressure at the Ryder Cup than it is week in and week out.  And we just have to handle it better.

I think as a Captain or as a coach, the only thing I’m going to try to do is to think like I did when I was playing.  I was trying too hard and I was nervous (laughs).  I just don’t want my guys to feel like I’m putting any pressure on them – I’m taking pressure off.  And that’s going to be the biggest thing.

I know Tiger Woods isn’t going to worry about what I think.  But you know there might be 2 young guys on that team that really want to do well because they want me to win.  And I don’t want them thinking that way.  I don’t want them thinking that we want to win for Davis like I wanted to win for Tom Kite.

And I’ve put pressure on myself and when things started going bad, I started feeling bad that Tom Kite might not win his Ryder Cup.  I don’t want that.  I want to make it clear that we’re going to go in to Chicago and play to have fun and to win and try to take some pressure off.

It seems like Freddy [Couples] did that win the presidents cup team.  Paul [Azinger] did that when we played in the US.  It’s a home game.  I’m going to have it easier than Corey [Pavin] did.  A home game in Chicago.  That’s going make it a lot easier and I think we can relax and play and be comfortable hopefully.  Hopefully we’re all comfortable in our own skin come Friday morning of the Ryder Cup and we just go play.

It’s easy to say.  It’s a great concept that this is just another game.  But that’s how we have to try to approach it.

You’ve been involved a lot of course design over the last several years.  What do you think is the key element of a good course design?  Could you give an idea of one or two of your favorite golf courses?

Well I like older style traditional golf courses.  Whether it’s Scotland or Ireland.  In the US, I like the US I like the old masters – the Rainers, Ross, Mackenzies.  Those kind of golf courses.  So that’s kind of the style that we’ve always built.  Courses that fit the land.  They’re not contrived or just artistic piles of dirt.  It’s just what fits the land and what’s strategic/traditional.

I think that golf course architecture is kind of like art.  You and I could go to the art gallery and you might like one painter and I like another.  That doesn’t make either one of them wrong.  It’s just different.

I like Pete Dye courses, but I don’t want to build them like that.  But I like the old masters.  I played better on Pete Dye courses but I tend to go seek out Donald Ross courses to play.  Now why is that?  I don’t know.  You’d think I’d want to play Pete Dye courses because I’ve won 7 or 8 times on them.

Our philosophy has always been that the game is too hard.  Too hard to learn.  Too hard to play.  Too hard to play fast.  And we need to use traditional architecture but make it user friendly from the front or the middle tees.

And if you want to make it long and hard – The nationwide is playing a course this week that we built and from the back tees it’s too long.  But that’s what tour players need.  The average guy if you plays from the front tees at that same course, you might say “this is too short”.

That’s what we want.  We want everybody to be able to play a course that we build and not make it where it’s impossible and not fun.  We want to make it user friendly.

I always say that my mom might have to play this course.  And she doesn’t hit it very far.  [laughs] She’s a great player but she doesn’t hit it very far.  If you make it too hard from the front tees, then people won’t enjoy it.  And we always try to build for everybody that plays the golf course.

I’m actually just a few miles from the UNC campus.  And I was told my some of my friends here in town that you actually introduced Michael Jordan to golf back when you guys were in school together.  Is that true?

I did.  He was rooming with Buzz Peterson.  Buzz actually played high school golf.  So Buzz and I were playing golf together along with Coach Williams and a bunch of other guys on the team.

So Michael got left in the room all the time.  He ended up coming out riding in the cart and eventually wanted to play so Buzz and I rounded up a set of clubs and some old balls and got him started.  And now Michael plays more golf than Buzz and I combined.  We kind of created a monster. [laughs]

I don’t know what it is.  Michael and I both like golf and motorcycles.  But he’s really been great for the game.  He’s great for the Ryder cup and the president’s cup as well.

He really has been a big supporter of the US team and I know Freddy had him with him last time and this time at the President’s cup.  There’s must be something to it so I’m going to have to get some tips from Michael on how to coach my team.

I’ve read that you’re a cigar smoker?

I am but not as much as I used to.  I have a 17 year old son so hanging around with him a lot lately I haven’t been smoking many.  But I do enjoy a good cigar.

Do you have any particular recommendations for a good golf couse cigar?  We occasionally post some cigar recommendations on our website:

I just got the new.. I’m not going to be able to remember the name… the Ernesto Carrillo that had La Gloria Cubana.  He’s got that new brand, new line [EP Carrillo].  He sold La Gloria to [Swedish Match].  But I really like that cigar.

The Padrons are really good.  I’ve always been a La Gloria Cubana guy.  We used to get them down in Miami at the original factory.  Those are good and the ones from farther south of Florida are pretty good too.

You’re a participating in the Dove Men+Care “Journey to Comfort” campaign.  It’s not a brand that you would typically associate with golf.  What makes it a good fit for you?

You know it’s a great fit because one, it’s telling stories about my Mom.  It gives her a lot of credit for how much she did for me growing up.  But it puts us in a different light.  Stuart Cink and I are thrown in with Joe Girardi, Bobby Hurley, John Thompson, and Magic Johnson – real athletes.

And I think it’s really shown that not only are golfers athletes and people recognize that, but it’s shown a different side of us.  I’ve learned things about Stuart Cink.  He’s a friend of mine that I’ve played on teams with and I hang out with.

I’ve learned things about Stuart Cink from the Dove ads that I didn’t know [laughs].  I think it’s showing who we are as people.  That we do have families.  We do have hobbies.  We do have issues with our putting – like Lisa [Cink] said she told [Stuart] he had the yips so my wife told me to go get a long putter when she saw the ad. [laughs]  They’ve been fun.

It’s been a family project and I know people have really enjoyed seeing the pictures and hearing the stories about me growing up.

Obviously a national brand that I grew up with.  It’s amazing that I’m now in their campaign.  It’s been a lot of fun.  We’ve had a great response to it. That’s for sure.

I know I’ve enjoyed watching the commercials and the Behind the Scenes videos.

You know what’s been amazing is that we obviously shot them but they weren’t out.  They were waiting for April and the Masters.  And I’m watching the NCAA tournament and I see Bobby Hurley and Magic Johnson and I’m like “I cannot believe that I’m going to be in those commercials” [laughs].  They were so good.

I’ve never looked forward so much to a commercial.  I’ve looked forward to Super Bowl commercial and whatever but I’ve never looked forward to watching – I’ve actually been watching golf so that I can watch the commercials [laughs].

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Thanks to Davis Love III and Dove Men+Care for arranging the interview.

Tagged as: Davis Love III, Michael Jordan, Ryder Cup