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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO-AM

February 12, 2010

David Duval

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA

DOUG MILNE: David Duval, thanks for joining us here for a few minutes here after a successful second round at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. 4-under, 68 today. You obviously got it going. Just a few comments on the day, and we'll open it up for a few questions.
DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I don't know what to say. I'm hitting the ball mostly pretty good. Had to shake a few putts in on these greens, and not got much trouble, so kind of the recipe you need to have out here.
DOUG MILNE: Okay. Questions.

Q. You were a little iffy earlier in the week because of your back. How is it now? Did it lower your expectations at all?
DAVID DUVAL: No, didn't lower expectations. Happy to just be playing. Went out on Monday to play, come play this golf course here, and had to walk off it. I couldn't play.
You know, glad to be playing. I knew that if things didn't change I wouldn't be able to play. I'm okay. The length of the rounds and such and walking on the soft turf, you know, get me kind of sore. Get me a little tight towards the end of the day. All in all, I'm very pleased with how I feel.

Q. Muscle spasms?
DAVID DUVAL: Just nine and a half years of the same thing. Bad back. Went out really bad the other day, so other than that, I don't know.

Q. Went out on Monday?
DAVID DUVAL: Monday, yeah, just was jacked. I was not gonna play at that point if things didn't get better.

Q. How many holes did you get in Monday?
DAVID DUVAL: Played three holes.

Q. Here at Pebble?
DAVID DUVAL: Yeah.

Q. I notice you have Mitch on the bag. You had some people calling from the gallery, saying, you know, this is like '99 or 2000. They sometimes think, This isn't that different.
DAVID DUVAL: Well, I don't know. It's probably not. A lot of things have happened. Things have changed. I think he's shrunk and gotten fatter. I have shrunk and gotten fatter, so you know, not too resemblant [sic] of '99 anymore.
But I've been through a lot of things since then. You know, I just asked him to start caddying for me again end at the end of last year hoping he would. He decided it would be in his best interest to do that, too, so looking forward to this year. Whole year with him.

Q. (No microphone.)
DAVID DUVAL: No, I didn't know. I was hoping that my support and loyalty to a lot of events over the better part of 15 years would help me in that way. So far it has.
But I did what I needed to do. I didn't go down and just kind of phone it in. I went down there to work and kind of get through the qualifying tournament. Just I didn't quite play well enough to do that.
But I'm very happy that the people that run a lot events so far feel fit to give me a spot, and they recognize that I've come and been there for years and been there when I was on top of the world, and now I'm asking for a little help and they're kind of showing me the love. Makes me feel good.

Q. But you didn't have to spend the off-season worrying about if you really get to play. You could concentrate on working on your game or getting ready.
DAVID DUVAL: Not -- yes and no. I mean, sure, to an extent. But I have a good idea of where I'm gonna play through all next six or eight weeks. But after that, I still don't know. I mean, it's not like everybody has called that I wrote letters to late in the year and stuff.
I have the opportunity right now to convince 'em on the golf course, so it's really up to me off these early starts to play good.

Q. At times you said you felt like you were very close. Have you felt recently like you were close to posting a performance like this?
DAVID DUVAL: I feel like I'm playing well. And, you know, it's difficult for a player, or for me at least, to sit here and explain it over and over again. I feel like I've been playing well. I don't feel like I've gotten anything out of it for a long time.
Ironically, I feel that my performance in New York last year at Bethpage was more reflective of how I was playing than the rest of the year was. I don't have an explanation as to why that is. Maybe I tried a little harder than I should have; put a little more pressure on myself than I should have.
But I was, I think, the least surprised at the U.S. Open, except for maybe my family. They're around me and they know. I tell them when things are going good and when they're not and such. I made a couple putts up there that week which was kind of a sore thing for me last year. I didn't seem to make any putts.
And starting out this year, you know, I felt really good when I got to the desert for the Bob Hope. Hit the ball beautifully. I chipped it like I had been in the snow for six weeks, which I had been. I kind of didn't feel like I putted bad, but I made nothing.
You know, I kind of got done with that week having missed the cut thinking, you know, if I hit the golf ball like this for the next ten months, I'll finish anywhere from first to tenth on the Money List. You just don't hit it that well and not play greatly, frankly. Eventually you're gonna shake a few putts in and such.
And so this week I've hit the ball kind of like I did in the desert. I didn't hit the ball the best in Los Angeles. Kind of struggled a little bit there. Wasn't feeling the best either. Kind of, you know, move on to the next one and the next one.

Q. When was the last time that you felt things weren't going very well and you were feeling relatively healthy?
DAVID DUVAL: Um, trying to think. Somewhere kind of couple months after the U.S. Open I didn't feel like I was playing the best. I kind of wasn't hitting it as well as I had for a while.
I'm trying to think. I felt like I kind of was scraping it a little bit through the tournament at Grayhawk, through Las Vegas, Disney. Not the most opportune, for sure. Just didn't feel like I was quite hitting it like I had been most of time. Who knows? That could have been circumstances as well, playing for your livelihood. Who knows. I don't know.

Q. (No microphone.)
DAVID DUVAL: I think I enjoy all my -- you know, I've played here, oh, 12 out of the 15 years I've been eligible probably. I've played at the desert at Hope probably 14 out of 15 years. So I feel like they're pretty important tournaments. I think like that week and this week are two of our more important tournaments, you know.
Maybe I'm just old enough to realize that, you know, with the help of Dean and Arnold Palmer and the clam bake, you know, down in San Diego, then out at the Hope, these are the tournaments that kind of got us going and got recognition and involved the stars and celebrities. I think those are still super important weeks.
You know, I mean, my part of this week is somewhat important to the tour, CEO of FedEx. (Laughter.) Has a little say in what's going on around here right now. You know, Brian Roberts who's playing with Jeff Klauk, you know, if you like the Flyers or the 76ers and cable television, you know, I mean, pretty important guy.
These a the things, the kind of involvement we need to have as an organization. Frankly, it upsets me as a player who's played long enough to think more people need to be here at these events.

Q. After the three holes Monday, what did you do? Any treatment?
DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, actually went and saw a guy named Chris who was in the -- because our physios aren't here until Tuesday. So I went and saw the guy here. He fixed me up pretty good. I was really sore the next day muscle-wise, but I played over at Monterey. You know, it was good day to play. Cold and wet and windy.

Q. (No microphone.)
DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, well, I had never seen the place. I'm really hoping it plays a little different than it did that day. But and then I've just been kind of sore each day. Maybe a little less than the day before. I'm hoping tomorrow I feel just a little bit better.

Q. What did they do, stretch you or...
DAVID DUVAL: Well, kind of had to reset my hips. They had really shifted and rotated. My left leg had managed to -- you know, because of that was about an inch and a half longer than my right. It was funny. My caddie kept telling me in Los Angeles, Man, you're just not level. You got to get back up.
I'm like, I can't. I didn't know why. It was funny. I mean, I went out and hit a few balls the next day, what do you know? I went out right after he fixed me, and my foot kept dragging the ground. It was hitting the ground a lot earlier than I thought it should because my legs were the same length all of a sudden again. It helps.

Q. Do you get the feeling when you play well that people are really rooting for you?
DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I do. And it makes me feel good. Like I told Jim out there for the Golf Channel, it makes my believe that decisions I've made throughout the course of my career and the way I've supported places and interacted with folks and conducted myself, it's been noticed.

Q. You mentioned yesterday that the 5-under at Spyglass really was worth something. Did that in anyway give you a boost?
DAVID DUVAL: It was what?

Q. It was worth something. Maybe worth more than a 5-under at Pebble. Does that give you extra confidence going into today?
DAVID DUVAL: You know, I was just tickled pink to walk off that golf course having broke 70. You laugh, but I don't think I've ever done it. I don't think I had until yesterday, and I think I shot 70 maybe one time.
So that one has always been kind of a stumbling for me. Made me feel really good about what I was doing on the golf course and how I was hitting the golf ball to manage to do that.
You know, playing as a nonexempt, or I'm exempt in some ways. I don't know how it all works. Going out to a golf course I've had no success on virtually since 1995 and to do that made me really good.

Q. You were in your contention at the U.S. Open. Did it to feel like old times? Did it kick right back in?
DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, just pretty much felt right. Just comfortable and good. You know, those weeks, to me, ironically, they're a little bit easier to pay attention to what you're doing because the golf courses are so difficult and the situations are so difficult that it's real easy for me to focus on those weeks.
I had been working myself to try to pay a little more attention to what I'm doing on the easier golf courses. I just think I hadn't paid enough attention to targets and picking out my spots. It's so imperative at the U.S. Opens and the big events like that where you're playing massive golf courses that are really hard with high rough. You got to really figure out how you're gonna around the golf course.
For some reason, that just makes me pay a little more attention.

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