GOLF ROUNDUP : Love Makes It Victory No. III in PGA

Davis Love III doesn’t care how someone loses a tournament. And he doesn’t think others should, either.

“A lot of people said that I backed into it in ‘87,” Love said Sunday after his second victory in the Heritage Classic at Hilton Head Island, S.C. “I kept defending myself. I guess now I’ll have to defend myself a little bit on this one, too.

“It doesn’t bother me as long as I put up the low score after four rounds and I win. I don’t care how it gets done.”

Love won the 1987 Heritage when Steve Jones double-bogeyed the 18th to blow a one-shot lead and hand Love the victory.

On Sunday, Love overcame a triple-bogey to win by two strokes, but only after Ian Baker-Finch bogeyed the final two holes.

Love shot 70 for a 13-under-par 271 total at Harbour Town Golf Links and his second Heritage among his three PGA titles. The sixth-year pro earned $180,000.

“I just couldn’t quite hang on there long enough at 17 and 18. I let the wind get me a little,” said Baker-Finch, an Australian who has finished second four times in the past 16 months in U.S. tournaments. “I’m a little disappointed with the finish, but very happy with the way I got there.”

Love and Baker-Finch were tied at 13 under going into the 192-yard 17th. Both had trouble off the tee, Love ending up on the grassy slope behind the green and Baker-Finch in the bunker.

Love managed to save par after his chip shot landed inches from the pin, but Baker-Finch missed a 10-foot putt for par.

“It was just a little feel shot,” Love said. “But it’s definitely not the shot you want on the 71st hole of a golf tournament.”

Baker-Finch then bogeyed the final hole when his second shot landed in the bunker on the 18th.

Baker-Finch shot a final-round 69 to finish at 273. Lanny Wadkins, who finished second here as an amateur in 1970, was third at 274 after a 68.

Tied with Stewart were two-time Heritage champion Hale Irwin, after a 69, and Mark O’Meara, with a 70.

Love was ahead by four strokes and seemingly in control until he took a triple-bogey on No. 8.

His tee shot on the 462-yard hole landed in a pond after bouncing off a tree and the roof of a house.

After taking a drop and a one-stroke penalty, it took Love two shots to get to the green, where he two-putted.

Germany’s Bernhard Langer birdied five of the final 11 holes and finished with a two-under-par 70 to win the $780,000 Benson and Hedges International Open at St. Mellion, England.

Langer, who finished with a 286 total, turned a five-shot deficit into a two-stroke victory as he overtook Spain’s Jose Rivero.

Three strokes ahead going into the final round, Rivero slumped to a 77 and wound up tied for third with Ireland’s Philip Walton at 289. Nick Faldo was at 305 after a final round of 73.