For Davis Love III, a missed cut but an unqualified success

DETROIT – The ball just sounds different coming off his club.

There was a time when people said that about Davis Love III, but at 58 he’s in the September of his years. He will miss the cut at the Rocket Mortgage Classic (78-71) but was here also to scout out the current crop of young players vying to make his U.S. Presidents Cup Team, which will take on the International Team at Quail Hollow Club, Sept. 21-25.

As the captain, Love gets six picks, and he started scouting contenders early in the week.

“You see him on TV,” Love said of Will Zalatoris, after the two played a practice round together, “or you see him around the locker room, but when you stand right beside him and see him hit a golf ball – it was said about me when I was that age, like, ‘Listen, it's a different sound when Davis hits it.’”

There’s knowing, and then there’s knowing, so Love came to Detroit Golf Club this week to glean all the things you can’t quite pick up any other way than by being there. He played his first two rounds with Zalatoris and Cameron Young – no accident – and it was Young who impressed most, tying the course record with a 9-under 63 in the second round.

At 10 under, Young was leading, one ahead of fellow rookie Sahith Theegala (67) and Adam Scott (66) as the afternoon wave of players, including first-round leaders Tony Finau and Taylor Pendrith (64), began play.

Zalatoris shot 70-71 and was seven shots back.

“I told my wife last night, I said it's been a great week this week no matter what,” Love said after scoring better but still driving it poorly in the second round. “Dinner with Tony Finau and Zach Johnson (Thursday) night and a couple other guys the night before, playing a practice round with Will and got to play with – I didn't know Cam at all, so it was a good week.”

In auditioning for Love, Young made about as a loud a statement as he could have. After a ho-hum opening round in the afternoon wind Thursday, he took full advantage of the Friday morning calm with seven birdies and an eagle at the par-4 13th hole, where he holed out with a pitching wedge.

“I mean, you obviously have kind of some idea why he's there,” said Young, who is 13th in the U.S. Team standings. “I don't know what I'm on the points list for Presidents Cup, but I think that I'm probably somewhere that I could get picked.”

With six top-10 finishes, including a runner-up to Cameron Smith at The Open Championship and a T3 at the PGA Championship, Young is not only on Love’s shortlist for the Presidents Cup, but he’s also the frontrunner for PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year. That would be somehow fitting, since his pal Zalatoris, who was one year ahead of him at Wake Forest, won the Arnold Palmer Award last season. (Palmer, too, went to Wake Forest.)

Love said Young and Zalatoris, who capably hold down the back of the alphabet, are “like peas in a pod” and could shine as a Foursomes and/or Four Ball pairing at Quail Hollow, where the U.S. Team looks to retain the Presidents Cup.

“You can see it when after I hit and they take off running down the fairway,” Love said, “they're chitchatting the whole day, comfortable with each other and giving each other a hard time.”

Young was second in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee after Friday’s morning wave. Love called it “impressive power.”

The top six on the list through the BMW Championship, the second event of the FedExCup Playoffs, will make the team automatically. After that, Love makes his six picks the Monday after the TOUR Championship, Aug. 29. International Team Captain Trevor Immelman, looking avenge a close loss last time around, also will make his picks that day.

Whether or not it figures Young (and let’s face it, odds are he’ll be there), the U.S. Team figures to be plenty youthful. Sam Burns has never made a U.S. Team, but he’s a lock at second in the standings. Max Homa has never made a U.S. Team, either, but is also looking good at ninth. Zalatoris and Young, both 25, are on the cusp at Nos. 10 and 13, respectively.

All that youth would seem to be a reason for optimism. The makeup of the team, and how it performs, also figures to impact the 2023 Ryder Cup team that will be captained by Zach Johnson – one of Love’s Presidents Cup assistants.

“They keep coming, it's unbelievable,” Love said. “Go back to Jordan Spieth, nobody heard of him and next thing you know in one year he's on the Presidents Cup team. And Cam's headed that way, too. No one ever heard of him on the Korn Ferry and here he is, he almost won a major. It's great it's coming that way. Happy for me and happy for Zach and our teams in the future.”