Love looks for solace after family tragedy

OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. -- Inside the ropes is where Davis Love III finds solace.

It's there, in familiar and comforting surroundings, where it's easier to forget for a few hours the horror of finding a relative shot to death. Inside the ropes, there are no children to console when they come with questions about why their father or friend is gone.

It's just a ball and a club and a goal of winning a golf tournament. Much simpler, Love is finding out, than life outside.

"Off the golf course is not as easy as on the golf course for me right now," Love said Tuesday.

Off the course is where Love's life was shattered last month when he found his brother-in-law dead with a self-inflicted gunshot in a Georgia hunting cabin where the two had shared good times.

Jeffrey Knight was the Love family's operations manager, and was under FBI investigation for stealing money from his brother-in-law's accounts when he shot himself to death May 16.

Golf-wise, the timing couldn't have been worse. But for a few weeks, golf wasn't what was on Love's mind.

He had gone through tragedy before, when his father was killed in a 1988 airplane crash. It didn't help to prepare him for more.

"No matter how much success you have at your job or in your career, that family is most important," Love said. "We've been reminded twice tragically in our family how important it is to stay close and take care of each other."

The turning point

In what was shaping up to be the defining year of his career, Love's golf world suddenly came to a crashing halt. Before the shooting, he had won three tournaments, was leading the money list and was an early favorite to challenge Tiger Woods in this week's U.S. Open.

Love intended to ride the wave of success through the Open. Instead, he pulled out of tournaments to deal with a funeral, grieving family and a personal tragedy eclipsed only by the death of his father.

Now Love is back, trying to find some peace inside the ropes at Olympia Fields while the rest of his family tries to do the same on a vacation in Florida.

He'll do it with his other family, on the fairways and greens where he has spent a lifetime playing the game his dad taught him as a toddler.

"My biggest part of my family, my family of friends is out here, so I'm in the right place," Love said. "They know that I want to win this golf tournament, and they're going to say they're fine even if they're not fine and that they're having fun in Florida and go play golf.

"It's a tough time, but everyone has to show that we're strong and life goes on, for the kids, especially."

Love's healing process actually began last week when he returned to the PGA Tour in the FBR Capital Open. He played respectably, finishing in a tie for seventh with final rounds of 68-67.

More important, he found he could put aside his worries and concentrate for the four or five hours he is in a world where he is most comfortable.

"Last week people came up and said I can't believe you played so well," Love said. "I said 'I can't believe I bogeyed three holes in the last round.' So that's what my attitude is I'll play golf and maybe when I go home next week it won't be as much fun as a normal week off, but I'll still keep playing golf as hard as I can."

Before the shooting, life was as good inside the ropes for Love as it had been for years. His back wasn't hurting for the first time in a long time and he spent the offseason practicing more than before.

Love won in his second tournament of the year at Pebble Beach, shot a 64 to win The Players Championship a few weeks later and then won a third time at the MCI Heritage. His only real disappointment came at the Masters, where he finished in a tie for 15th after an opening-round 77.

Love's three wins tie him with Woods and Mike Weir, but he tops both on the money list at just shy of $4 million. It's the kind of start that has him thinking of winning major championships.

"It's been pretty good, even when I haven't played 100 percent or like last week when I was a little rusty, I played pretty well," Love said. "I've just been real happy and real steady with the progress, not only physically but mentally, and the way I'm scoring."

Away from the course, the mental adjustment is harder. Knight was married to a sister of Love's wife and was not only an important employee of Love's but also a constant hunting and fishing companion.

Love wasn't aware until a few days before Knight shot himself that he was being investigated for stealing money out of funds he managed for the family. After Knight disappeared, Love went to the hunting lodge about 25 miles from his home in St. Simon's Island, Ga., and found his body.

Love is reluctant to talk about the details, eager to let the healing process continue.

He'll move that process along at Olympia Fields, where he's eager to win his first U.S. Open but at the same time knowing that any win would have to be put in perspective.

"This is just a game. We take it way too seriously," he said. "We can learn a lot from it to apply to our daily life. But it is a game and we're just lucky that we get to play in front of a lot of people and they clap and we get paid a lot of money to do it.

"But it's not the most important thing in the world. We need to appreciate the fact we are lucky and continue to focus on our family."