Leonard-Love Win CVS Classic

BARRINGTON, R.I. (AP) â€” Justin Leonard and Davis Love III teamed up to win the CVS Charity Classic at Rhode Island Country Club on Tuesday. <br><br>Leonard and Love finished 16-under par in the two-man,

Wednesday, July 12th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BARRINGTON, R.I. (AP) â€” Justin Leonard and Davis Love III teamed up to win the CVS Charity Classic at Rhode Island Country Club on Tuesday.

Leonard and Love finished 16-under par in the two-man, medal play best-ball tournament to win the $200,000 first prize. The team of Craig Stadler and Steve Elkington finished second at 13-under and won $150,000.

Love, a friend of tournament organizers and fellow PGA pros Billy Andrade and Brad Faxon of Rhode Island, knows the 6,688-yard course well.

``Justin really doesn't know the course, so he wanted me to drive first,'' said Love, who has 13 PGA Tour victories, including the 1997 PGA Championship. ``I showed him the way (Monday) and it worked so well we stuck with it today.''

Love, ranked sixth in putting on the PGA tour, made seven birdies Monday and three Tuesday as the team combined for a five-under 66. Leonard, the 1997 British Open champion ranked 127, made two birdies in the second round.

The Stadler-Elkington team and the Leonard-Love team each made the turn at 3-under 33, which maintained the three-stroke differential between the teams.

Love birdied the 538-yard, par-5 11th hole, then followed with two key shots on the 15th.

Love drove the bunker in front of the green, but blasted out of the sand and saved par with a 10-foot putt. After that, Leonard-Love made par down the stretch to clinch the victory.

The teams of Dudley Hart and Tim Herron, Andrade and Faxon and, Jay Haas and Peter Jacobsen finished in a three-way tie for third at 130.

``This was a relaxing tournament,'' Love said. ``If we played this relaxed on tour, maybe we'd do better.''