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MASTERS TOURNAMENTApril 6, 2010David DuvalAUGUSTA, GEORGIA ED HERLIHY: It is with great pleasure, I would like to introduce David Duval, the winner of 13 PGA TOUR titles, the 2001 British Open Championship, and he's finished second in the Masters twice in his career. He's making his 11th Masters appearance. David has had a great year. He finished tied for second this year in the AT&T National Pro-Am. He just walked off the 18th hole, so hopefully he can compose himself. Join me in welcoming David Duval back to Augusta. Q. What have you changed about your life and/or your game to earn your way back here? DAVID DUVAL: Just started playing better, I guess. I mean, that's kind of what it boils down to. I wasn't playing well for a stretch of time and had struggles physically, and then I hung on with my golf game and it's taken a while to put back together and I'm starting to reap some of the rewards of that work, and that's where I'm here, as a result of last year's U.S. Open. Q. Did you feel this day would come again? DAVID DUVAL: Yeah I did. I was hoping sooner than later, frankly but I felt comfortable that I would be back. Q. Can you rewind, a few years ago, what your thoughts were as you were walk out of here after the second round? DAVID DUVAL: I don't know. If anything, it was -- I would imagine I was thinking that I need to figure out and get a little better at what I'm trying to do and make sure I get myself back in the golf tournament. It's hard to win the golf tournament if you're not even playing in it. My whole key was to get back to have a chance. Q. Are there holes, a hole or a couple of holes out here that you can't wait to play that you've always loved since you maybe came here as a kid? DAVID DUVAL: No, there's not a hole that stands out that way for me. And first time I played it was 20-plus years ago and so it's a little different golf course now than it was back then. No, there's not a hole that stands out for me. Q. Are you playing in the Par 3, and if so who gets to caddie? DAVID DUVAL: I'm hoping my little four-year-old will, Brady. So we'll see how he reacts. Q. Did you ever get to hate golf, and if you ever did reach that stage, what did you do to rekindle your affection for it? DAVID DUVAL: I think that the fact that I'm playing, the answer is, no, I never got to hate it. If I hated it, I would have stopped doing it. Doesn't make much sense to do something you don't like to do. Gets more fun as you start to hit the golf ball better and you start to do better things, and that starts to stoke the fire, I guess, if you will. You know, I don't -- you know, some of this, I don't understand, I'm trying to talk about and answer questions I've been answering for a couple of years now and I don't know why I need to answer them any more than I have. I have talked about it. What I can tell about it and I'm working and feel like I'm trying to play better and I am. I feel like my golf game is better than even this year's results are reflecting. You know, I have not put together too many four-day tournaments that I've been proud of, especially with how I feel about my golf game. I'm comfortable with what I'm doing. I'm confident in what I'm doing. And you know, I don't feel like -- you're asking a different person or a golfer two years ago, I would understand, or three years ago, but at this point I don't really understand. I've played about 15 events from the U.S. Open through now, and I damn near won two of them, one was the U.S. Open and one was the AT&T which is one of the biggest tournaments on TOUR. So I would say things are pretty good. Granted, week-in, week-out it hasn't been very good but I'm right where I want to be. Q. You've probably been asked this, but what were the one or two keys that helped you resurrect and get to play like you did at the Open and AT&T to resurrect your game? DAVID DUVAL: There were not keys at that point. Keys are what you do, are like band aids. Keys don't last. Keys don't work. Q. What were the reasons behind -- DAVID DUVAL: Work, hard work, and just putting my posture back together like it was, putting how I address the golf ball, putting the golf ball in my stance where I'm comfortable with it. You know, getting behind the golf ball again, just the little kind of things that you have to do, the basics, really, that I had entirely gotten away from, for injury issues and other things. I was trying to swing a golf club so I could swing it, but certainly wasn't doing it properly if you will. Q. After being away for a couple of years, what are your feelings on being back? DAVID DUVAL: Well, I'm glad I'm here and not missing it again. I guess that's the sort of feeling, I'm looking forward to the chance to compete and then I felt like I had the chance to win the golf tournament. Like I say, you've got to play to win. Q. Was there a tournament or a particular, you know, stretch of time in your practice when you really felt like things are clicking again and you had your game straightened out? DAVID DUVAL: You know, I don't know if I could look back to a specific event or specific practice time that I felt that way. I feel like from -- let me think, maybe late in 2008, somewhere in 2008, is when I was like, you know, I'm really close to doing the things I want to do. I had some glimpse of it through the last half of 2008 through the early part of 2009. I played, you know, felt like through most of 2009 up till the summertime, I played far better than anything, any of my scores were reflecting. You know, scoring in golf is sometimes the last thing that comes. But I think with a very strong desire to get through the qualifier for the U.S. Open and to actually do that, that gave me some of the confidence I needed to kind of move forward. Q. Virtually every story that I've read about you in the last two or three years has been a quote to the effect of, "I'm really close to being where I want to be." That would always crop up somewhere. What do you consider being where you want to be? Would it be like contending twice as much as you are now? Trying to figure out what your standard is? DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, that's fair. I'm comfortable, entirely comfortable with what I'm doing right now. Does that answer your questions? You know, I don't know if those quotes were older or what, but I really feel like I'm doing what I want to do. I feel like I'm swinging the golf club how I want to. I feel like I'm striking the golf ball how I want to. Really to me it's a matter of performing and doing that more regularly than I may be at the moment. You know, as professionals, rarely are we happy with what we are doing on a weekly basis, but I am -- as I sit here, I am really comfortable with how I'm swinging the golf club. You know, I don't make nearly as many putts as I want to, but I don't know of any pro that does. And I don't get up-and-down every time, which blows my mind, like every other pro, they can't understand why they don't get up-and-down every time. So it's the little things I'm going to complain about right now like everybody else will. But I feel very good about what I'm doing and I'm doing what I want to do. So one of the things, obviously, that I want more for myself is consistency. Q. In that stretch where you were contending almost every year here, was there one of those tournaments that, I don't know, particularly stuck out that you really left here thinking, I let that one get away or that one should have been mine; all of them? DAVID DUVAL: Pretty much, yeah. (Laughter). Q. Looking back at the Open now in the perspective of the time since then, why do you think it seemed like everything that you've been working on for so long, why did it come together that week? DAVID DUVAL: Probably part preparation for that week; part belief; part confidence. Part just having to go through the ordeal of the qualifier of 36 holes after The Memorial Tournament and succeeding at that. But also having played there in 2002, remembered the golf course and remembered the golf course fondly and remembered that it really fit my kind of game. I loved the fact that it was a very, very big golf course, and I thought that -- I felt that the bigness of it is almost -- depends on how you approach it, it can be intimidating to some people, and I was really looking forward to playing it. I got out there and got very comfortable with the way I was trying to hit the golf ball off each tee and I got comfortable doing that by like Monday and after that just kind of coasted into Thursday's round. Q. Tiger talked about yesterday about all of the, I guess, self-examination he's had to do over the last several months. I'm curious in your opinion, what are the dangers of introspection to an elite-level athlete who has to do that every week? DAVID DUVAL: I don't know how to answer that question. Q. I heard one of the funny stories, when you met your wife, if it's true, that she had never heard of you, but I would guess that she had heard of this place and I would guess that your older children have heard of this place; as a dad, how cool is it to take your family here and to show them, Dad gets to play the Masters? DAVID DUVAL: It is a very neat thing. It's probably a pretty unique thing in sports in general, especially how you can involve family, the Par 3 Contest. I've had the two older boys caddie for me in it and I'm hoping the older one will, I don't know, we'll see. But there's certainly a sacredness, if you will, to this event, and it just kind of stands on its own. You know, it's one of two or three golf tournaments that even if you're not in sports, like you say, that people know about. So that's something that in a way, especially when you're doing it year-in, year-out, you sometimes don't even appreciate the simple things like qualifying for an invitation, that means you've done some good stuff to be invited to come and play. So just to be here, the people here can be proud of what they have done. Q. Did you watch these tournaments the last couple of years? DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, more than some and not as much as most, probably, but yeah, I watched. Q. How different is the course since the last time you played it, and is this a course where just subtle changes, whether it be pins, different tees, can really change the way you play it? DAVID DUVAL: I don't think I'm prepared to answer how it's different from 2006. I think they have made some minor changes. I think 2006 was the last time I played, and I think they have made some minor changes, but beyond that, I'm really not up on it. I've been told kind of -- and I've looked at it as I've played, that the front right of 15 has kind of been flattened in a spot there and the front part of the second green; to my recollection, it seems like the first tee has actually been moved up a little bit from 2006. It seems like the 7 tee has been backed up a little bit. I don't remember having to drive over the 4th tee when we were playing No. 2, but now firing 3-woods in there, that's obviously backed up. (Chuckling). I guess some small little things. I don't think it makes it different necessarily in how I would play the golf course. You know, just the general kind of bulking up of it over the course of however many years is what's dictated change in play. Q. You've won tournaments where the conditions, for instance, THE PLAYERS Championship, the conditions were most severe in the history of the tournament at that course, and you've also won where you had to tie the TOUR record for an 18-hole round to win, so you've won them going low and you've won them -- DAVID DUVAL: What's that second one? Q. The Bob Hope. DAVID DUVAL: Oh. I didn't even think about it. (Laughter). Q. Do you have a preference as to which way a course is set up or how the weather is working? DAVID DUVAL: I would much prefer severe conditions, severe, fast, firm, fast greens and everything. I think that brings out precision, and in the end, that's ultimately what you're looking for. Certainly in the big, big-time events like this, you're looking for somebody who is really precise that week to win the golf tournament. I think that's what I would prefer. Q. You made a couple of references to playing better than your scores might indicate. What do you think you have to improve to fix that? DAVID DUVAL: You know, probably think a little bit better on the golf course, manage my game a little bit better. Get rid of some of the silly mistakes that tend to add up. And really that's probably it. I haven't done all of the little things on a weekly basis as well as I need to. Q. You talked about Bethpage being a big course, you talked about a big event at AT&T; do you think the big tournaments, the big events, bring out the best in you now? DAVID DUVAL: I would sure like to think so. I certainly took time -- I've taken time over the course of the last few years to look back and reflect on where I've played well and why. There's something I'm still trying to get better at I guess on a weekly basis is standing on the first tee Thursday afternoon at 1:30 to tee off and you see you're eight or nine behind already; I haven't got the most comfortable I guess with that, whereas, you know, invariably somebody shoots four or five or six under the first round of the U.S. Open and you're like, that's no big deal. They are a shot or two ahead of the winning score. So mind-set for me has been easier on the events where you know you don't have to make 20 birdies and you just -- if you can plot along 72 holes to do what you're trying to do, it's easier for me to slow myself down and play within myself. That's what I'm working at now on the TOUR is to get better at weekly to where I can kind of adjust my thinking a little bit that way and, I don't know, not get ahead of myself, if you will. ED HERLIHY: With that, thank you and we wish you much success this week. End of FastScripts |
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