Love puts pain aside -- again -- to get out and golf

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Davis Love III is on the mend. Again.

Davis Love III, a two-time PLAYERS champion, will be battling a finger injury as he competes this week. (Lecka/Getty Images)

Love's PLAYERS victories

More: The 2003 win
More: The 1992 win

Winner of 19 PGA TOUR titles, including two PLAYERS Championships and the PGA Championship, Love, 44, has been toiling in earnest to regain his form after ankle surgery last September. It's been a slog thus far, with nine starts yielding just one top-25 finish, and that was in his first tournament, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

"I've been a bit slow out of the gate," he said. "I was definitely looking forward to this week and maybe getting untracked on a course where I have a lot of good vibes."

Love won THE PLAYERS Championship in 1992 and 2003, and he has finished in the top 10 at THE PLAYERS Stadium Course on four other occasions. He is fourth in career earnings in the PGA TOUR's flagship tournament and has the 13th best scoring average at 71.89 over 73 rounds. Only Nick Price has played more rounds (84) and is ranked ahead of him.

So, of course Love awoke Monday morning excited to prepare for the TOUR's signature tournament.

But first he had to figure out why the middle finger on his left hand was throbbing with pain and was twice its normal size.

Love said that he noticed a small splinter near the tip of the finger Sunday night and "flicked it out." Monday morning he couldn't bend it. He visited a local doctor, who cut open the finger to probe for any remnants of the splinter, and to," Love said, "let out all the gunk.

"That helped a bunch. Yesterday, I couldn't bend it. Today, I can almost bend it all the way. It hurts. The doctor said it's going to hurt, but I don't care about that. I just want to be able to bend it and hold the club."

Love planned to play nine holes Wednesday afternoon to test the finger, which was heavily bandaged. He wore a white glove with the middle finger cut out of it.

"I think people would have to start wondering about me," he said. "I mean, it's just one more thing. I've had the neck problem and then the kidney stones and then I stepped in a hole ... just one thing after another.

"If I can ever get back to normal, whatever normal is, I think I might be able to play some pretty good golf again. The problem is getting there."