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.

 
You may have seen the new Dove Men+Care ads on TV during golf tournaments featuring Stuart Cink and Davis Love III. Dove was kind enough to send us a couple of behind the scenes videos.

In the first video, Stuart talks about getting taken to the cleaners by his kids on their home putting green and why he became so engaged with Twitter.

In the second video, Davis talks about his family and shows off his awesome collection of motorcycles. His daughter even has one. *cough* *cough* Dad, are you reading this? A Harley would make an awesome birthday present *cough* *cough*

You can check out Davis’s video below the break:

Well knock me over with a feather.  Davis Love III has been formally announced as the 2012 US Ryder Cup captain.  He was a vice-captain for the 2010 Ryder Cup team and rumors that he would be the choice for 2012 started even before the Ryder Cup was over.

Love referenced the fact that his selection as captain wasn’t exactly kept under wraps.  Immediately after being introduced, he joked about how secret the selection process had been and asked if everybody could wait for a minute while he tweeted the news.

Love also seems to like his chances of bringing home the Ryder Cup trophy on US soil:

I don’t think we could ask for a better home field advantage than Chicago and Medinah Country Club

The conference wasn’t all smiles and laughs though.  When asked about the significance of being selected as captain by the PGA of America given the fact that his father was known as the consumate PGA professional, a teary eyed Love discussed what an honor it was to first win the PGA Championship as the son of a PGA professional and then be selected as a Ryder Cup captain:

Winning the PGA Championship was a thrill and as I’ve told Julius Mason several times, I’ll go in and sit down at the press table and realizing I’m the son of a PGA member.  Now to be named Ryder Cup Captain is a thrill that I never thought I would have (tearing up).

…

I’m thrilled.  I’m thrilled to represent The PGA of America.  Thrilled to represent all of the men and women PGA Professionals.  As we have said a lot of times, there’s not a TOUR player out there that plays one TOUR event or plays six Ryder Cups that doesn’t have a PGA professional that led them to that position. So I thank all of the PGA Professionals, including my dad.  Thank you for that.

I also have to give credit to Peter Kessler for asking the best question of the news conference:

Everybody wants the captain to be sort of a combination of Bob Hope and Lee Trevino and George Patton.  I said, “Not to worry, you’ve got him.”  Can you please confirm?

Now that we officially know the captains will be Olazabal and Love, we get to spend the next year and a half guessing who will be on the teams.  Only 617 days left until the start of the Ryder Cup!

Jose Maria Olazabal was named today as the European captain for the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah.  Olazabal has played in 7 Ryder Cups, and been the European vice-captain for the past 2 teams.

He was such a unanimous choice that the Europeans didn’t even bother voting on it before naming him as captain. Europe is hoping that he can carry his record as a player forward as the team leader (18 wins, 8 losses, 5 draws).

Olazabal told reporters:

This is a huge responsibility to be the next captain, and also, I have to say that it’s I think one of the biggest challenges, if not the biggest challenge I will have in my career, especially at this time of my career.  All I can say is that I will try to do the best that I can, try to be close to the players.

Davis Love III is expected to be announced as the US captain on Thursday.  Like Olazabal, Love was a vice-captain in last year’s Ryder Cup.

Golf.com

[Image Flickr/rgusick]

Bridgestone has finally announced the long-rumored signing of DLIII.  This hasn’t exactly been the best kept secret in golf but now we finally know the specifics of what the deal entails.

Davis will be sporting the Bridgestone logo on his hat, bag and glove.  He will also be putting the TOUR B-330S ball in play and swinging a set of prototype Bridgestone irons (3-PW).  No word yet on what he’ll be doing for driver/wedges/putter.

This is a big deal for Bridgestone.  Titleist wasn’t prepared to re-up Davis’s contract at his current rate and honestly probably won’t be too impacted by his departure given their large stable of tour players.  Bridgestone on the other hand will be able to really utilize this endorsement deal to raise the status of their brand.

Davis may not be one of the of the top ranked players in the world anymore (although he is #6 on the all-time money list), but he certainly has the name recognition to make an impact.  And that’s exactly what Bridgestone is counting on.  Check out the full press release [update: and Love's first Bridgestone commercial] after the jump.

[Update] Here’s Davis Love’s first Bridgestone Commercial:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4NjU-9XwOk

January 11, 2011

New Love on Bridgestone Tour Team in 2011

Bridgestone Signs Renowned 20-Time PGA Tour Champion Davis Love III

COVINGTON, GA – One of the most accomplished golfers of the modern era,Davis Love III has joined the Bridgestone Golf PGA Tour Team, complementing a stellar group that includes Fred Couples, Matt Kuchar, Brandt Snedeker and Lee Trevino. With 20 victories on the PGA Tour over a 22 year period, Love is one of only four players under the age of 50 to earn the coveted lifetime Tour exemption. His career is highlighted by a major championship win at the 1997 PGA Championship and two Players Championship victories in 1992 and 2003. He currently ranks sixth on the all-time career money list, with over 40 million dollars in tournament winnings.

Beginning his PGA Tour season this week at the Sony Open in Hawaii, Love will play thenew Bridgestone TOUR B330-S golf ball and Bridgestone Golf prototype irons (3-PW). In addition to his new Bridgestone equipment, Love will showcase the Bridgestone brand on his Tour bag, hat and glove.

“Freddie and I go way back, we’ve played a lot of golf together and I consider him one of my best friends on TOUR. He’s been telling me for years about how great Bridgestone is, so I finally decided to look into them for myself and I liked what I found,” said Love. “I learned that they have industry-leading products and really creative marketing, two things that really peaked my interest. With the B330-S, I’m getting more distance out of my driver and long irons and I feel very ready to compete in 2011.”

“I’m really excited to be part of a brand that has the momentum of Bridgestone,” Love continued. “To rise from a virtual unknown to the #2 golf ball in the industry in just six years is amazing. I’ve been paying attention to what they’ve been doing over the past few years and I really respect their efforts to educate consumers on how to find the proper ball for their game, and their ads are some of the most fun I’ve seen. I look forward to showing the world a bit more of my personality in the 2011 ads. There is even one spot where I get to ride my bike. Motorcycle riding is right up there with hunting and fishing as my favorite things to do off the course, so that’s pretty cool. I couldn’t be more pumped about being on the Bridgestone team.”

Dan Murphy, Bridgestone Golf’s Vice President of Marketing, expressed clear delight in the company’s Tour line-up for 2011: “What a coup for Bridgestone, to start the new year with an icon such as Davis Love III on our Tour Team. His enthusiasm for our new B330-S balland our entire brand momentum has infused us with tremendous energy as we enter the 2011 season.”

DLIII and Ball-Fitting Was Love at First Sight

As the #1 ball-fitter in golf, Bridgestone launched its relationship with Davis Love III by first exploring his swing speed and other launch conditions, ensuring that Davis would be fitted with the perfect ball. After extensive testing at Bridgestone’s state-of-the-art R&D Center in Covington, GA, Davis selected Bridgestone’s new TOUR B330-S golf ball.

Designed for swing speeds greater than 105 mph, the TOUR B330-S features Bridgestone’sproprietary new RD¹⁰ resin mantle layers for higher initial velocity and an overall softening of the mantle. Like the TOUR B330, the B330-S features a SOFT Urethane 330-dimple design seamless cover for the ultimate in piercing consistent flight, and tour-level spin and control on the greens. However, for 2011, the TOUR B330-S dimple pattern was redesigned to compensate for its softer cover and compression, and slightly higher driver spin that comes as a result. Bridgestone engineers have created a new shallower 330-dimple pattern with modified dimple spacing, designed to reduce up-shoot spin, creating a flatter trajectory and wind performance consistent with that of the B330. Because of his preference for a more penetrating ball flight, the new dimple pattern of the B330-S fit him perfectly.

“I have been playing golf a long time,” Love stated, “yet, even after all these years, I found the Bridgestone ball-fitting process to be tremendously revealing for me. I am confident that the new B330-S matches my swing properties as I picked up more distance off the tee just by switching to it.”

To date, Bridgestone has also fit nearly 100,000 consumers through its launch monitor based ball-fitting initiative. For those that are not able to attend an in-person ball-fitting, Bridgestone now offers several convenient options to help find the right ball for your game. Bridgestone’s multiple convenient options include: Click (go.bridgestonegolf.com), Call (877.411.BFIT), or Text (BFIT to 55678).” More information is available atwww.bridgestonegolf.com/bfit.

# # #

Editors Note: High-Res images of all Tour Staff and new Bridgestone equipment are available upon request.

Bridgestone Golf, Inc., based in Covington, GA, manufactures and markets premium golf balls, clubs and accessories under the Bridgestone and Precept brand names. Bridgestone is represented on a world stage by a number of internationally famed golfers including
Fred Couples, Matt Kuchar, Davis Love III, Paula Creamer, and Brandt Snedeker. Bridgestone Golf, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bridgestone Sports Co. Ltd., whose headquarters are in Tokyo.

Tim Rosaforte let it slip that Davis Love III is indeed leaving Titleist for Bridgestone on Saturday evening’s Golf Central broadcast.  This move has been rumored for over 2 months, but this is the first semi-official confirmation.

DLIII has apparently already shot his first commercial for Bridgestone.  No word on the specifics of the deal, but hat/bag/ball (and possibly irons) is a safe bet.

One has to wonder how much of this was DLIII looking for something new/Bridgestone making a great offer vs Titleist trying to clean up their books in anticipation of being sold (or trying to prevent it).  Could we be about to see other big name players leaving Titleist in the near future?

The rumor mill has it that long-time Titleist golfer, Davis Love III, will be jumping ship to Bridgestone for the 2011 season.  If true, this would be a huge signing for Bridgestone, who’s roster of players currently include Fred Couples, Matt Kuchar, and Will Mackenzie.

The Fred Couples signing in 2005 put Bridgestone on the map, but it’s the quality of their products that has fueled their success.  Their E6 Ball is currently the #4 selling ball in golf and they’re about to release a new and improved B-330 line for 2011 on Nov 1.