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Davis Love III: Tiger Woods will get to 100 victories 'if he stays healthy'
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Davis Love III, host of this week’s RSM Classic at Sea Island Golf Club, doesn’t think Tiger Woods will get 83 PGA Tour victories and break the record he currently shares with Sam Snead.
Whoa, wait. What?
“I think if he’s healthy, he goes to 100 wins,” the former PGA champion said.
Oh, OK.
“He hasn’t really gotten going good,” Love said, explaining his line of thinking. “See, I think he’s different than Jack [Nicklaus]. He won the Masters at, what, 46, right? But he wasn’t really playing full time. If he was playing good he could win any time. And Greg [Norman] was sort of the same way and he just kind of stopped playing.
“Tiger Woods isn’t going to sit around. I think he’s going to go for 100. But if he gets hurt again … every time he gets hurt it’s just going to get harder and harder. But if he stays healthy. …”
Coming off a two-month break to recover from arthroscopic knee surgery, Woods, 43, won the inaugural Zozo Championship in Japan for his 82nd tour title. The victory was his second of the year following his Masters triumph in April and his third since he returned from a series of back problems that sidelined him for two years.
Love, who lost to Woods in a playoff at the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational that constituted Woods’ first career title, said that Woods didn’t predict a win in Japan, but he did express confidence based on his health.
“He literally told me before Japan, ‘I am feeling really good. This is the best I’ve felt in a long time. I shot 66 the other day.’ So, he’s feeling it,” said Love, who insisted that 100 is not out of the question if Woods just played more often.
“My same old argument, and I’ve told him this, is if he just played a couple more tournaments and got in a rhythm when he’s healthy, he could win [more],” Love, 55, added. “I’ve watched him more from the inside the last few years, and he doesn’t let up on anything.”