Love Bounced Back Last Year

PEBBLE BEACH —  One year ago, this was the place where Davis Love III became a shoe-in to win. He had a one-shot lead through 11 holes on the last day of the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am when he hit a five-iron to the par-three 12th and the ball bounced off a photographer’s shoe back onto the green, stopping four feet from the hole.

Love, who birdied the hole and wound up winning by one shot, pointed out the obvious.

“You’re going to hit stuff out here,” Love said. “It’s just a matter of what it is.

“Sometimes it hits a tree. I’ve seen guys hit it over greens and hit the stake of the ropes and have it bounce back on the green.”

It was a hit parade last year for Love, whose victory was his first in 44 tournaments covering two years and signaled the beginning of a four-win year worth nearly $6.1 million in prize money.

“It was a great start, and it came all the way around to Tiger’s tournament at the end of the year and finished it off with a great win,” Love said.

In two tournaments this year, Love tied for ninth at the Mercedes Championships and was third at Sony.

The $5.3-million tournament begins today at Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Poppy Hills. All the courses in the rotation have been good to Love. He missed the cut four of his first five times here, but since then, Love has won twice and has five top 10s in the last 12 years.

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Kirk Triplett’s amateur partner is Super Bowl most valuable player Tom Brady. Said Triplett: “Isn’t he the father on the ‘Brady Bunch?’ ”

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Greg Norman stirred up the women-on-the-PGA Tour issue this week when he said the men’s tour needs to change its bylaws so women can’t receive sponsor’s exemptions into PGA Tour events.

Love said he wouldn’t comment on Norman’s remarks.

“Since he’s already dug a hole ... don’t want to climb in with him.”

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Peter Jacobsen, whose businesses include golf course design and staging tournaments, came up with a new deal this week -- signing Arnold Palmer to a three-year deal for a brand of vodka. Jacobsen represented Ketel One.

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In his Internet newsletter, Tiger Woods came off a little defensive about not playing the AT&T; tournament. Woods, who will have been off for a month when he returns next week at Torrey Pines, wrote that he had made no secret of his dislike of bumpy greens and six-hour rounds at Pebble Beach.

He also wrote that if he had played this week, that would mean playing in five consecutive tournaments.

Woods said he didn’t want anybody to get the wrong idea.

“I hope they have a wonderful tournament and the weather holds up.”

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Even though he has played only one tournament, Woods leads the PGA Tour in driving distance (311.1 yards), birdie average (6.25 a round) and is tied with Jim Furyk for the most greens in regulation (83.3%).

Woods’ streak of consecutive cuts is at 115. Ernie Els is next with 30.

Since 2000, who has the most top 10s, Woods or Vijay Singh? Singh leads Woods, 54-52, including 11 in a row.

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Patricia Russo is the only woman in the amateur field this week. Russo is the president and chief executive of Lucent Technologies Inc.

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The prize money for the Nissan Open has been increased $300,000, to $4.8 million; 10 years ago, the total prize money was $1 million.

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Proving it’s all in the family, consider Charles Howell III. For the first time, Howell wanted to play blade irons, even though he endorses Callaway Golf and the company makes cavity-backed irons. But Callaway owns Hogan Golf, which makes blade irons at Callaway’s facility in Carlsbad, so Howell got the OK to use the Hogan equipment.

There’s one more change in Howell this year. He isn’t wearing the clothing by Swedish designer J. Lindeberg, who outfits Jesper Parnevik and Fredrik Jacobson. Howell’s deal ran out with Lindeberg, so he is now wearing clothes by Sanei, a Japanese design company -- and a Callaway licensee.