Davis Love III of Sea Island has distinguished himself as one of the top career money winners on the Professional Golf Association (PGA) tour. As of 2016 Love has won twenty-one PGA tournaments, including one major—the 1997 PGA championship. He finished second at the 1995 Masters Tournament, which is played annually at the Augusta National Golf Club. Love was inducted into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in 2001.
Courtesy of UNC Athletic Communications
Love was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on April 13, 1964. From 1983 to 1985 he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a three-time all-American and all-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) golfer. He won six titles during his collegiate career, including the ACC tournament championship in 1984.
Love turned professional in 1985, joined the PGA tour in 1986, and was named the PGA rookie of the year after that season. Love represented the United States on every Ryder Cup team between 1993 and 2004 and served as the team captain in 2012 and 2016. He was also part of every Presidents Cup team between 1994 and 2005, and he served as captain’s assistant on the 2013 and 2015 U.S. teams. His PGA earnings through 2015 equal nearly $44 million.
Love’s father, Davis Love Jr., played in the 1964 Masters shortly before Davis III was born. He died in a 1988 plane crash and was awarded the Harvey Penick Lifetime Teaching Award posthumously. In 1997 Love published the book Every Shot I Take, which honors his father’s lessons on life and golf. The book received the 1997 United States Golf Association’s International Book Award.
Courtesy of Georgia Golf Hall of Fame
Love and his wife, Robin, moved to Sea Island in the early 1990s. They have a son, Davis IV, and a daughter, Alexia, who is a nationally ranked rider of Paso Fino horses. Love pursues his interest in golf course architecture through his company, Love Golf Design, which he founded in 1994 with his younger brother and caddie, Mark Love. The company has been responsible for the design of several courses throughout the Southeast.
Love is active in community projects as well. He conducts charity events to benefit Safe Harbour and was named honorary chairman for the PGA of America’s National Golf Day in 1998. In March 2004 he donated all $700,000 of his second place finish in the Accenture Match Play Championship to the building fund at St. Simons Presbyterian Church.
