|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
JOHN DEERE CLASSICJuly 8, 2009David DuvalSILVIS, ILLINOIS DOUG MILNE: David Duval, thanks for joining us here for a few minutes at the John Deere Classic. We appreciate your time. Obviously that's pretty much all you've had all morning because of the weather. They did just cancel the pro-am. Obviously you've known it for a long time, and you and I have talked about it a lot that you're this close, you're this close, and you showed that at the U.S. Open. There's no doubt in your mind that you're there. Just a couple comments on how you feel about your game and kind of your approach into the week here at the John Deere Classic. DAVID DUVAL: Well, my statements, you're close, have been that eight, ten months ago I felt like I was really close to having put my golf swing back together and my game back together, blah-blah, and then kind of the end of the West Coast, the beginning of Florida, is when I felt like to myself at least, my statement was, "I'm playing well now but getting nothing out of it, not scoring." That's in the end all that matters. And I felt as if confidence was a thing that was holding me back, or lack thereof, that I had lost, and made a focused, concentrated effort on gaining confidence and succeeded -- or am succeeding, still working on that. I went to New York just entirely comfortable, happy with how I was playing, excited to play the golf course, and managed to keep myself composed and patient, and had a good week. Q. The performance there at the Open, was there something specific about that course that released, that keyed what you had pent up, that game that couldn't be converted into scores? Was it something specific? DAVID DUVAL: Well, I think if anything it was just kind of a culmination of diligent work, patient work, and getting into a situation where I was entirely conscious of how I was playing, having gone through the regional qualifying, as well, and got there and just prepared very well, prepared to play the tournament well. And I also feel that in those events, and it's something that I need to work on away from those bigger events or venues that are extremely difficult, I've just found over the last many years that those are the venues I've played the best at. I think it's because of focus. I get that much more focused and concentrate that much better and don't kind of -- I don't know about take it for granted, but I'm more precise with my targets, things like that, the lines I'm trying to take off the tees, the places I'm trying to hit the golf ball into the greens. And the precision part that's demanded in those events seems to get me to pay attention to what I'm doing a little bit. Q. When you first started your comeback, if that's the right word, you were out in the wilderness, maybe you had the yips like a Steve Glass who couldn't pitch anymore, or Steve Sax couldn't throw the ball to first base, something like that, Ian Baker-Finch; I can't really think of a good example. How satisfying is it to you to work through whatever it was and do it on such a big stage? DAVID DUVAL: Well, I'm pleased to have had a good week and have had a chance to win a golf tournament, what is arguably one of my two or three favorites. I love the U.S. Open, I love the U.S. Open Championship. But I also sit here with a slightly different perspective maybe than the perspective from which you're asking me that question. I don't see myself as back, or vindicated. I just did what I've been expecting to do and what I feel like I'm capable of doing. So when I get asked a question like that, the surprise factor, if that's what you want to kind of call it from your point of view, is not something from my point of view. I was asked something along the lines of, why all of a sudden are you back and you're having a chance to win the U.S. Open? I'm like, yeah, all of a sudden out of the seven years or six years I've been working and busting my tail. You know, and that's just -- I don't know exactly how you translate that into a story that may be written or something that's done on the television. But just like anything anybody does frankly probably -- Q. A sudden overnight success. DAVID DUVAL: Right, the Sunday afternoon that you see -- what was last week's tournament? DOUG MILNE: AT&T National. DAVID DUVAL: So you see Tiger winning the golf tournament on Sunday but you don't see the rehab and the work and the balls, all that goes into it. It's like the story that you fellows might put into the paper this morning, you don't see the time sitting around here in the rain with everybody and the research and writing, and it's the end result that everybody sees. My point being, you don't see any of the work. So when I was asked that about -- all of a sudden, I'm like -- yeah, all of a sudden. That comes from just lots and lots of work. And then an analytical approach to what exactly is it holding me back at this point? I made some adjustments to my equipment on the West Coast. Like I told our guy in the truck, I'm swinging the golf club too well to be hitting some of these shots, so there's something wrong with my clubs. I blame the Indian, not the arrow. We kind of started going through them and looking at them, and it happened to be a grip issue where I had swapped out grips several months before, and the cap on the grip was an eighth of an inch longer. So all of a sudden my clubs became an eighth of an inch longer, they become almost a swing weight heavier when a club gets longer. It changes the way the lie of it plays. I knew there had to be something wrong with my golf clubs because I said, I'm swinging the golf club too well to be hitting some of these shots. So simple things like that that you have to pay attention to and go through and analyze. The confidence part was something that was -- I'm really playing well, I'm shooting 73 every day but I'm comfortable with what I'm doing, so I started looking at building the confidence through kind of the smaller things and taking stuff out of it, not being concerned at all with tournament results and finishes in golf tournaments, things like that. I mean, I played pretty well at the Memorial tournament and just got nothing out of it and then went and played great golf in the qualifier. I went down to Memphis and missed the cut and if anything hit the ball better in Memphis than I did on Monday qualifying for the U.S. Open. But my point being, taking the positives. I felt even better about my golf game having just missed the cut going into the U.S. Open, and the reason I did is because I didn't make a putt longer than five feet in two days. Just for some reason I struggled seeing things on those greens. It's been a process, and paying attention to what's going on and what's the reality of the situation. So... Q. Clearly people are going to be watching closely to see what you do here and what you do next week. I've got to think that in your mind outside expectations simply don't factor. DAVID DUVAL: Not really. Is that kind of the question? Q. It's about that simple, yeah. DAVID DUVAL: No, they don't. I've lived enough of it on both ends of the spectrum that I'm really not concerned with what other people think about what I'm trying to do or what their expectations may be, so... Q. Looking at your putting average, you're 14th in putts per round, 23rd in putting average. Is that the key to what happened the last couple weeks, or has it been the swing and the change in the clubs? DAVID DUVAL: Well, it's not one thing or the other. I mean, that average you're looking at isn't over the last three weeks probably. That's my guess. That's probably for the year, right? So that talks about how it's been for the year. And frankly I don't feel like I've made very many putts this year. I don't pay attention to the stats. They can be misleading in the way you interpret them and driving distances. Well, I might be hitting 3-woods on those holes or who knows, sand saves. You might hit it five feet, four feet every time and you miss it. Or you might be hitting 10 feet and you're not actually very good out of the bunkers but you make all those. I feel like you're asking me a question that I kind of have answered in a way, what it's about. It's been about hard work and paying attention to little things and working on confidence and working on -- just eliminating mistakes and going from there. Q. On Monday you started out and got a real bad break, buried in the lip and made triple on that hole at the Open, but you bounced back from that. Is that a testimony to the confidence you speak of, and did that give you more confidence after coming back from that bad break? DAVID DUVAL: Well, in a way, yes. It was a bad break for the golf ball to stop where it did, and I made a 6. I probably should have made a 5. I kind of probably threw away a shot, as well. You know, after that I think that put me to 1-over for the golf tournament, and really, my thoughts were I haven't mis-hit too many golf shots in, at that point, 57 holes, and got 15 holes left, and if I make five or six birdies I'll still win the golf tournament. I felt comfortable that I could make five or six birdies on that golf course from there on in. So that's why I was still calm and comfortable with what I was doing and confident in what I was doing. I just was like, hey, I can reel off 12 holes out of the 15 that I can birdie. I just felt good about it. I knew I had made the climb a little steeper at that point, but I certainly wasn't going to give up, and I just felt comfortable knowing that I thought the winning score was going to be 3-, 4-under, maybe 5. Q. When you go through what you've been through the last couple years, does it make you appreciate what you had when you were on top? DAVID DUVAL: I don't know. I really can't answer that question. It's a really good question to ask somebody. I know, it's a very fair question. But I don't know the answer to that, if it does or doesn't. I really don't know. I don't feel like I didn't appreciate what I was doing ten years ago, but maybe I did in a way. I don't know, so I can't really answer that question. Q. Are you different now than you were? DAVID DUVAL: Well, of course. I mean, aren't you, from ten years ago? You know, it's a funny thing, when we get asked those questions. I mean, I'm 37 years old now, not 28. I'm married are five kids, not single with no kids. I'm entirely different. And that's the whole purpose. I just feel like growing and getting more life experience and maturing, I mean, you hope -- I think that as people all of us strive to change and be better and become more understanding and compassionate as you grow older and hopefully a little wiser and stuff. So am I different? Damn right I'm different. Everybody in this room is different than they were ten years ago. Q. Do the kids motivate you now? DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, they're a motivating factor because I have somebody to share it with, if you will. I want the family to see some of it at least and understand what it is that I've done for so long. Q. What do you enjoy most about this tournament and coming to this area? DAVID DUVAL: Well, it starts with Clair Peterson and the folks who run this golf tournament and the people who come out and support it, really. I like the golf course, as well. But to me I've played a long time now, and you know, Clair is -- I don't know when my first year was here. I think '05 maybe, just really hoping you'll come, wishing you'll be there. You'll make our week if you -- kind of a nice thing, and the same thing the next year and the next year and the next year, and again this year. I told him in the beginning, I'll be there, I'm coming. My point being, I enjoy the relationship part of it with the people here at the John Deere and the tournament. You know, just I feel like these are the events to me that I've been playing long enough that it's nice to be wanted somewhere. I got a call after the Open about a tournament, a recent tournament, and they said, We see you haven't committed. I'm like, Nope. Well, we're just really wishing you'd be here. I'm like, Well, I didn't get the call before the U.S. Open, I think I'll go to the John Deere, where I was wanted before the U.S. Open. That's important to me. That's important to, I think, most players, and that's a testament to the man you've got running the golf tournament. Q. How big is the plane? DAVID DUVAL: That's a heck of a bonus, don't get me wrong. The plane you said, right? Q. The jet. DAVID DUVAL: That's a heck of a bonus, but that wouldn't be the determining factor for me. I wouldn't say I'm not coming because of that. But I think that that's, again, foresight from a guy who is doing the best he can to get as many people here. You know, I mean, I think it does draw a few more people here, and it's worth it at that point. Q. A little question and a big question. The little question is have you been having fun through this whole process, including the last few weeks, and even before that have you been having fun? And the big question is if you could speak to the David Duval of late '01 or mid-'02 who was starting to have problems, what would you tell him to save him some problems? DAVID DUVAL: Are you kidding me? What was the questions again? Q. Are you having fun? And what would you say to the old David Duval? DAVID DUVAL: I don't know if the work and the process has been fun, frankly. My simple desire to play the game well and be in control of myself and the golf ball is what has kind of kept me going, and mix that in with the desire for my kids to see me play well and my wife to see me play well. You know, they say, Well, we've seen you well play. And I'm like, No, you haven't, actually. You haven't seen me play well. This was a year ago, six months ago. I'm like, I feel like I'm really, really good at hitting a golf ball, and you haven't actually seen me walk off a golf course saying, now that's how you hit a golf ball. I've done that a lot lately for the most part. What would I say to me? Boy, I don't know. I really don't know. I mean, through it -- Q. You've gone through a process to get here, where you are -- DAVID DUVAL: You know what, if anything -- maybe looking back I feel like I could have shortened this process, if you will, by -- and the years of work I had to put in I might have been able to cut down to two or three. I'd tell myself now to go hook up with Puggy and go look at the film that he's had since I was 16 years old and don't mess with looking for help elsewhere. Go to somebody who cares and somebody who actually has it physically right there in front of you and you can see it. I remember the first time I went back and got on the cameras with him back in about '05, I guess, '06 maybe, I hit a few balls and we filmed it and then put me on like -- back in front of the cameras or whatever and then set me up like how -- at least close to how I used to set up. I was like, Dude, there ain't no way I can hit a golf ball like this. That's how bad it felt. Through my back problems and my wrist problems, my shoulders, I had gotten so out of whack with addressing and simply standing up, the way you address the golf ball, that I was so cockeyed and compensating for every little problem I had had that I had gotten in and I felt like he had me like this. I was like, there's no way I can hit it from here. And then I saw it on the cameras, and I'm like, Yeah, I needed to even be more that way. So it's kind of the feel and real thing, what you feel isn't necessarily real. But that would be what I would say, go straight to where the archives are, if you will, and go from there. DOUG MILNE: David, as always, we appreciate your time. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
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
|