|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 19, 2015David DuvalST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND Q. Did you expect to be here? DAVID DUVAL: Well, I expected to play well at some point. I've been doing what I want to do for a long time, just not putting this together. The difficulties I face that I just was speaking about is not getting to play. Competing against the best golfers in the world and the Dustin Johnsons and Jordan Spieths and Rorys is not a fair fight when I haven't played a golf tournament in three or four months and they've been playing constantly. But you know, I faced a challenge yesterday, and it made me feel real good to do what I did. I hit the golf shots I needed to do on 17 and then three-putted like a fool, but then birdied the 18th knowing I had to, and that was cool. And then just went out today, and it was a nice day, conditions weren't too bad other than we just dealt with rain for probably the front nine, somewhere in there, seven to 10 holes, and I just hit the golf shots I wanted to do and made a few putts, and that's what happens. Q. Your caddie said that in retrospect it might have helped you not to be playing in the lead as you have normally done, just to be able to come over here and get in some practice. DAVID DUVAL: Well, yeah, playing the week before regardless is important. You know, I was excited to come over and play Gullane. Links golf is my favourite thing to do, just puts a smile on my face when I'm out there playing, the challenges of it I find intriguing, frustrating, uplifting, all these things, and so to get to do it for two straight weeks, it's a blessing as a golfer, regardless of who you are, to come over. I've played St. Andrews -- because I've missed the cut down there. I've been on St. Andrews since last Saturday every day playing golf. Who gets to say that, really? It's pretty cool. Q. What have you learned in the announcing booth that translates when you are in the midst of a round? DAVID DUVAL: Well, I think the biggest thing that you forget when you struggle, because when you're playing well, you forget immediately about the bad shots. But when you're not playing well and you're struggling, you feel like everybody else is hitting it beautiful and perfect all the time, and so you're sitting up there when you're announcing and recapping the tournaments, realising, man, these guys hit some really ugly shots. And we all do, and some of the things -- like I've always joked, because you'll blade one, top one, whatever, I just always joke, but it's true, there's nothing we can't do with a golf ball, and it's good and bad. Seeing that, it's like, oh, yeah, everybody screws up and does bad things, and so it removes a little bit of the pressure of I have to go out and play perfectly. Q. How much did you enjoy it, and how many memories were rekindled today? DAVID DUVAL: In regards to just The Open here at St. Andrews, The Open in general, The Open I won, what? Q. In general, the one you won. DAVID DUVAL: Well, you know, again, it just goes to a love and desire to be here to play. You know, I got a lot of congratulations, a lot of thumbs up kind of thing from players, caddies, about making birdie on 18 yesterday, which was super cool. Even our walking referee was kind of like -- everybody was excited and happy around the committee. It's nice to come to a place you love to be and then perform well. Who's to say what tomorrow brings, but with the way I feel like what I'm doing, I'm in control, put up another decent score and have a really nice week. Q. There must be a feel-good factor I guess? DAVID DUVAL: Feel-good? I don't understand. Q. You must have enjoyed it in the sense that the fans out there enjoy you. DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, and me as a player, I've said this ever since I was on top of the world, that the biggest enjoyment I get in the game of golf is controlling the golf ball. Yeah, I loved winning golf tournaments, I loved doing things, but I loved being in control of the golf ball, and I feel like I'm entirely in control of the golf ball. I've hit some crappy shots, don't get me wrong. I've hit some really crappy shots. But it's like, okay, so I'll go hit it again now. But being in control and hitting the golf ball where you're trying to hit it, it just gives me great pleasure. Q. Is that the way you were in your prime, where you were hitting golf swings where you wanted to strike the ball? DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, it was kind of like -- Jack Nicklaus was quoted or something in regards of never three-putting is kind of like -- I never three-putted (laughing), and it's kind of like I don't remember. When you're playing great, you don't remember bad golf shots. There's instances where my caddies have been like, I've hit a bad shot, and it's like, well, why don't you hit a 3-iron. Why? I'm not going to do that again. It's just things like that where when you're full of confidence and you're playing beautifully, you know you hit bad shots and you don't worry about it, you just go at it again. Q. You said it's hard to compete with Dustin Johnson with the amount of golf you play. Do days like this tempt you to go back full time? DAVID DUVAL: I make no bones about it, I feel like if I could set a 20-, 22-event schedule I could regain status and play all I wanted, but I'm not in that position. I know of maybe one other golf tournament I'm going to be able to play in this year. It's more a condition of circumstance than anything else. Q. You have an exemption in the Open for a number of years. Will you use that as long as you can, until you're 60, regardless of how you're playing? DAVID DUVAL: No. No, I wouldn't do that, no. I wouldn't play unless I felt like I could at least play and make the cut and do things like that. If I felt like I was mostly just taking a spot, I wouldn't do that to a younger player. Q. Are your children here, and especially Brady here is following in your footsteps? DAVID DUVAL: They're not. They're home. My wife is here. She came Thursday morning. Suzy is here, which makes me very happy. I like her to see me play well. She's seen enough bad golf, so it's good for her to see some good golf, too. Q. How do you compare it to what it was in 2001? DAVID DUVAL: Man, that's a long time ago. I don't know how you compare the two. I feel very similar as far as control. You know, the biggest -- I would say physically, mechanically I'm probably playing just like I was back then, but the thing I lack is starts, and from that, confidence, the utter confidence that the top players have. Q. Are you able to do any Golf Channel work while you're playing? DAVID DUVAL: I haven't so far this week. Just an interview here or there. Q. (Inaudible.) DAVID DUVAL: They may, I'm not sure. Q. How will that feel? DAVID DUVAL: Well, we'll figure it out. I don't know exactly what the times are. I know I guess the golf just came on, so hey, you do what you've got to do. Q. What were the shots today that you felt like you were totally in control of, felt good about? DAVID DUVAL: Well, I felt like -- there was a lot of them, actually. One of the ones that I took a lot of pride in was the second shot into the 5th hole, and it seems when I tell you the whole story, it almost seems silly, but it's paying attention to what you're doing in playing conditions. The pin, I don't know if you've seen where it is. I've never seen it there. It's back left behind the bunker, 38, 48 yards on, and you can't get it there. You cannot hit it there, and so I'm out in the fairway and I'm like, all right, well, I'm just going to try to hit it almost through the green with a 3-wood, way right of the hole and see if I can two-putt from 80 feet, and I did exactly that. I hit it up there, knocked it on the green just past pin high, had 70 feet to the hole if I had a foot, and two-putted. Some of the challenges you face as a player out here -- more so at St. Andrews than the other venues, is you have to aim so far different directions than you would typically think. They have to be very committed to your lines and what you're doing. You can aim it on -- you can name a number of holes where the fairway is right at you and you've got to go this way to have a chance or that way to have a chance, and that's sometimes hard to do because everybody kind of wants to swing towards the target, so you have to be very committed to your golf swing and to swinging towards your intended line as opposed to what you think is your target. Q. Your caddie was talking to us and said that it's been 12-hour days ever since you came over here. How easy is it for you or how tough is it for you to master that kind of technique when you're not getting the rounds? DAVID DUVAL: Well, again, that just comes from the enjoyment of being out here. I had a couple weeks of strictly paying attention to golf and practising and chipping and putting and doing all those things, and I was going to take advantage of it. It's kind of like a lot of the people from the United States or really probably from around the world who have maybe traveled here to Scotland. They don't play nine holes and go and hang out. They do 36 holes. I was doing the same thing. I'm on a Scottish links trip. I hadn't gotten to hit a whole lot of balls. I played the week prior at home, practised and played as much as I could and then got over here, and that's all I had to pay attention to was that, and again, it goes back to enjoying doing it in general but also getting that much pleasure from doing it here on links. Q. (Inaudible.) DAVID DUVAL: Well, I may or may not get into the Reno event. I think I will. It's opposite the Bridgestone. Q. When was the last time you wrote for a spot? DAVID DUVAL: I don't know. A year, something like that. Q. Last year you basically said -- DAVID DUVAL: Well, I felt like it was up to me to start performing, and I didn't get very many starts anyway. Last year, either. I don't know, maybe things would change if I play well tomorrow, too. Who knows. But it's hard. Q. Obviously if you did well tomorrow, that would go a long way with a lot of things. When was the last time you felt that kind of pressure going into a final round? DAVID DUVAL: There's absolutely no pressure on me tomorrow. There's not. I mean, again, I joke -- when I tee it up and I know you're tired of hearing about it, but I expect to play well, and I haven't a lot of times. So tomorrow -- y'all didn't expect to be standing here this morning, did you? No. So I'll go play tomorrow and do the best I can. Maybe I'll shoot 67 again, maybe I'll shoot 77, who knows? But I'll have a smile on my face and enjoy walking around St. Andrews, I can tell you that. Q. Has this trip rekindled a bit your love of golf? DAVID DUVAL: No, it's never gone, but I've got other things to pay attention to, especially when I don't get to play. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|