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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO-AM

February 14, 2010

David Duval

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA

Q. Well done. That's all I can say. Your journey back (indiscernible.)
DAVID DUVAL: Really good, obviously. I thought I played real well again today and hit the ball good. I controlled it very well.
Um, had a few bumpy putts like everybody's having. Wish a couple of those may have gone in. All in all, I did exactly what I tried to for four days.

Q. Did you know where you stood coming down the stretch?
DAVID DUVAL: A little bit, but it wasn't something I was really paying attention to, honestly, because there are certain things that around the finish of this golf course that the only way I'm gonna play it is a certain way regardless of the situation.
Last hole, I mean, I'm gonna play it out right, because that's how I play the hole because there's just absolutely no chance in the world for me to try to get there.
And so I try position myself and such, you know. So I guess I may have been a little curious, but in the end it really didn't matter.

Q. I would think you have nothing but positives to take out of this week.
DAVID DUVAL: Wow. Yeah, I played great. I hit the ball well. I putted well. You know, like everyone here, I had a lot of putts bounce out of the hole.
In general, I thought I started most of them where I wanted to and on the golf course controlled the ball and shot a decent score on a difficult day.

Q. Absolutely a difficult day. I thought the wind was difficult to judge out of the different directions.
DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, it was, and it seemed to kind of swing forward or back and forward a lot, so it made a lot of the shots a little touchy.

Q. Did you know you were one back with one hole to play today?
DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I knew, but it didn't really matter, because I couldn't reach the hole anyway in this wind and soft conditions. So I'm gonna play it out to the right and give myself the best chances that way.

Q. You got down almost on your hands and knees to look at the lie for your third shot into the 18th. Was there a mud ball or...
DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, it's just more looking at how much dirt is on the golf ball. It was kind of thin, like most of the day, and just wanted to make sure there wasn't a chunk somewhere.

Q. From a confidence level, what does this do for you?
DAVID DUVAL: I'm just pleased to get out of my golf game over the course of four days again what I feel like I should be getting out of it.
I feel very comfortable and very confident in what I'm doing. And, you know, also, in a kind of strange way, it makes me proud. I feel like I kind of have given the folks who have given me starts this year good firepower for why they did it. That makes me feel good, too.

Q. We all know golf can take its toll. People like to see hard work payoff.
DAVID DUVAL: I hope so. Thank you.
(Recording in progress.) That makes more sense than not putting up good score. So I'm hitting the ball very solid and hitting it and hitting it where I'm aiming it and doing all the things I need to do.

Q. I was talking to your caddie, and he said it's almost like getting back on a bike. You know, you know how to ride the bike. Are you starting to feel that way in some way?
DAVID DUVAL: Um, yeah, I guess so. And I guess more than anything, that applies to kind of the situation. Doesn't really bother me. And especially with my past performance in the late '90s and early 2000s, it gives me the knowledge and the confidence of how to kind of perform and behave and what to exact.
And then as important as that, with what I've been through, you know, having a chance to perform great and maybe win a golf tournament, that stuff doesn't bother me at all anymore.

Q. How does this set up? You love U.S. Opens. Now you're gonna get a chance to come back here for the U.S. Open. It's got to feel pretty good.
DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, it does. I love playing here. I've never -- I've always said that. I've come here most of the years I've been eligible to come here.
But you're also talking entirely different golf courses, entirely different lines, how the ball will be rolling and stuff and different lines in the greens because of the bounce of the golf ball.
But it's always nice to be at a place you feel like you know how to play.

Q. How fun was it to be back in contention?
DAVID DUVAL: You know, it was fun. I got more satisfaction today out of hitting the golf shots through the course of 18 holes and controlling my golf ball in, you know, not extremely hard conditions, but somewhat difficult conditions.
You know, in given the circumstances to do that and to post a decent score, I feel good about that.

Q. There were a lot of difficulties on 14 today.
DAVID DUVAL: That's what I hear. I don't know about it, but...

Q. From your standpoint, how hard was the hole playing?
DAVID DUVAL: I made to play really hard, because that's one of the few bad drives I him. I had it a little left and a tough lie and I laid up with a 3-iron and had 5-iron left of the green. And that's just -- you know, there's nowhere to hit a 5-iron. I hit a really nice shot up there just to keep it up top there, but...
I three-putted and made a bogey, but that hole is very, very hard. I mean, I think that's possibly the smallest target in golf really, that little left side there. I don't think it should be too surprising to see some difficulties there.

Q. Is it harder with the way they kind of got the fairways going now and things like that?
DAVID DUVAL: No, I don't think that matters a whole a lot actually. It's more just -- when the U.S. Open comes around, the firmness of that green and getting it to stop up there will be the issue; this week with the softness and getting it to stop from spinning back at you is the issue.
So, you know, a very small area to hit it to on greens that are tough to get the ball to just kind of hit.
(End of recording .)

End of FastScripts

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