Davis Love III and Billy Andrade watch their partners tee off on the 16th during first-round play at the CVS Caremark Charity Classic.

Journal photo / Mary Murphy

BARRINGTON -- On a rainy, windy day that made the CVS Caremark Charity Classic seem like the British Open, Davis Love III kept thinking about the U.S. Open and his good friend, Lucas Glover.

“If there are any cell phone rules at this club, we broke them all,” said Love, who, between his own shots at Rhode Island Country Club, kept checking to see how Glover was doing at Bethpage Black.

“I was wearing out my I-phone,” Love said. “I hope I didn’t ruin it by getting it wet. I kept taking it out in order to keep up with him.”

Love – who was Glover’s partner at the CVS in 2005 and 2006 – wasn’t the only one keeping tabs on what was going on at the Open.

“We were walking off the 11th green,” Brett Quigley said, “when we heard Lucas had won. Standing on the 12th tee, I took out my phone, turned it on, and all of us – Dana (Quigley), Nick (Price), and David (Toms) all congratulated him on a voice mail.”

Love, after fashioning a 4-under-par 71 yesterday with 21-year-old LPGA star Morgan Pressel, sent a text message to Glover, who emerged from a three-way tie in the closing holes to post a two-shot victory over two-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson, former British Open champ David Duval, and Ricky Barnes, the 2002 U.S. Amateur champion, with whom he’d started the day tied for the top spot.

“I told him I was excited for him, but not shocked,” Love said.

For Love, the surprise would have been if Glover hadn’t won.

“I had a feeling (Sunday) night he was going to win,” Love said.

Which has to be considered a bit surprising, considering that Glover’s only previous Tour victory was four years ago, in the Funai Classic at Walt Disney World.

“Lucas is strong. He can hit the ball out of the deep, U.S. Open rough,” Love said. “He’s an aggressive player, a confident player. When he gets close, that’s when he’s at his best.”

 It was Love’s son, Davis IV, who became an avid fan of Glover’s when he was still an amateur.

 “I hosted both Walker Cup teams at my house in 2001,” Love recalled. “Lucas was on the U.S. team that year. When we went out to watch the first day of matches, my son, who was only eight, said he was going to watch Lucas Glover. He hadn’t seen him hit a shot, but he just liked him. I think it was because Lucas was nice to him. That’s the way Lucas is with everybody.”

 Which is why so many players at the CVS were so interested yesterday in how Glover was faring in the final round at Bethpage.

 “He’s not just a great player, he’s also a great guy,” Quigley said of Glover, who often visits Love at his home on Sea Island, Ga.

 “We call the lake there ‘Lake Lucas,’ because he spends so much time fishing there,” Love said. “He’s a lot of fun to be around.”

 Glover wasn’t having much fun last year, when he finished 105th on the PGA Tour money list, so he took four months off. He returned this year refreshed, and playing better than ever.

 “The only thing that surprises me,” Love said, “is that Lucas hasn’t won more often. But he’s never been a very patient player. Somebody asked me (Sunday) night if I thought he’d win, and I said: ‘If golf took two-and-a-half hours, rather than four-and-a-half hours, Lucas would win a lot more.’ ”

 Love said he didn’t try to get in touch with Glover Sunday night because he “didn’t want to jinx him.”

 While playing with Pressel – they’re just two shots off leaders Billy Andrade and Helen Alfredsson, who shot 65 – Love was thinking about Glover.

 “When we were coming up to the ninth green, I knew he had a two-stroke lead,” Love said. “About 10-to-15 minutes later, somebody told me: ‘Lucas won.’ ”

 Love was almost as happy as if he’d won the Open himself. Although Love has won 20 times on the PGA Tour since his rookie year in 1986, he’s never won the U.S. Open. He tied for second in 1996 after finishing tied for fourth the year before. His only major championship victory came in 1997, when he won the PGA Championship at Winged Foot. He also has won The Players Championship twice, in 1992 and 2003.

 Playing with Glover in the CVS, Love finished fourth in ’05 and tied for seventh in ’06. Love has played in all but two of the 11 Charity Classics, hosted by Brad Faxon and Billy Andrade, winning in 2000 with Justin Leonard and losing a playoff last year, when he was teamed with Andrade, to Bubba Watson and Camilo Villegas.

 Now that Glover has won the U.S. Open, you can bet that Andrade and Faxon would love to have him return to the CVS next year. And, if he does, it would only be fitting if he once again was partners with Love.

jdonalds@projo.com