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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 16, 2004

David Duval

SHINNECOCK HILLS, NEW YORK

RAND JERRIS: Good afternoon. It's our pleasure to welcome David Duval to the interview area. David is a former USGA champion having won the Boys Junior in 1989, and he will be playing his 12th United States Open this week. Maybe you could start us off with some general comments about your decision to return this week and play here.

DAVID DUVAL: I didn't really know when I would play again. I just felt like at some point I would feel like I was ready to go, just play and have some fun. A lot of the thing that's been missing for me for a long time has been the enjoyment of being out here, and having recently married and being around people who love me so much, I don't know if I'd be here -- actually I know I know I wouldn't be here without them, my wife Susie, the kids, my new parents through them.

It just kind of hit me Saturday night that I just wanted to go play, for no other reason than I just felt like I was ready to go have some fun and enjoy it again. Up to that point, I hadn't wanted to play.

You know, I've been real amazed over the past many months of time the well-wishers in the media, out of the media, just the general fan, and I've been told on numerous occasions, whether I believed it or not, which I probably didn't until Sunday when I ran into a few folks whom I hadn't met before who I saw at dinner and they said just go have some fun and good luck, that the intent of all these wishers was just to see me play.

You know, the life out on this Tour is long, it's hard, it's lonely, and I've been doing this for a long, long time. In some sense to be honest with you, I haven't missed it. I haven't missed being away, but I just wanted to play this week. The U.S. Open is a very hard thing for me to miss, and I was anxious for my wife and my family to see me and see what I do, to see the atmosphere of golf.

Beyond that, I don't really have a whole lot more to say. I came to play this week, to answer any questions that might come up. I can't tell you when I'm going to play again. It doesn't mean I'm playing next week or the week after, I just wanted to play this week, and that's it.

So beyond that, if you have anything you'd like to ask, please feel free.

Q. Once you made your decision to play, I guess you could have picked an easier event to start in. Did this have to do with your game or just your desire to play at this particular event?

DAVID DUVAL: It had more to do with the desire to play in our National Championship. I couldn't think of a more fitting place to play actually. Certainly as a player you would like to go to an event that maybe is more conducive to great golf. How many times before have I not played great in a U.S. Open? Tiger played great in 2000, I'm sure Jack played great and a couple of them, but it's about hitting some shots and surviving, over and around par, maybe a couple under.

I just want to have a blast, and I just remember specifically how difficult a couple holes were. The par 3, it seemed like you can't hit it on that green. I just remember this place and I just wanted to play again.

Q. David, you seem emotional up there. Are you emotional about coming back? Is this an emotional time for you to come back to competitive golf?

DAVID DUVAL: You know, I've made a statement on a couple of occasions that if I had to make a choice between playing golf and friends and family, between that and competitive golf, there's not much of a choice. I'd never play competitive golf again. I love to play the game just to play.

My decision to come here is just based on that I wanted to play. Am I emotional? Very. I was in tears when I called home Saturday night when I was out golfing and said that I was going to New York, and I've been in and out of tears ever since. My expectations this week are to have fun, to enjoy the atmosphere, and that's about it. I just came to have fun.

Q. Why the tears? What is so emotional about it?

DAVID DUVAL: Well, granted, I'm 32 years old, and I've been doing this for -- playing the game for 27 years probably, playing competitively on a national level for 18 years. The emotion came from just the sheer desire to do it. That's where it comes from. I didn't know if I wanted to.

Q. In the past when you've played, for instance, your first college tournament, your first Tour event, your first major, how nervous have you been on the first tee at those events, and will it be the same feeling tomorrow?

DAVID DUVAL: Well, some of the goal as a professional golfer, I think the biggest goal is to be nervous on Sunday because if you're not nervous on Sunday it means you're not anywhere near the top. I sit here very nervous about this week, scared in a sense, too; I haven't done it in quite some time.

But I look around, even just now walking in, walking back down here, the number of people who have said simply just "nice to see you again," that's what matters.

You know, since I made the decision Saturday night to come, I've been nervous (laughter). Susie has been saying all along that she was feeling that this was where I was going to play, and I didn't know it. I really didn't know it. I actually may have put some doubt in her mind up until Saturday because it was getting so close and I had to make a decision, but I finally, as much as anything, just was out there and felt like I knew what I was doing, and I just wanted to go play. It's as simple as that.

Q. For those of us who were at Lytham when you won, you sat there on Sunday night and said looking at this trophy "My name belongs here and I know now that I want to do this more." Three years have transpired. In the simplest of terms, what happened between then and now?

DAVID DUVAL: You know, I've had -- I look back and feel like if I made a mistake. Through it all, my mistake was I had what I thought was a pretty broad goal but it turned out to be pretty narrow, and that was simply to see how good I could become in this game.

Through winning a lot of tournaments through going to No. 1 through winning the Open, I figured it out. You know, if anything, a week removed from the Open Championship is when I went through my existentialist moments of kind of, "is this it," and that's the simplest way to put it.

Q. I apologize if this is a repeat. In terms of coming here when you did, were there thoughts about coming here a little bit earlier to get a little bit more playing time in here, and why not maybe do a Buick Classic or Memorial just to try to get the kinks out maybe, get the feel for competition again?

DAVID DUVAL: I think because you're asking me that question from a different point of view than I have. I came to play and have fun, just simply be out here and enjoy it. The reason I didn't play the Buick is because I didn't want to; that's why. I figured out I wanted to play Saturday night, a little late for the Buick (laughter). If this week was Memphis, I'd probably be in Memphis is what it is. It has to do with the U.S. Open and some of it has to do with I finally wanted to go. That's it.

Q. Can you tell us where you were Saturday? Were you hitting balls, just sitting around? Where were you and why did this feeling come over you?

DAVID DUVAL: I was on the cart path next to the 4th tee at Cherry Hills is where I was, and I had literally played the first three holes, teed off on the 4th one, and kind of going down the 3rd I knew it, and going down the 4th, I was alone, and that was when.

Q. Was it a good tee shot?

DAVID DUVAL: It was three good ones.

Q. You said you were playing alone?

DAVID DUVAL: Yes.

Q. I guess I am interested in knowing how often have you been playing and practicing, and how are you physically?

DAVID DUVAL: Physically I feel pretty good; you know, nothing really hurts any longer at the moment. I've been playing four times a week, five times a week maybe, and I haven't been practicing. Hitting balls to loosen up, maybe hitting a few afterwards, that's it.

Q. I know you've been a Florida guy most of your life. How have you adjusted to the change in Denver, living in Denver, and just what is your routine normally as you try to find where you want to be in life and with your game and even personally?

DAVID DUVAL: Man, that's a hard question. You know, I'm still learning routines. I'm learning to be a husband, learning to be a father, learning to be a son again. I feel like in Denver with my wife and the family out there that I've finally found home, if that answers that part of the question.

I don't know if I've ever taken such pride in a house and a place to live and the people around me, my family. You know, it's just a -- I can't say it any more simply other than I've just found where I'm supposed to be. I've found my wife, my best friend, and I wouldn't be here, like I said, if it wasn't for Susie, and a big part of that is the kids. I'm going to play golf this week and that's it.

Q. Did you have much contact with some guys out here who were your friends, and were they saying one way or another "come on back," and the other thing is do you talk to your dad much about the decision to play or when to come back?

DAVID DUVAL: I've had numerous phone calls with Davis and Fred, I've heard from Sergio, I've talked to Tiger, Mark, Jim Furyk, that's about it, Billy Andrade. The decision to not play and the decision to play -- the decision not to play rested solely with me basically. The decision to play rested with my wife and I. Does that answer your question? I'm kind of losing track.

Q. Considering how happy your wife and family have made you, what do you think of this whole discussion, much discussed about the notion that it's hurt Tiger to be engaged? Do you feel that marriage and family can at some point make you a better golfer, back to what you were?

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I would think that as Tiger is getting beat up on those things, nobody is mentioning what Jack Nicklaus says it does. He seems to be a pretty big advocate of it. I've always been curious as to why some people think that the words they write are how another man should live. It makes no sense. One, they don't know what it takes to do those things; two, they've never been there; three, the people that write about it have just as much right to live their life as they see fit.

You know, who are you to judge or anybody to judge if Tiger doesn't even want to play anymore. That's crazy. You can try to think you should decide what a man should be or what he should do, but that lies with him and his family, and that's it. To be critical of decisions or golf -- especially for a player who's been amazing for how many years now. I know he's in a huge slump, he wasn't won a major in seven tournaments; think of how ludicrous that sounds.

You know, what is he, probably in the Top 5 on the Money List right now would be my guess? He's won this year already. I mean, I think the people that write those things need to look at their lives and not his, think of what they think of themselves to be saying such a thing of other people. That's what I think.

Q. Were you surprised by the outpouring of people saying we missed you? How does that make you feel?

DAVID DUVAL: You know, I think I've been in -- let me figure out how to say this. I've gotten applauded for being the way I am, for being honest, and I've gotten beat up for it, too, and what it says to me is my decision to speak honestly the whole time, to give opinions, was the right decision. People can decipher the words and figure out that a man should speak from his heart and give an opinion of what he thinks. I think that's where that outpouring has come from, that they just want to -- they respect me for what I've said or done or been, and that's it.

Q. For the U.S. Open or any tournament, have you missed being in that chair?

DAVID DUVAL: Have I missed being in this chair? No (laughter). I like being here for the right reasons, from having played well and things like that, but sitting in this chair, you know, I'm no different from anyone in this room; I'm just a person. You get up here and you get asked things and you simply try to answer them the best way you think and with what you believe, and sometimes you get in trouble for it and a lot of times you don't, but that's the thing that makes it difficult to be in this chair at times. You know, to have experiences that aren't always the best, and you're trying to give some honest answers, it makes you question whether you want to sit up here at all.

RAND JERRIS: Thanks for your time, we appreciate it. Good luck this week.

DAVID DUVAL: Thanks for your time, and I'm going to have a lot of fun, and that's it.

End of FastScripts.

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