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January 18, 2005

David Duval

LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA

JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome David Duval to the interview area. It's been a while since you played this tournament. I know you had a chance to see some of the golf course today, but what are thoughts about it today, the North Course; talk a little about that.

DAVID DUVAL: It's a lot like I remember. I guess they added a lot of tees since I've been here. I haven't seen the South Course. The thing you constantly hear is "long," so very surprised at how dry it is. I haven't been here in a long time, I guess seven years.

Q. Any reason you decided to come?

DAVID DUVAL: Scheduling. That's what it always is, isn't it?

Q. Do you have an idea of your schedule for the year?

DAVID DUVAL: My initial plans are 20 events, something like that. Maybe a few more.

Q. (Inaudible.)

DAVID DUVAL: Planning on it, yes.

Q. Where will you go from here?

DAVID DUVAL: Well, what's after next week? I won't be at Phoenix. I'll be at Pebble, Riviera and then nothing else, whatever else is after that.

Q. Inaudible?

DAVID DUVAL: I'd like to go back in the future and defend at some point, but not going to make it this year.

Q. (Inaudible.)

DAVID DUVAL: No, I haven't hit, I haven't played. I had planned on it, practicing a bit but it just didn't work out. So I played five holes about ten days ago or so and then I played today. Not as well as I'd like and not been able to work on the things I wanted to work on, the things I was working on end of last year, so it wasn't great today.

Q. Inaudible?

DAVID DUVAL: It's been cold and there's been a lot of snow on the ground.

Q. Inaudible?

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I sure did in the past. It was nice getting a week off here and a week off there, having a good break and being fresh, there's a lot to be said for that. You could argue there's as much to be said for that as being sharp. It's always good to have breaks.

Q. Inaudible?

DAVID DUVAL: No, I haven't.

Q. Inaudible?

DAVID DUVAL: I guess my biggest goal would be just to work on the things I've been working on and feel that much more comfortable with it. You know, not as far along as I would have like to have been, had I been able to hit the ball a lot and play a lot and things like that. That's really what I would like to do is just try to feel like I really have a command of what I'm trying to do.

Q. When you made the changes -- inaudible?

DAVID DUVAL: The way I wanted to now? If you handed me a golf club, yeah, I would grab it how you want to now. However, it's not quite as -- that's been the easiest thing. People talk about, you know, big grip change is so hard, but for me that's been the easiest thing. The hardest thing has been changing because of that the way I release the golf club. I'm still not doing that like I want to. Just to have to continue to work on it. I don't know what the ideal release is but it's an entirely different way of delivering the clubhead face to the ball now. I still have a tendency to want to do it like I used to, and you do that with a grip change and it's not a good mix.

Q. Inaudible?

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know, that's a hard question. I think that for me I would just really like to enjoy this atmosphere again and playing. I've done it a long time. I worked, I played junior golf, all the things that the majority of the people out here have done, and maybe it's my personality, maybe it's not, I don't know, but I've never as you all know, dealt the with the things that go with it very well, being No. 1 and those things I'm not a natural leak an Ernie Els, Fred Couples or Mickelson or whoever you name.

So I just, as much as anything I would like to be out playing and enjoying the atmosphere. That's the first big step in doing it and continue to work on the things that I'm working on and improve.

Q. Inaudible?

DAVID DUVAL: Oh, for sure, absolutely, definitely happy with what I was doing and the path that I was on.

Q. From Shinnecock -- how different -- inaudible?

DAVID DUVAL: That's a hard thing to gauge because you have to have -- you know, it's funny. I'll never forget a few years ago, many years back, I went to dinner with Marty Schottenheimer, a coach here, and that was one of the big discussions we had was which comes first, success or confidence. You can kind of argue both sides. So do I have confidence? I don't know if I do or not. Do I need to have some success to do it? You know, you've got to go both ways with it. I don't even remember what side I was arguing that night. (Laughter.)

Q. Inaudible?

DAVID DUVAL: Oh, yeah. For sure, especially the things that are happening today, yeah. It seems like there's more important things going on.

Q. Is it easier to come back out here now?

DAVID DUVAL: Harder. Harder to leave.

Q. Is that going to make -- inaudible?

DAVID DUVAL: Next question. (Laughing).

Q. Inaudible?

DAVID DUVAL: I enjoy playing golf, I really do. In some strange way, although I had not played much in the last 18 months or so, it's been some of the more enjoyable times because it just goes to show you how hard the game can be.

And you know, it makes you appreciate the skills the players have and the things they work on, the things they do because it's just a very, very hard game.

Q. In your mind is there a timetable where you might say, "I don't want to do this anymore?"

DAVID DUVAL: You know, y'all are asking the hard questions today. (Laughter.) I thought the first day back, I'm rusty on this stuff, too, fellas, gals. I mean, geez, I can't answer that. My brain's not clear enough for that.

Q. Do you have a different appreciation for, say, what you did, talking about how hard the game is, do you now appreciate more what you've achieved?

DAVID DUVAL: The answer would be yes, I guess I do. I felt like I appreciated it then. However, looking back on it, I realize that it wasn't as easy as it seemed. There's a lot of work involved.

Although it's commented about some of the players how they worked and how many practice balls they may hit, it's probably never really understood how hard they work and what they are doing to get to where they are and to achieve those goals, the sacrifices that are made.

Q. Being out there by yourself, do you have as much fun -- inaudible?

DAVID DUVAL: Doing what? This great banter? (Laughter.)

Q. (Inaudible.)

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I do. You know, it's a lot of fun to go out and play at home.

Q. Why wasn't it fun?

DAVID DUVAL: Just the time of day, 40 degrees, nice out, though. I think a couple of the holes might have been frozen, I'm not sure. That's why, it just worked out that way.

Q. One of the questions about how we don't understand or people don't understand the sacrifices involved for these guys to be successful, are you willing at this point in your career to make those sacrifices that you're aware of that are necessary?

DAVID DUVAL: Good question. We'll find out.

Q. Inaudible?

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know if it crossed my mind. You can almost do it.

Q. Do you feel you have to win out here to be successful?

DAVID DUVAL: No, I don't think so. I think that kind of approach, you know, I think I've been pretty consistent with it for the whole time I've been out here. Success is measured certainly different levels in different ways if you play as well as you can and really don't make mistakes and get beat, you have a successful week. And if you base it solely on position or outcome of the golf tournament, I don't know if you could ever have any satisfaction.

You know, there's very few players who have ever played this game, I daresay, that if they played their best, still couldn't be beat by other people. I mean, you know, you could probably name a couple. Most people agree, if they play their best, most other people would not beat them. So if you're measuring it just solely on winning golf tournaments, I think you're looking at it the wrong way.

Q. Taking the venue entirely out of the equation, if you could only qualify for one tournament, would it be Mercedes or THE TOUR Championship?

DAVID DUVAL: That's a good question. This is like another way to try to get me to answer the question, the last one? Am I being outsmarted right now? (Laughing). It's not so hard, is it? (Laughter.)

I would say that -- I would choose TOUR Championship.

Q. (Inaudible.)

DAVID DUVAL: I would sure hope for their sake. Y'all might disagree with me that they should look at it if they got that question posed to them that they would answer the same. You know, if you have earned your way out here through the Nationwide Tour or the Qualifying School, you're obviously a very good golfer. There are a fair amount of people in the past who won once and that was it, you never heard anything else from them.

If you look, if you compete throughout the course of a year consistently, and are finishing high, high enough to earn yourself into the Top-30, I think you could argue that that's a better indicator of long-term success, as opposed to just winning a golf tournament.

Q. Do you feel you belong out here -- inaudible -- or not -- inaudible?

DAVID DUVAL: After playing well and finishing high on the Money List, yeah, for sure. Yeah, there have been situations through these year and a half, two years, that I didn't win initially that some situations I had played well on Sunday and was happy, and other situations I didn't do as well as would I have liked as would I have been beaten.

So if you're doing well and you have opportunity to win golf tournaments and you play well and somebody shoots a low score, well, I think that for me, that was a better indicator, hey, under the circumstances, under the pressures of winning, I performed. You know, just somebody else would might have teed off an hour earlier, an hour and a half ahead of you and shoots a low score and wins, you know, those kinds of things are hard to go against.

Q. (Inaudible.)

DAVID DUVAL: I feel like one of the best tournaments I ever played was the week before I won at the Michelob in '97. That week it was at Callaway Gardens. Played really well that week. Probably played better than I did in any of the tournaments I won, the next few. But the difference was I made a lot of putts those next three weeks, as opposed to that week. That's one that sticks out.

You know, there's a couple of times I played real well at Augusta and didn't win. What week was that, '96, I think, I played really well that week and Tom Watson won. So there have been a few.

Q. (Inaudible.)

DAVID DUVAL: Everybody in this room could probably list those things, just the different responsibilities. You know, just a feeling of you found home, you found where you're supposed to be, that's the biggest one for me.

Q. (Inaudible.)

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I will. Make a mean breakfast, too.

Q. Is that a change for the better, your perspective on golf, this has had?

DAVID DUVAL: I feel like I always had a fairly good perspective on it. Like anybody out here, I put more into it than I should have. I put more value in it than I should have, but I obviously felt like I was -- like the lower end of that of the players. Yeah, certainly, you know, my hopes are in some way at this point to -- and I really don't know how it will work or how I can do it, because I don't really feel like I could ever give back to this game and the people involved what it's given to me, but I'd like to at least start chipping it way at that, because it's blessed me more than I could have ever dreamed.

JOE CHEMYCZ: David, thank you. Play well this week.

End of FastScripts.

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