No Love from Love for Love

Davis Love III is not playing the Canadian Open this week. The field for the event has not been particularly strong in recent years, so this would normally come as no surprise. Since it is being played the week following the Open Championship, it would be doubly expected that a player of his caliber (though 84th in the FedEx Cup standings), would not be in Canada.

The part that I did not mention, though, is that Davis Love III designed and completed a total facelift of the Open's host course, Angus Glen (the North Course). PGATour.com's Dave Shedloski made light of this fact in his Tour Insider column:

Davis Love III is the man to beat at this week's Canadian Open. Although the former PGA champion isn't in this week's field, Love is sure to be a significant figure in the tournament's narrative, having overseen the renovation of the North Course at Angus Glen, which hosts the Canadian national championship for the second time in six years.

How in the world could Love not play on the course he redesigned as a means of goodwill to the RCGA and Canadian Open officials for promoting his design work in the PGA Tour's second oldest event? Bill Paul of the RCGA is not pleased, saying, ""Every time we talked from The Players Championship on, he was going to play," Paul said yesterday of Love. "He is the biggest disappointment ... obviously, he should be here."

Love had apparently been wishy-washy all along on the subject of him appearing at the Open. According to the same reporting quoting Paul, Love's intentions to play were based upon how desperate he would be come this week:

He said one factor in the decision would be his form heading into the final few weeks of the PGA Tour season; if he needed to crowd his schedule to make enough points to qualify for the season-ending FedEx Cup playoff, he said he'd give the Canadian Open serious consideration.

So, basically, Love would only appear if he was past the 144 cut off on the FedEx Cup points list. Translation: there was no chance in hell of Love appearing at the Canadian Open. That seems downright shameful and ingrateful.

The crazy thing is that this is the second consecutive year this has happened. Love's associates in his design firm redid Forest Oaks, the site of the Greater Greensboro Classic (edit: I mistyped here!). Love then surprisingly no-showed at the event, upsetting tournament officials that expected Love to appear at the event and bring some of his compadres with him to fill out the field nicely.

According to a Robert Thompson piece last year, some of the players were not thrilled with the work done then either. “They made a great course good,” PGA Tour regular Robert Gamez said after playing the course last year. Whoops. The reviews before the event last year were pretty solid for the redesign work, but then soured. The reviews going into this week's Open at Angus Glen also have been very positive...but are subject to change, right?

Either way, don't expect the RCGA to send a Christmas card to Davis Love III this year.