Q. Tiger was expressing some ambivalence about the Ryder Cup next week. What's your own feelings about the event. Does it excite you?
DAVID DUVAL: It excites me very much. I think the ambivalence, if that's what you want to call it, you get from players is not about the matches and the competition itself and playing. I think it's the pomp and circumstance that go surrounding it. You're out there, you get a schedule of when you're supposed to hit balls and eat and tee off, and when you're done you have 35 minutes to shower and change and put on a tuxedo and go to an event that none of the players want to go to. I think those things are what makes any of the negative comments, that's where it comes from. I don't think it's from the matches. The matches themselves are tremendous fun and very nerve-wracking, and I think the players enjoy those as much as any.
Q. Do you or any other players try to reduce these outside demands with the tuxedo stuff? Have you raised the issue with the officials?
DAVID DUVAL: I think it has been curbed a little bit. I don't remember how many there are. I haven't looked at the schedule. The first couple of nights we're there and maybe the last night, something like that, once it gets deeper in the week, it settles down. The thing -- the problem comes in talk of the team event, and now it's a team, but you're almost not given much of a chance to spend time with the team, certainly not the first days you're there, other than being on the golf course. It's a difficult thing, when you go in to a tournament and are forced to prepare for that event in a way than what you might normally do. It's sometimes hard to catch a rhythm.
Q. Saying that, how does the Ryder Cup rank along with the WGC events and the majors?
DAVID DUVAL: I don't know. I'm not going to get into this. I'm playing next week. I'm looking forward to it. I'm not going to get into ranking. I'm not biting on that. It's important to me and I want to win.
Q. Three years ago at Brookline, Bush came in on Saturday night and talked to the team, read the team the Alamo letter. Can you talk about what any effect that had on you and tell me if the team heard from the president this year?
DAVID DUVAL: I don't know, if any of the team has. I haven't. The affect that something like that has -- I guess for me, the way I can best put it, there's are other people that are concerned and are enthusiastic about it. Does it have any affect on your play? No, I don't think so. That motivation, that drive to compete and play well, if you can't get it from within, you're going to have a problem. So -- but it's always comforting to find people who have taken an interest and are paying attention to it, paying attention to what you're doing.
Q. Have you been able to put a finger on what it was that isn't there now or hasn't been there for the past 12 months or so, since you won the British Open, that was there when you won 11 out of 34 starts?
DAVID DUVAL: I can argue with you about the duration. It's been more like eight months. I won in Japan in November. I lost in a playoff in October on the tour. So I played well really through the end of last year too. I think it all stems from driving the ball purely. I think where the majority of it comes from. When you don't keep it in the play, you have very little chance to compete. If you do hit it in the play, you start forcing your irons, maybe hitting a 4-iron at the flag, when you really shouldn't do it. If you're hitting in the fairway 12 times a day, you wouldn't do that. So your opportunities get decreased and then it feeds into when you do have a chance, you put that much more pressure on yourself because you have an eight-footer finally for birdie and it's not for par. It all builds from there, I think that's where it's all built for me. And I've played for about nine years as a pro up until this year and have driven it well, and I think that's where a lot of my strength comes from. I put the ball in play and I tend to put it out there fairly far, the combination of distance and accuracy is as good as most people, and I failed to do that this year, as simple as that.
TODD BUDNICK: Your birdies, David.
DAVID DUVAL: The first hole I hit 3-wood, sand wedge 10 feet.
Third hole I hit 6-iron to eight feet.
4th hole, I 3-putted.
The 5th hole, I chipped up to eight feet.
The 8th hole, I hit it down in front of the green, about 20 yards short and chipped to eight or 10 feet, something like that.
10th hole, I hit it just left of the green, chipped on to within 5 feet.
16, I hit 7-iron to eight feet behind the hole.
17, I hit a 5-iron to about 12 feet and 2-putted.
18, I hit 7-iron to whatever that was, 10 feet, 12 feet.
TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, David.
End of FastScripts....
