Pair Game

Even Love's mother, Penta, made a crack that it's a wonder her son didn't get injured jumping out of a helicopter with a snowboard in Sun Valley or falling on an ATV at his hunting property in south Georgia. The injury occurred during a recreational round with Dr. Tom Boers in Columbus, Ga., when he stepped in a hole while returning to his golf cart to get a provisional ball. If there is an irony, it's not that Love birdied five of nine holes before his ankle turned the color of a bruised grape; it's that his first ball was in play.

The surgery was Oct. 2. Every ligament on the outside of his left ankle was torn, but despite the invasive nature of the operation, his orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Melvin Deese, said the hardest part would be "holding down" Love during his rehabilitation. Davis begrudgingly complied. "He told me the other day that snowboarding is out this year," says Mac Barnhardt, his longtime friend and business manager. "He was very calm about it, but he said, 'I am going to be able to play golf,' so that's a good thing. Is he going crazy? Yeah. The novelty of not [being able] to do anything is getting to him."

There is a consensus in the Love camp that had this not happened, Davis might not have finished off his career in style -- and that he's even more motivated now after being written off. Earlier this month Barnhardt witnessed the desire as Love dressed more in his golf attire or workout clothes than cargo shorts, a T-shirt and his medical boot. "If he's supposed to do his rehab for an hour, he's doing it three hours," Barnhardt says.

Prior to his injury, Love was dedicated to a workout program supervised by strength-and-conditioning coach Randy Myers, who set up shop in Sea Island two years ago. He was hungry for competition after missing most of the late summer with kidney stones and planned to play the Fall Series as a way of improving his World Ranking to qualify for the 2008 Masters. "Talking to him, he's going to come back in the best shape he's ever been in," says close friend Justin Leonard.

While Love was getting cabin fever, Couples appeared at Harmon's golf school in Las Vegas. Although Butch said Fred was in better form at night during dinner at the Bellagio than on the tee, Couples did show Harmon he was ready to work. "He seemed all right mentally, but physically, he can't hit that many balls," Harmon said. "You know how it is with him, one wrong move and he's screwed."

At one point Couples played 14 of 17 days in some money games at Shadow Creek to prepare for the LG Skins Game, the Merrill Lynch Shootout and the Target World Challenge -- but he rode in a cart every round. He won $325,000 at the Skins during Thanksgiving weekend, good for second place behind Stephen Ames. But the back pain returned prior to the Shootout. Not yet halfway through the three-event stretch, Couples said the pain was the result of a cross-country flight from Palm Springs to Naples, Fla., his first coast-to-coast trip since the Masters. He addressed the media after the pro-am at Tiburón GC and adjourned to the Ritz-Carlton to spend three hours with an electrical-impulse machine strapped around his back. He and partner John Daly would finish ninth in the 12-team field.

At the Target at Sherwood CC in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Couples finished last among the 15 players who completed 72 holes, shooting three-over 291, 25 strokes behind Woods.

Love hoped to join Couples at the Target, but that never materialized. Instead he alternated swimming-pool therapy and hitting 40-yard wedge shots. "The thing I've missed is being around the guys," Love says. "It killed me to miss the Father-Son with Dru, and Tiger's tournament is one of the great hangs of the year. Freddie and I would have too long a breakfast and too long a lunch, that's what I miss." Plus, like a good wingman, Love missed being next to Couples on the range, "because he's the star, and anybody who wants to be entertained goes and looks for Freddie."