Love shrugs aside Cup disappointment with 65 at Firestone

AKRON, Ohio, Aug 26 (Reuters) Davis Love III put his Ryder Cup disappointment behind him by shooting a five-under-par 65 in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational second round.

Overlooked as a wildcard selection by US team captain Tom Lehman on Monday, Love reeled off seven birdies and two bogeys to finish one shot behind the pacesetting Tiger Woods at Firestone Country Club.

The 42-year-old American, a veteran of six Ryder Cup matches, will play with world number one Woods in the final pairing in Saturday's third round.

''It's a good position to be on this golf course,'' Love told reporters after posting an eight-under total of 132. ''It's playing fairly tough and it will be nice to play with Tiger tomorrow.

''It'll be better than playing behind him, certainly. I played behind him on Saturday last week and it was a little raucous,'' he added, referring to the PGA Championship at Medinah won by Woods.

''This should be the eye of the storm rather on the fringe of it.'' Love, who claimed the most recent of his 18 PGA Tour titles at the 2003 International, feels he is not far from producing winning form.

''I played pretty much like this the first two rounds last week too,'' he said. ''I know I'm playing well, I've just got to put four rounds together. That's really the challenge.'' Next month's Ryder Cup in Ireland will be the first he has missed since making his debut in the team competition at The Belfry in central England in 1993.

Although he still thinks a great deal about how the Americans will fare at the K Club from Sept. 22-24, he concedes his own game has become a little more relaxed since his failure to play on a seventh US Cup team.

''Maybe the expectations of making or not making the team are going to take a little pressure off of me going forward for the weekend,'' Love said.

''It's kind of weird. I walk out on the driving range here and the next three guys are Ryder Cup guys and captains. I feel like I'm intruding.

''But it's still nice to be thinking about it. I'm proud of playing on six of them and I'm still excited for these guys to go win. I can't get it out my head but the pressure is maybe off a little bit.'' REUTERS VJ BST0549