PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Davis Love III can’t seem to get a break. That’s the good news, because with the luck he’s having lately, the break might be to a limb.

One of the game most naturally talented players is on the mend. Again. It used to be that Love was seen in some circles as an underachiever. These days, given the health hurdles that have been thrown in his way, perhaps it’s more apparent that he hasn’t been a particularly lucky player.

True, some luck you create for yourself, and Love’s 19 PGA Tour titles, including the 1997 PGA Championship, is a nice number though hardly impressive given his skills and potential. He could have won more, and he should have won more.

But now he is not only losing tournaments but also he is losing time. And as the setbacks keep mounting, you have to wonder if there are any more wins in his 44-year-old frame, especially after he underwent ankle surgery in September that sidelined him for the remainder of the 2007 season.

So far this year, as he tries to get back on track, the results haven’t been encouraging. On the eve of The Players Championship, which he has won twice, he hasn’t had a top-10 finish in his nine starts and only once has he finished in the top 25, at his first tournament of the season, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

“I’ve been a bit slow out of the gate,” he said. “I was definitely looking forward to this week and maybe getting untracked on a course where I have a lot of good vibes.”

Love won The Players Championship in 1992 and 2003, and he has finished in the top 10 at The Players Stadium Course on four other occasions. He is fourth in career earnings and has the 13th best scoring average at 71.89 over 73 rounds at the Tour’s flagship tournament. Only Nick Price has played more rounds (84) and is ranked ahead of him.

So, of course Love, who missed the cut at last week’s Wachovia Championship, awoke Monday morning excited to prepare golf’s fifth major. But first he had to figure out why the middle finger on his left hand was throbbing with pain and was twice its normal size.

Love said that he noticed a small splinter near the tip of the finger Sunday night and “flicked it out.” Monday morning he couldn’t bend it. He visited a local doctor, who cut open the finger to probe for any remnants of the splinter, and to, Love said, “let out all the gunk.

“That helped a bunch. Yesterday I couldn’t bend it. Today I can almost bend it all the way. It hurts. The doctor said it’s going to hurt, but I don’t care about that. I just want to be able to bend it and hold the club.”

Love played nine holes Wednesday afternoon to test the finger, which was heavily bandaged. He wore a white glove with the middle finger cut out of it. He could only chuckle when discussing how unprepared he was for an event that is among his favorites, perhaps trying to hide bubbling frustration at the series of injuries he’s dealt with for the last several years, including neck and back ailments, kidney stones and the bad ankle that was the result of stepping in a hole while playing golf at home in Sea Island, Ga.

“I think people would have to start wondering about me,” he said. “I mean, it’s just one more thing. I’ve had the neck problem and then the kidney stones, and then I stepped in a hole … just one thing after another.

“If I can ever get back to normal, whatever normal is, I think I might be able to play some pretty good golf again. The problem is getting there.”

And it’s a problem that can only get more difficult as time marches on.

OK, so Love has an injury that might affect him in this week’s Players Championship. It’s such a little thing. But it’s a big deal to a player whose best days are drifting farther into the rearview mirror.

Pain is really a relative thing. What hurts now doesn’t compare to the pain that lingers in your memory.