CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Davis Love III can iron another shirt and another pair of pants on Saturday morning. He’s reached the quarterfinals of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.

Love, who beat Chris DiMarco 3 and 2 in the third round on Friday, is the kind of guy who doesn’t like to get ahead of himself. He brings enough clothes to last him through the grueling week at La Costa, but he takes things day by day.

“I know what I would wear tomorrow and what I would wear Sunday, but it’s not ironed yet,” Love said, smiling. “But you don’t want to make a flight for Sunday night. You want to hang in there with a positive attitude that I’m going to win every day, but you don’t want to look past your next match.”

Love’s quarterfinal opponent is Padraig Harrington, who beat the game’s No. 2 player, Vijay Singh, on the 19th hole. And what could be described as a mild upset was accomplished despite the fact that the Irishman is completely frustrated by the capricious nature of his swing.

“I don’t for a second recommend trying to play golf like I’m playing at the moment,” said the hard-working Harrington, who was so befuddled he planned to go to his room rather than hit the practice range Friday afternoon looking for a quick fix.

The 41-year-old Love, on the other hand, feels he’s “real close” to where he wants to be with his game, as well as his conditioning. He’s also comfortable at La Costa where he won the 1993 Mercedes Championships in stroke play and has a 15-6 record in match play after Friday’s victory over the gritty DiMarco, who reached the finals here last year.

“It was a very good win,” Love said. “He wasn't one of the hottest match play players today -- neither one of us were hot. But I certainly played solid and kept out of trouble and he got in trouble a couple of times. He had a lot of pressure on his putter and he didn't make a whole lot of putts and I did. So that was really the match.”

Love, who lost to Tiger Woods in the finals of the 2004 Accenture Match Play Championship, only trailed once after driving it into the creek that dissects the first fairway.

Love promptly evened the match, though, with a conceded birdie at the par-5 third hole after just missing a 20-footer for eagle. He then gained the upper hand that he would not relinquish when he cut the dogleg and drove the fringe on the 378-yard fourth to set up another birdie.

When DiMarco’s drive strayed into the right rough and his second shot found the water at the par-5 eighth hole, Love played it safe. He laid up and narrowly missed his 15-footer for birdie but still got the win to go 2 up.

A conceded birdie on the next par 5 gave Love a 3-up advantage -- which turned out to be fortuitous after his back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 14 and 15 gave DiMarco new life. But Love orchestrated an emphatic ending at the par-3 16th with a near ace that settled 13 inches from the pin.

“I expected to have to make a bunch of birdies to beat Chris,” Love said. “I made a few on the front nine, but he made a couple of critical mistakes. And those holes that he made mistakes on I played solid on. I parred the par 5, No. 8, into the wind, and that was pretty much the match. I had one good up and down that probably hurt him a little bit. But pretty much when he made a mistake I played solid.

“So I thought I might have to make six or eight birdies, if he got (to that) typical fist-pumping Chris DiMarco, but neither one of us really got to that point. Sometimes you play at the level you have to.”

Love, who is looking for his first victory since the 2003 INTERNATIONAL, knows things won’t get any easier in this pressure-packed format which he admits is a “little too volatile to (play) every week.” He understands he’ll have to prove himself again on Saturday morning against Harrington -- and hopefully a semifinal opponent that afternoon.

“You can’t say, well, I played good yesterday, so I'm going to win tomorrow,” he explained. “You can take some confidence in there, but you still have to have that sense of urgency, that it's not just going to happen if you just go out there and play.

“You have to go out and play hard and be positive and be focused. And you've got to work hard all the way through the match because you never know when things are going to turn.”