Heart-healthy Davis Love III makes return at Mitsubishi Electric Classic

The 54-hole PGA Tour Champions event runs through Sunday, with the winner earning $300,000 of the $2 million purse. The opening ceremony begins at 8 a.m. Friday, with the starting times moved up to 8:20 a.m. to get ahead of potential inclement weather.

“It’s nice to be back,” he said. “I mainly came to see all my friends. I figure I’ve played maybe five tournaments in the last 15-16 months, so I’ve been missing out on seeing everybody and missing out on the competition. I’m ready to get going. I’m very rusty, but happy to be back.”

Love had open-heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, in January. The surgery was to repair a leaky heart valve and came 10 years after he was diagnosed with a heart murmur. At a regular checkup last fall the doctors told him it was time to fix the problem, and Team Love set a schedule to have everything done.

Credit: Stan Awtrey

Credit: Stan Awtrey

Love since has become an advocate for early detection. Last year one of his friends died of a heart attack while working in his yard.

“That could have been me very easily if I wasn’t planning ahead for it,” he said. “I could have walked right into a tragedy, and they prevented that, so I feel very blessed.”

Other than a bit of high blood pressure, Love never had any signs that anything was wrong. But when the doctors said it was time to take care of the situation, he didn’t balk.

“It didn’t sneak up on me, but reality hit last September that I was going to have to have a big surgery,” he said. “We planned well ahead, and I was prepared for it mentally. I wasn’t prepared physically for the comeback.”

Love equated the surgery to falling off a bicycle and breaking every rib. There was plenty of physical pain.

“Bouncing back from that is the hard part,” he said. “It’s going to take a while to heal up, especially when you want to turn and swing and hit.”

Love didn’t wait to begin his rehab. He and trainer Randy Myers stopped by the gym on the way home from the hospital.

“We didn’t do anything except walk around in circles, but it started the day I got home from surgery,” Love said. “Walking for a heart patient is one of the main things, so we did a lot of walking, started with legs and worked our way up. I knew the only way I was ever going to play golf again was to start the rehab right away.”

He started hitting balls in April and circled this week on the calendar for a return, in part to support the involvement that tournament sponsor Mitsubishi has shown and in part because of his long-standing ties to the Atlanta area.

Love’s father was the PGA professional at Atlanta Country Club for years before moving to Sea Island, and the family lived off the second green. Young Davis even operated a lemonade stand there during the annual Atlanta Golf Classic.

As for the golf, he’s not really sure what to expect. He joked about the need for dry conditions this week in order to get maximum roll in the fairways.

“It seems to get better every day and faster every day,” he said. “Hopefully by Sunday I’ve got some clubhead speed.”

He tried to prepare for this week by pushing himself as if it were a tournament week and experienced no problems. He just isn’t sure what to expect after four consecutive days of golf, three under tournament conditions.

“Inside the ropes hitting golf balls is different from just playing a round at home,” he said. “So we’ll see next Monday, then pick another tournament. … There’s no substitute for coming and playing and, as Fred Couples said, the four hours inside the ropes are worth everything else, so to get out here and play with my friends, there’s nothing better.”

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Ames eager to defend title — again

Stephen Ames has a definite affinity for the TPC Sugarloaf course. He has won there three times (2017, 2023, 2024) and last year became the first player to successfully defend his title. A victory this week would make him the 11th player in the history of the PGA Tour Champions to three-peat.

Ames, who lives in the Turks and Caicos when he’s not plundering Sugarloaf, is off to an average start to the season. He ranks No. 41 on the points list and has one top-10 finish in five starts. He tied for 29th in his most recent outing, three weeks ago at The Galleri Classic in California.

“The beginning of the year I struggled the most with the putter,” Ames said. “Palm Springs was my last event, and I was No. 1 in greens hit and fifth or sixth in fairways hit, so it’s like. ‘It’s not that bad.’ Then I looked at my putting and said, ‘Oh yeah it is.’ So, I’ve put some work over the last three weeks into my putter to try and get that back.”

This week Ames, who turns 61 on Monday, is ready to turn around his season at a place that’s been very good for him.

“The design of it pretty much fits my eye,” he said. “The good thing about what Greg (Norman, course designer) has done is that he puts all the trouble in your eyes, so you see shapes very easily off the tee. You see shapes into the greens and, as a shot maker, I enjoy seeing shapes and hitting shapes.”

Ames shot an 8-under 64 last year to match the competitive scoring record. He set a tournament record at 19-under 197 in 2023.

All former champions are in the field this week: Bernhard Langer (2013); Miguel Angel Jimenez (2014); Olin Browne (2015); Woody Austin (2016); Steve Flesch (2018, 2022); Scott McCarron (2019); and Dicky Pride (2021). Jimenez leads the Charles Schwab Cup standings thanks to two early victories.

The tournament can be seen on Golf Channel (tape delayed) from 9-11 p.m. Friday, and from 3-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.