San Francisco (AFP) – US Ryder Cup captain Davis Love has undergone successful left hip surgery and is expected to make a full recovery in time to guide the Americans against Europe in September.
The PGA of America announced Thursday that Love underwent the operation on Wednesday at Birmingham, Alabama. He is expected to need at least 12 weeks to fully recover, that being how just long he has until the Ryder Cup starts September 30 at Hazeltine near Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“Being off over the Fourth of July weekend, I spent probably 25 hours on Ryder Cup stuff to get ready for the surgery in case the rehab takes up a lot of my time,” Love said.
“This downtime will give me a chance to be more organized. Let me just say this: I won’t be bored from not playing.”
Love, 52, said he is being helped by assistant captains, with Tiger Woods working on groups and pairings and Tom Lehman planning a team dinner at the US PGA playoffs Deutsche Bank Championship near Boston in early September.
Holders Europe won for the third time in a row in 2014 at Gleneagles, Scotland. The Europeans, who will be captained by Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke, have won six of the past seven Ryder Cups and eight of the past 10, including a 2012 comeback from 10-6 down on the final day to inflict a stunning defeat upon a Love-captained US side.
Love plans to return to competition at October’s opening event of the 2016-17 PGA season, the Safeway Open in nearby Napa, California, on October 13-16 if he recovers in time.
“It was getting more and more uncomfortable,” Love said. “I tried an injection to calm it down and that didn’t work.
“I either had to quit playing until after the Ryder Cup, or get it done quickly and be ready to walk in September. I didn’t want to push it another month and be physically limited at the Ryder Cup. I also didn’t want to wait and screw up next season.”
Love will miss the PGA Championship later this month and next month’s Wyndham Championship, where he would have been the defending champion.
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