Pebble Beach, Calif. ? It’s all mental, Davis Love III told himself. Thriving at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am is a triumph of the mind.

So Love took the course Sunday with a lead — which he promptly lost. He got it back — and he lost it again, going to the 18th hole needing to do something spectacular for his second win at Pebble Beach in three years.

And on the most nerve-wracking day of his career, Love didn’t succumb to the pressure. Instead, he applied it.

Love hit a spectacular approach shot and a short birdie putt on the 18th hole for a one-stroke victory over surging Tom Lehman Sunday. It was Love’s first win since his 2001 triumph at Pebble Beach — and a big load off his mind.

“That’s probably as nervous as I’ve ever been playing a round of golf,” Love said. “I was so nervous (on the 18th) because I figured I had to make eagle to win, birdie to tie. It just seems like whenever I would make a mistake this week, it would force me to get back to a positive.”

Love, who got his 15th PGA Tour victory with a final-round 68, thrust his hands into the air shortly after the last shot. His share of the $5 million purse was $900,000, the biggest paycheck ever for the third-leading money winner in PGA history, who finished at 14-under 274.

Before his victory at Pebble Beach in 2001, Love had gone 62 events and 34 months between victories. This time, he had been without a win in 44 official events over 24 months while playing a slightly reduced schedule because of neck and back problems, and a confused state of mind that cleared up at Pebble Beach.

“This tournament has always been about attitude,” Love said. “(If) you come here thinking it’s going to be wet, it’s going to be windy and cold, you’ve got to play with amateurs, it’s going to take six hours … you’re already lost. It definitely is a week for a good attitude, and that fits for me.”

Love held a three-stroke lead over Lehman with six holes to play after an incredible string of six birdies in eight holes, but Lehman made his own birdie binge and caught Love with two holes left.

It was Lehman’s first dramatic move in a steady tournament, and it was a test of every much-heralded mental adjustment Love has made to his game over the last two years.

“I did a good job not watching the leaderboard, but I was watching Tom Lehman an awful lot,” said Love, who made up a seven-stroke deficit to win in 2001. “I guess that’s just as bad. I was watching him probably too much.”

Besides, Love figured he had used up a whole lot of luck on the 12th hole, when his errant tee shot ricocheted off a greenside photographer to within 4 feet of the cup.

Turns out he still had a few good shots left.

Tim Herron — who shot a final-round 66 — and Mike Weir finished third at 276. Weir, off to the best start of his career, won last week’s Bob Hope Classic and held the lead over playing partner Love on the front nine.