Love III has been in contention plenty this year, and says if he simply would have made some putts, he would have been right in contention with Rory McIlory when it came to the U.S. Open. That said, obviously McIlory ran away with that tournament and Love III will have to settle for trying to contend at the British Open.

He’s also got a Ryder Cup team to worry about. In a short, but interesting, interview, Love III says if Tiger is healthy, he’ll be a part of that Ryder Cup team. He also says that we’re probably going a little too far in anointing Rory as the next Tiger.

Davis Love III joined 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh with Seibel, Starkey and Miller to discuss why Tiger Woods would be on his Ryder Cup team, the anointing of McIlroy, if he likes where golf is right now, if he believes he can win another major and the age limit for the Champions Tour.

If you had to pick your Ryder Cup team today, would Tiger Woods be on it?:

“It depends how his knee is and his Achilles and if he’s out of that boot. I think if Tiger can walk the golf course, he’s going to be on that team because he always seems to play well if he’s not hurt. We’re obviously a year-plus away. Hopefully he’s going to be healthy. I saw him say the other day he’s not going to play until he’s 100 percent. He’s saying the right things. Hopefully he’s getting better and feeling better. … If we can get him healthy, I’m sure he’ll be on the team.”

Is Rory McIlroy that good or are we just searching really hard to find the next Tiger?:

“They wanted Tiger to replace Greg Norman and Fred Couples and they replaced Jack Nicklaus. There really is no replacement for Michael Jordan. There is no comparison. It was Michael, and Kobe’s going to be Kobe. Tiger’s always going to be Tiger. There’s not going to be anybody, I don’t think, that dominates for that length of time. … But Rory is an exceptional talent. … Everybody’s just getting excited about it. … Will he be Jack Nicklaus? No. Tiger hasn’t reached Jack Nicklaus yet.”

Do you like where the sport of golf is right now?:

“Rickie Fowler might wear bright colors and, every once in a while, turn his hat backwards, but he is very respectful of the game. He really gets it; he’s got a good head on his shoulders. He’s been a good influence, as a young kids, on guys like Dustin Johnson. … I think we’ve got a good group of leaders. … Every generation is a little cooler and a little hipper and doing dancing videos on TV like Hunter Mahan, but we have a good group of young guys.”

Do you think you can win another Major?:

“I think if I had putted any good at all, I would’ve given Rory a run for it at the U.S. Open. I really hit the ball well and just never really got the ball in the hole. Last year, at Pebble Beach, Dustin Johnson and I both made a bunch of doubles. We could’ve been right in there with Graeme McDowell to win it. I feel like I’ve been close. … I’ve still got a chance. I feel like if I get hot with the putter, I feel like I can win any week. I’ve been 10th to 20th a bunch this year and feel like I was just throwing shots away.”

Do you think they should bump the Champions Tour age limit to 45?:

“The guys that are 50-plus don’t want you to do that. … I’m three years away and getting wishy-washy on it whether it’s going to be what I want to do. If I’m healthy, and still competitive, and feel like I can win on the PGA Tour, like Kenny Perry, he can still win on the PGA Tour. … It’s hard for him to go over to the Champions Tour. … I’ve got three more years.”

Listen to Davis Love III on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh here

Assistant Captain of U.S. Ryder Cup team Davis Love III joined WJXL in Jacksonville to talk about how the Ryder Cup is different from any other tournament PGA golfers are used to, whether they look at themselves as underdogs, and who they are thinking about pairing Tiger Woods with.

How the Ryder Cup is different from any other tournament PGA golfers are used to:

“I think the simplest explanation is, when you watch on TV on the weekend you watch the Players’ Championship or the Masters, you know that guy is getting nervous coming down the last nine holes, you can see it.  You see him when he comes to 16, 17, you know how nervous the guy is.  That is how it is on the first tee on Friday morning at the Ryder Cup.  You are that nervous teeing off.  You are that nervous the 2^nd match that afternoon all the way through the whole weekend.  It is just an intense kind of pressure that you usually get it in a big tournament but it lasts the whole way because you know every point, every half of a point, every shot is so important.”

What are the challenges players face trying to keep their emotions in check:

“Well you got to learn how to stay within what you can control and that is one thing that Corey Pavin has been talking to some of the guys that haven’t played Ryder Cups, ‘Pay attention to the next 4 or 5 tournaments that you play and see how your body feels under pressure because you are going to be under pressure from moment one you step on the golf course, and how are you going to react to the crowd?’  Because the crowd is going to be vocal from the first tee.  It is all being prepared.  In football, you are right, you are prepared with a game plan you are going to stick with it and you are going to hit somebody harder.  But in golf you have to control not only the golf ball but your emotions.  I think planning ahead has been really important.  I think Corey has been really smart with the way that he is doing the Ryder Cup.  We are all sitting down talking about pairings on Thursday.  We are going to be prepared when we get there.  Jim Furyk is going to be ready.  He knows what to do or Tiger Woods, but we have got some Jeff Overtons, some Dustin Johnsons that have not done this before so we are just trying to get them a little prepared before they get there.”

Whether they look at themselves as underdogs:

“Well the only reason we say that in the media because we haven’t won it enough.  Since, really, ’91 at Kiawah when we won and we won over there in ’93, we really have a poor record since then.  The reason is that the world of golf has gotten so much better.  If you go to a PGA Tour event half the players on the PGA Tour are from around the world and they have just gotten better.  If we played one country at a time we would kick everybody’s butt, but when you put 5 or 6 countries against the U.S. then it becomes a fair fight.  We just have to play better when we go over there.  We consider ourselves an underdog just because we have a losing record right now.  Sure, we have done well lately in some of the team events.  The ladies have been winning.  The amateurs have been winning in the Walker Cup.  We are doing better but we really need to win this Ryder Cup a couple of times to get on a roll.”

Whether Fowler was picked because he plays well during patch play:

“His resume is not very deep because he is younger than my daughter.  The Walker Cup is fresh for him  when Rickie says ‘but I won all of these matches in the Walker Cup.’  It is fresh for him.  It doesn’t mean anything for me or for Tiger Woods.  Sure it is something to remember and experience but it isn’t fresh in our minds.  We aren’t cocky because we won all of our U.S. amateur matches and all of our Walker Cup matches.  The biggest thing about Rickie Fowler is, all of the guys on the team, the U.S. players that have gotten to know him, guys that are on the Champions Tour that know him because their kids play with him, everybody believes in him and that is who you want putting the putt on the last green.  You say, ‘Oh great.  Rickie is going to make it because we have confidence in him.  It doesn’t matter what the rest of the world or even what the players think, as long as those other players and the captain think he is going to make it, that is who we want on the team.”

Who they are thinking about pairing Tiger Woods with:

“I don’t know I am going to find out Thursday.  He has done real well with like Stricker and Weekley.  The thing is you compare him with almost anybody because of his game.  You don’t put him with Jeff Overton who doesn’t even know the guy to say hello.  That would make Jeff nervous.  That would make me excited.  I played a few matches with him.  I am like, ‘Man we are going to win because of Tiger.’  I think you have got to get a guy like that with experience but you want to put two guys out there that intimidate the team.  Somebody comes against Woods and Stricker, Furyk and Cink, oh my gosh.  We are up against some serious experience.  That is what we want.”

Davis Love III (asst captain on Ryder Cup team) on Sports Final Radio on WJXL in Jacksonville

On Monday, he was ready to board a boat in Florida, trying to forget about the whole catastrophe from the day before. Or perhaps he already had.

While you or I might still be out there trying to plug a rules official into that sand, Johnson somehow took the whole thing in stride while everyone else around the country argued about it.

Dustin Johnson joined 97.5 the Fanatic in Philadelphia with Harry Mayes and Tony Bruno to discuss how he was able to sleep Sunday night, how he’s been able to gracefully shake off two blunders in major championships this year, why he didn’t think his second shot on the 18th hole on Sunday was in a bunker, how there was nobody involved that believed it was a sand trap, what would have happened if he had sunk the putt to “win” the tournament and why he didn’t go ballistic when told of the ruling.

On shaking off mishaps in blunders:

“Looking back at yesterday I fought hard all day. Coming down the stretch I hit some really good golf shots and made birdies when I needed to. I had a lot more chances on the backside where I felt like I hit some really good putts that just didn’t go in. I’ve got to look at the positives. I’m really proud of myself for the way that I’ve played. And also, I made the Ryder Cup team, too, which is an unbelievable accomplishment.”

On why a rules guy couldn’t have told him it was a bunker:

“I was wondering that myself. But, it’s not up to them, it’s up to me. Obviously I never once thought I was in a bunker. I know the rules of golf very well and I know that I can’t ground my club in a bunker. But it never even crossed my mind that I was in a bunker. But that’s how it goes. I made a mistake.”

On what the bunker looked like to him:

“There was all kinds of grass in it. Obviously people had been walking in it. What it looked like, to me, was just a bare spot. It’s real sandy out there when you get off the fairway no matter where you are. It just looked like a bare spot where people had worn it down from the crowd walking on it. There was no definition to it at all. Every sand trap on that whole course, you can tell it’s a sand trap because it has a distinct definition and outline in it. Even going back and looking on the TV, there’s really no definition to it, so I just never thought it was a bunker.”

On how nobody believed he was in a bunker:

“No one. No one that even looked at it. I was talking to David Feherty afterwards and he looked at it and he never thought [that]. He said the same thing I did. I thought I got a good break by being on a flat, bare spot.”

On what would have happened if he had made the putt that would have seemingly won him the tournament before the ruling:

“Of course I thought about it. I’m glad I didn’t [make it] now. Obviously I wanted to make it, but that’s a whole different story if that would’ve happened.”

On whether he considered a post-round tirade:

“It might’ve crossed my mind, but no. It is what it is and it’s the rules of golf. Things happen like that. It’s an unfortunate situation but it’s over now.”

Listen to the entire interview with Dustin Johnson on 97.5 the Fanatic in Philadelphia here

The PGA Championship will be played this weekend at Whistling Straits, a Wisconsin golf course along the coast of Lake Michigan, and a lot will be on the line for many American players hoping to make the Ryder Cup team, most notably Tiger Woods.  Tiger, who is in the middle of playing the worst golf of his career, must finish in the top-sixteen at Whistling Straits in order for him to be among the top-eight American players.  In addition, the eighth ranked American, Lucas Glover, must have a bad weekend for Tiger to make the team.  The success of the U.S. team doesn’t necessarily depend on whether Tiger makes the team because they did it without him back in ’08 when he was out with a knee injury.  But if the #1 ranked golfer in the world doesn’t make the team that would be a shocker.

Paul Azinger joined WSCR in Chicago to talk about why the process of selecting the Ryder Cup team was changed, whether there is a certain way the Ryder Cup is played that is suited better to certain players, and what would be the right thing to do with Tiger Woods and his poor play as of late in regards to making the Ryder Cup team.

Why the process of selecting the Ryder Cup team was changed:

“Well, we had only won three Ryder Cups in 25 years leading up to 2008 and if you look at that you have got to realize, I think, that there is something wrong in the system in the way that we pick the players.  So I lobbied hard with the PGA of America to change the way the team was picked to get the hottest players to the matches for 2008.  Instead of 10 players qualifying, 8 qualified.  I got to pick 4 players instead of 2.  Instead of picking the Monday after the PGA, this  week, and then waiting five weeks for the matches and the play of the captain now, I pick three weeks after it so I got to watch three more tournaments before I picked two weeks before the matches started.  We were going to get the hottest players there.  Getting four picks means the captain is picking one-third of the team as well.  There is a big responsibility to try to get that right and hopefully somebody jumps off the page for the captain and makes it easy on him.”

Whether there is a certain way the Ryder Cup is played that is suited better to certain players:

“Maybe a little bit.  There are some guys that like playing match play over stroke play, but they are all big boys.  My philosophy going into these matches is that I wasn’t there to hold anybody’s hands.  I told them that they were all big boys; you know that there is no shortcut to success that you can hope for to wish for it, you have to prepare.  What I had done was break the twelve guys into three four-man teams and have them buy into the concept that they were going to prepare together in their four-man groups.”

What would be the right thing to do with Tiger Woods and his poor play as of late in regards to making the Ryder Cup team:

“Well I almost look at Tiger now and say, welcome to our world.  Think about how long we have gone without seeing Tiger Woods ever miss a putt that he had to make, and it looked like the first time I ever saw that was at the PGA Championship a year ago this week against Y.E. Yang on the 71^st hole, Tiger missed a putt he had to make and he went 12 years in his career before that happened.  Now we are seeing Tiger Woods play and have an off-week and become painful, average-middle-of-the-pack-type player for the first time in his career, now 13 years into it, so it is pretty remarkably that it has gone this long.  The way the selection process is setup for Corey [Pavin] is, he is going to get to watch Tiger.  This week the points are double the value, and so if Tiger plays well, and so the money is actually doubled in value because it is based on a money system now.  I don’t know how he is going to play at Whistling Straits but then there are three tournaments after that so he has the luxury of waiting.  But the system was changed simply to get the hottest players there and if he continues to play poorly I would choose a hotter player over bigger names, personally I think if he continues to play poorly the decision would come very easy.  If he has some top-10 finishes then it becomes a little bit more difficult.  I think then you have a can of worms if you don’t pick him.”

Whose game he thinks fits the Whistling Straits course as they are playing at this moment:

“I think Whistling Straights is the 8^th wonder of the world.  It is a perfectly flat piece of ground that Pete Dye came in there with bulldozer in hand and just created this masterpiece.  It looks like somebody dropped you off in the middle of Scotland or Ireland, and that a man can create that.  If you been to New York City and looked up from the bottom of a skyscraper and looked straight up and wonder how somebody built that.  That is what Whistling Straits was to me, a phenomenal golf course.  There is no way to limp your way around there.  If you are not hitting the ball well you will not play well there, big greens, if the wind comes off the lake I think the place will terrorize the players.  In calm conditions the course can be had just like anywhere else.  Wind is the great defender of these golf courses in this day and age.  It is spectacular and I would almost love for the PGA to say, ‘This is our home, this is where we are going to play every PGA Championship from now on’ and try to establish the same kind of tradition of Augusta has been over years.  But I think Whistling Straits is every bit that good.  It is a bucket list kind of course and everyday people can go play that golf course, you have got to pay a price to do it but it is available for everybody to play.”

Paul Azinger on WSCR in Chicago with Boers and Bernstein

But the downside of being a professional golfer — money, women, fame aside — includes having to speak about your failures. And Perry did just that recently, talking about how he’s been handling his life since Augusta ended, whether he thought about winning while he was playing and what the Masters means compared to the Ryder Cup.

On the last two weeks since the Masters:

“This week’s been kind of a rough week. After experiencing the highs and lows of the tournament, to feel like you had something and then to let it get away. That week was magical, I went in early at Augusta, prepared, spent a lot of time the week before doing all the green complexes and everything, spent over 20 hours on the greens. You know, I had a plan last year to make the Ryder Cup team and it came through so I kinda set a plan to figure out how I could get through Augusta to be competitive, and it almost panned out. I played beautifully last week and I’m proud of how I hung in there and handled it, and I’d just like to have one little chip over again if I could have it.”

Did thoughts of winning creep into his head as he was winning the Masters with two holes to play:

“Not really. I knew 17 and 18 were tough holes. 17, they’ve added all the trees up the right and left side, it’s a very tight and very demanding driving hole now. I knew I needed to get that ball in the fairway, and I kinda got a bad break I think. I hit a drive up the right side and actually it hit an overhanging tree limb and shot it backwards to give me a 180 yard shot into the green where normally I’d have a 140-150 where that green is very firm and it kind of rolls away from you and I knew that 6 iron was gonna have a tough time stopping on the green. I would’ve loved to have an 8 iron or 9 iron into that green. But I hit a nice 6 iron, high and soft and it just didn’t hold, went a little long and then I hit the chip that everybody as an amateur or a pro that we don’t even want to think about.”

On playing in the Masters vs. the Ryder Cup:

“Well, for me personally nothing will ever top the Ryder Cup because I had my family there, it was in the state of Kentucky, it was at Valhalla where I lost the PGA Championship, it was a chance for me to redeem myself in front of my home folks. And to play as great as I did there, the electricity in the air was incredible. The Ryder Cup felt like the 18th hole at Augusta for every hole, from the 1st hole through 18. That’s how pressured I felt, and how everyone was hollering and rooting and going on. I felt really nervous at Augusta coming down the stretch, last couple of holes. It was different in that aspect, but both were very rewarding, very gratifying to me, and I had a blast at both of them and it’s just neat to get in those situations.”

Listen to Kenny Perry on 1010XL in Jacksonville with Mike Dempsey

‘It means a lot. It’s something I’ve been dreaming about really since I played my first Ryder Cup in 19991 at Kiawah. It’s kind of one of those things that’s in my blood and I’m just really passionate about the Ryder Cup…I feel so patriotic when I have anything to do with the Ryder Cup…”

Pavin made his Ryder Cup debut in 1991 as a player

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