THE RYDER CUP MATCHES

September 24, 2002

David Duval

GORDON SIMPSON: David, we're here at long last. You haven't had the opportunity to play this golf course in the past.

DAVID DUVAL: Not until today.

GORDON SIMPSON: Your observations.

DAVID DUVAL: I'm impressed with the condition. It's very well manicured. I don't know if I had any expectations, necessarily, of the golf course, itself. I probably feel like it's a very pretty golf course. There seems to be a good flow to it. They've set it up fairly difficult. The fairways are rather tight. The rough is pretty thick. Again, placing premium on driving the ball straight, whether it be with a driver down to a 2- or 3-iron, which is what should be done, and then demanding a lot of iron shots, nothing more you'd ask for in a game.

Q. You shot 65 in the second round last week, and you looked to have everything back in order. Two days later, 76. Could you assess where you are right now, and how comfortable you are with your game?

DAVID DUVAL: Right where I want to be. To be quite honest I'm tired of being asked, simply because I think your questions probably wouldn't be asked if you watched me play a full round. It's three bad shots. I think I hit 14 greens Sunday and shot four over. So I hit the first eight greens, and miss a fairway on 9, make the turn 1-over par. And it's like what happened? I played exactly how you'd want to, hitting a lot of greens, a lot of fairways. And unfortunately for me didn't make any putts that day. And so that's why it can be a little tiring hearing that. I see it out there and know that it's right there every now and again. It happened on 17, 18; I don't know if it happened on any other shots on Sunday, and I think that maybe two other times during the week I hit the shot that I've been missing a lot, way off the fairway; never really out of play there. It's hard to hit it out of play. But that got me in trouble.

So the first day I shot, I think, 1-under par, maybe, and hit three bad shots for the whole day. And they were all pulls and they were all bogeys. So there's not much missing. And those shots simply are stemming from the same problems I had which started with my back injury. I was making compensation, and I just hadn't fully corrected it. I feel like I have in essence, but every now and again I just get back into that reverse, and then I get back under and behind it and it just goes way right. It's pretty simple.

Q. I'm assuming you've seen The De Vere Belfry before, at least on the television?

DAVID DUVAL: Yes.

Q. Do you have any memories of 10, and were you disappointed to see and hear that it's going to be kept where it is all week?

DAVID DUVAL: No, simply because it doesn't matter what I think of the course setup. I wasn't asked, again. It's getting a little disappointing, I feel like I should be asked these things, but it's perfectly reachable, still. I hit it on the green today. I laid up -- the first time, we had a match going. I laid it up with a 6-iron, and hit a sand wedge, and laid it up on the green. My understanding is it went through the trees over there. I guess with the angle it's hard to avoid the trees. So it becomes quite a risk. I don't know if that will -- if you'll see many people hit it in the green because of that.

Q. Think you'll see many guys even try it?

DAVID DUVAL: No, I don't think so.

Q. What does the Ryder Cup mean to you?

DAVID DUVAL: It's a unique opportunity to spend some time with 11 other great players from our Tour. We don't get to obviously spend time with the European team, with the exception of when we're competing. Those are 12 good guys over there, 12 friends of mine. We were kind of making jokes about it, how you can't like each other for a week. But it's a chance to kind of see everybody with their guard down a little bit, I think, behind the scenes and stuff. And it's a chance to try to represent your -- I say this very lightly -- your country well. We're here to play golf; not do other things. So -- and there's a bit of pride, as much as anything in just wanting to compete well.

Q. I asked David Toms the same question: Do you have one or two memorable moments in match play in your career, good or bad from over the years, either as an amateur or junior golf or anywhere?

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I think it's kind of memorable that I've played the last six Presidents Cup matches with Nick Price. We're three and three, to answer your next question. Obviously that Sunday, my match is memorable, but also just the whole atmosphere of Sunday at Brookline.

Q. Are there some other ones?

DAVID DUVAL: I guess the days I spent with Mark O'Meara, when we went 4-0 or 3-0, I guess. I skipped one match, in '96. I didn't play a lot in amateurs. I didn't really think I had much success. I think I may have made a semis one year at the Western; I'm not sure. Never had any success at the U.S. Amateur in match play.

Going back as far as the U.S. Junior Amateur, really, I had a funny story. A friend of mine was caddying for me, and I had about a 15-footer that I had a little bit downhill to two-putt to win on the last green. And I said, "What do you think?" And he said, "Lag." So that obviously is something I won't ever forget. Just a few things like that.

Q. David, do you think you've become a better match play player than maybe you were six or seven years ago, and if so, what things have you learned that maybe, I don't know, help you deal with this format better?

DAVID DUVAL: I like to think I was never a poor match-play player. It's not always your own fault when you lose a match. That's just the nature of it. I think that it can be misleading looking at a player's record, because three of those six wins he may have shot 84. Just happened to draw the right person to be competing against that day. So I think that -- I think you get better as you play it more often and you get more comfortable with it. You understand the ups and downs and the swings of the game. I think as much as anything for me that's been the case, just being more comfortable with it. And just being around it more. Unfortunately we don't face it very often.

End of FastScripts....