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Ryder Cup captain loves every minute of it

Busy, but loving it.

That pretty much sums up the situation Davis Love III finds himself in these days as the countdown to the Ryder Cup at Medinah Country Club continues.

In addition to his role as captain of the U.S. team, Love is also competing on the PGA Tour and making sure, as always, that his family comes first.

Love took a little time away from his preparation for this week’s PGA stop in Maryland (AT&T National) to speak with the Daily Herald. In the first of this two-part interview, Love discusses his 1997 book about lessons in golf and life, the challenge of being the Ryder Cup captain, the intensity of the role and interest in the tournament, and how he balances those demands while trying to improve his game.

Q. That was a nice excerpt of your book, “Every Shot I Take,” in Sports Illustrated recently. Talking about your dad and Harvey Penick (with SI’s Michael Bamberger) seemed like a labor of love for you. Was it?

A. Michael sent it to me as a draft. My wife and I were driving somewhere and it came in on my phone and I started … I get emotional now … and I started reading it to her and I couldn’t get through it. I literally couldn’t get through it. He did a great job.

Michael’s going to help me with my speeches for the Ryder Cup and I said, ‘You’ve got to make them where I don’t cry every paragraph (laughs).’”

Q. People have been raving about your play of late. Do you feel as good about your game right now as you have in a while?

A. I feel really good about it. At Honda and Bay Hill I was playing real well and got hurt and couldn’t finish at Bay Hill. So I went through about a six-week period there where I was kind of in the dumps because I couldn’t play, and felt like I almost had it going. So now it’s nice to come back from that and get it going again.

Q. How difficult of a balancing act is it to try to keep playing well while also focused on your duties as captain? Is it just ridiculous?

A. Well, it’s busy. I finished my Pro-Am (Wednesday morning) and my caddie hands me my bag and I run and put it in the locker room and then run straight to the pressroom. That’s probably not the best strategy for this tournament (laughs).

But every time I get to the point where I’m like ‘Man, I’m so busy,’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, but you get to be the Ryder Cup captain.’ There’s a lot of fun to it.

I have not gotten to the point where I’m saying, ‘Man, what have I gotten myself into?’ It’s hectic at times. It’s humbling, it’s thrilling. It is a lot of work, but you have to work hard to get exciting things like that.

Q. I’m guessing your family is good at keeping things balanced?

A. Well, my wife is running the show at our house, which is normal. She’s doing all the hard work and helping me with every little piece of preparation for this. And our daughter is working for the McGladrey Classic (Love’s own tournament), so she’s involved in everything golf-related we do.

My son is keeping me up on how everyone’s doing on the golf side. He’s a golf fan. He watches these guys like I did when I was 18 years old. (At the U.S. Open) he told me ‘Tiger’s hitting 3-iron off No. 5. What are you doing trying to cut a 3-wood?’

My kids have grown up going to U.S. Opens and other tournaments. It’s a family affair.

Q. Do you find that when you walk into the clubhouse at a tournament that you’re treated differently by the players because you’re the Ryder Cup captain?

A. Yeah, I’ll get a little bit of a strange feeling from some guys, just because they’re grinding to get points to make the team or the guy who’s wondering ‘I wonder if he’s thinking about me for assistant captain since he’s asking me those questions?’

So there’s a little bit of that, but it’s more guys stopping me and asking ‘Hey, how busy is it for the Ryder Cup?’ And you go, ‘Well, I’m busy answering that question (laughs).’

It’s like you just got married and everyone wants to stop and congratulate you and hear how the honeymoon was. That’s what it’s like every day. Honestly, that takes up more time than anything.

Q. How many hours can you go in a day without talking about the Ryder Cup?

A. I just say it’s every hour. It’s every hole, somebody says something. I just played a Pro-Am and those guys talked about it all the way around the golf course. These three amateurs could not express how excited they were for me. And then they want to know ‘What about Tiger Woods and the others …,’ it’s really a constant.

We crashed the PGA Tour Facebook site on a fan chat the other day because people want to talk about the Ryder Cup — that’s how big it is.

I keep saying I realized it was a big golf tournament when I played in it, but until you get on the other side and you’re involved in watching them run it, you don’t realize how big it is.

Ÿ Coming Sunday: In Part 2 of our interview, Love talks about being a cog in the Ryder Cup machine and just who he turns to for advice.

Love taps Couples, Hulbert as Ryder Cup assistants

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