Love Stays High and Dry to Win Players Event

PONTE VEDRA, Fla. —  Davis Love III eased some of the frustration of a recent playoff loss Sunday when he turned back challenges by Nick Faldo and Phil Blackmar and scored a four-shot victory in the Players Championship.

The fourth victory of his seven-season career on the PGA Tour was secured with two impressive shots down the stretch--one aimed directly at the pin tucked in a corner of the island green of the 17th hole and the clinching approach to the 18th.

Love finished with a five-under-par 67 and a 273 total, 15 under par, matching the tournament record on the TPC at Sawgrass, the home course for the touring pros.

Love, the longest hitter in golf in his early years on the tour, collected $324,000 from the purse of $1.8 million and pushed his season’s earnings to $585,361.

“It’s difficult to think of everything this means,” Love said. “The key was staying patient and waiting for some good things to happen.

“It was just my day, I guess. The guys in front of me didn’t play that well and the guys behind me didn’t plan that well.”

In the most important victory of his career, Love also gained a 10-year exemption from qualifying on the tour--easing the pain of a playoff loss to Fred Couples in the L.A. Open last month.

That was the tournament in which Couples began his string of successes--first, second, second and first in consecutive weeks--and this is the one that ended it.

Couples, playing in his seventh consecutive event, couldn’t make a putt and finished with a 74 that left him in a tie for 13th at 281.

Faldo, the English player who scored consecutive Masters victories in 1989 and ‘90, and the 6-foot-7 Blackmar were within a single shot of the lead until both hit into the water on the 16th.

The two water balls combined with Love’s finishing rush to leave them well back in second and tied with Tom Watson and British Open champion Ian Baker-Finch of Australia at 277.

Faldo shot 74 and Blackmar had a 73 despite two shots into the water. Baker-Finch matched par 72, and Watson shot 69.

John Daly and Mark Calcavecchia were warned they might be fined for jogging Sunday.

The two players were reprimanded by PGA Tour Deputy Commissioner Tim Finchem for “failure to exert their best effort” after they completed their final round in 2 hours 3 minutes. Daly shot 80, Calcavecchia 81.