Back-to-wall shot works for Love

There is only one place you will always find sympathy, and that is in the dictionary. When Davis Love III's eight-iron approach to the final hole yesterday bounded over the green and landed close to the wall of the clubhouse, the pragmatic marshal accompanying his match simply informed the player he was lucky it hadn't ended up inside the building. "You'd be out of bounds if it had," he added.

In fact, if Love's shot had been slightly further right, there was a chance it would have finished up in the locker room. As it happened, the ball came to rest some 15 inches from the redbrick building that lies at the back of the green.

Back in 1974, when Gary Player won the British Open here, his ball had landed in a similar position and he ended up playing a left-handed sandwedge shot against the wall to rebound it onto the green.

And that very same thought crossed Love's mind as he made the walk towards his ball.

"I knew when I saw it roll up there that I wasn't going to get a drop, so I was thinking what I was going to hit to bounce it up against the wall as I approached the ball," he said.

As things transpired, he was able to use his putter. "I just gave it a whack," he admitted, and Love managed to hole the ensuing 25-footer for par and a round of 67 for two-under-par 142.

"It was a great two putt," conceded Love. "You would never consider practising such a shot in practice. On the Road Hole at St Andrews everybody ends up putting across the road, or chipping it across the road, but you never think of practising a shot from up against the clubhouse wall."

If the truth be known, no player deserved a break quite as much. Love is a genuine nice guy. The Walker Cup next month is being played in Sea Island, Georgia, on a course where he has a home and which he represents as its touring professional. He has already extended an invite to the two teams to visit him during the event.

And the world number five is one of those Americans who has always supported the British Open.

No whinging and no moaning about how tough the courses are or how bad the weather is. In his last four appearances in the championship, in fact, Love has had three top-10 finishes. On the other occasion, at St Andrews last year, he finished 11th.

So, from a position where he had been three-over after three holes in Thursday's first round, Love - one of the most laid-back players on tour - managed a smile to confirm he was happy to have played his way back into things.

"I've kept myself in it, and that is the main thing. I watched a lot of guys on television, including Colin (Montgomerie), and it struck me they were only rolling the ball to the hole and letting the break take it in. I'd been zooming them over the edge so I guess I got the pace of them a bit better today. With the conditions they way they are, I knew I needed a good one to keep on playing," claimed Love.

He's probably done more than that, he has actually played his way back into a position from where he can make a weekend challenge...but to do so, the 1997 Us PGA champion needs to get over his Saturday jinx. In his last six third round appearances in the British Open, he has failed to break 70.

That sequence will need to end today if he is to have any chance of having the claret jug on display when the Walker Cup teams pay him a visit next month.