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THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 17, 2008David DuvalSOUTHPORT, ENGLAND DAVID DUVAL: I played pretty well. You know, I controlled the golf ball, hit it where I was looking, and frankly made most of the scores I was looking to make on each hole. I kept the ball in front of me, kept it in play and kept it out of the breeze. Q. (Inaudible.) DAVID DUVAL: Frankly, there's no other way to play today. I would be very surprised if you got to see a player go around with a decent score who hit the ball in the air. There's only a few holes that are directly downwind, and that's where you can get it back up in the air. But other than that, where it's across or slightly off, you've got to keep it down. Q. Shot on 12, talk about that. DAVID DUVAL: Well, again, that's an example of it. I don't remember the yardage, maybe 162 yards to the front of the green, wind blowing -- to me, I had decided it was in just slightly and moving hard from the right, obviously. And I just cut a 4-iron. I think Simon ahead of me -- I don't know, but I think he hit 4-iron and got it turned over and he ended up 40 yards over the green. That's the wide range that the ball can travel depending on what you do with the wind. You know, again, getting the ball onto the green is success, and there, hitting it within 10 or 12 feet was obviously a great golf shot. Q. (Inaudible.) DAVID DUVAL: Well, I feel very good about the work I've done over the last many months, not to talk about the preceding years. I probably stand here with a lot more confidence than you maybe think I should if you look simply at results. But I'm the one holding the golf club, I'm the one hitting shots, so I know how I'm truly swinging the golf club and how I'm playing, and I feel good about it. I think it would have been very easy to shoot 80, 82, 83 today if you get sideways with yourself a little bit and don't kind of laugh it off out there at what's going on. Q. The confidence you have right now, with the conditions did you surprise yourself at all out there? DAVID DUVAL: Not really. I feel comfortable in my golf swing. I was very much in control of it today. You know, I can't sit here and say -- and I don't think anybody who shoots a couple over par today could say if they had to go play again right now, could they do it again. Golf isn't about simply hitting great shots, it's about putting it all together and adding up the score. On these golf courses over here they talk about how inches matter in the game, and it gets magnified that much more. I could hit the ball exactly like I did just now and go play again this afternoon and I might shoot 80. You don't know because the conditions are that tough. Q. (Inaudible.) DAVID DUVAL: Oh, yeah, we were in a good rain for -- it was raining most of the first seven or eight holes probably and kind of on and off for the next four or five holes, and then actually 14 is where I took off my rain jacket. So somewhere in there is where I finally knew it was going. I was hoping at least. Q. When you first got out to the course this morning and you saw the conditions, what were you thinking? DAVID DUVAL: Well, I saw it was raining and there's not a whole lot of trees in town so I couldn't say that they were sideways. Just like, oh, geez, we're going to have a hard day and you'd better be comfortable rolling the golf ball on the ground and figuring it out. That's just kind of, like I say, what it's all about here, just figuring out how to get around. Q. How good is 73 on a day like today? DAVID DUVAL: You know, I don't know. I wouldn't feel comfortable rating it. I feel like for the most part I played well. I could sit here and beg for a couple shots back, you know. My last tee ball hitting it into the bunker, if I could avoid that I could get down with 72, and you make one more putt. I got a lot out of my game today. I felt like I might have left a shot or two. It is a good score. Conditions were awful. I don't know if it's supposed to improve at all, at least today. It's very tiring to play in it, frankly. I guess the best way to put it is, when I got here had they said 73 and you can go back to sleep, I'd say, I'll see you tomorrow. Q. Is this more physically demanding or is it more mentally demanding? DAVID DUVAL: I think for sure mentally. You have to be prepared with clothing and gear, but mentally I think without question these are -- today I would think certainly is one of the most mentally challenging days that professional golfers have been forced to face in the last several years. Q. You talked about how well you controlled the ball today. Were you expecting this when you got here? And if so, have you been expecting this for a long time? DAVID DUVAL: Well, I've been expecting some glimpses of greatness for a while. I just feel like I'm playing well. I'm hitting the ball solid. You know, ironically over in Moline I played pretty well there. It cost me being 5- or 6-under after two days and I was only 1, was the fifth and sixth holes. I hit tee shots frankly within two or three yards of where I was trying to hit them. As it turned out, they were both blocked out by trees and in the rough, and that didn't let me play over the weekend there. I don't remember the last event before that, Memphis maybe. Memphis I played well, got nothing out of my game, my scores. It's hard as a golfer to walk away every day when you're posting the highest score you could have shot. In golf, as a player you really want to walk away, and you talk to Tiger when he's on his game and playing well, he's got to -- maybe he won't admit it, but it's the same for every player. He walks off the golf course -- you know, there might have been a shot or two he could have gotten back as opposed to walking away and thinking I'm anywhere from four, five, six shots higher than I should have been. Again, that's just getting everything to add up right. Q. (Inaudible.) DAVID DUVAL: I birdied 5. Again, I hit it really low off the tee with a 2-iron, hit it six feet off the ground with a 6-iron and it rolled onto the green. Q. (Inaudible.) DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, that's not something that I work on. At the same time I don't know if I did a lot growing up. I can do it. I can hit the ball low. I've always been fairly comfortable doing that. I did do it well today. Q. Talk about 13. DAVID DUVAL: I basically bladed that. Again, as long as I don't hit it too high, I don't care. I mean, just hit it on the green 35 feet from the hole, right? Roll it up there; that's perfect. That's the thing, aiming properly and really being close and hitting the shot you're trying to hit. It's not like I was trying to hit a high 7-iron there. I was trying to hit it lower and roll it again even though it's downwind. You're not going to fly it on the green and stop it. Q. Are you excited about tomorrow or are you tired? DAVID DUVAL: Tired right now. I need to -- I would need to, probably like most of the players, get away from here and take off my clothes and get some dry clothes and put your feet up and take it for what it was today and get ready because it might be like that tomorrow. I think you'd burn a lot of energy if you went out to try to practise or chip or putt this afternoon. I'm outta here. I'm going to change my shoes and leave. Q. In terms of what could be described as hard work playing the game, for opening rounds how did this stack up to Carnoustie? DAVID DUVAL: I think that I finished -- I putted out on 18 as you could see everything coming in at Muirfield on the third day, so I didn't play in that. I imagine this is as close to that day as we've seen since then. And that was pretty God-awful apparently. Q. (Inaudible.) DAVID DUVAL: I'd like to play more over the next six or eight weeks. I'd like to go to Reno but my little girl's birthday is on that Saturday or Sunday so I won't go there. I actually quite frankly hadn't planned on going to Greensboro. Now I'm forced to. Q. I get rain in my glasses. Didn't it bother you? DAVID DUVAL: I was more willing to put up with the rain drops on the glasses than I was to get my eyes hit with rain and my face hit with rain. I also try to block it with my hat. I just don't want to keep getting hit in the face. Q. (Inaudible.) DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I probably will, actually. I have a whole lot of movie channels in my room, so I'll probably watch -- it will be on BBC1 or 2. It swaps back and forth. I'm hoping we get it; I'm not certain we do. End of FastScripts |
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