THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 19, 2002

David Duval

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: I'm sure it's great to be home, sleeping in your own bed and playing on a course you practice on a regular basis. Why don't you make a couple of comments about the week ahead and we'll go into some questions.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, it's nice to be home to play, it always is.

The course is pretty good, obviously, and in great shape. It's going to be difficult. My golf game is getting to the point that I want, and I'm excited about that and really looking forward to this round and the next few weeks.

Q. Any advantage to having played last week at Bay Hill on those greens and then come here and play on these greens, which will certainly be hard and difficult?

DAVID DUVAL: You would think if anything, there would certainly be some. And you get out there and think, "Man, these are very receptive here." (Smiles). I don't see how they can be any harder.

But I think it certainly gets you in that mindset a little bit of having to bounce the ball a lot into the flags.

Q. Anything different on the course this year?

DAVID DUVAL: Not that I'm aware of. Sure looks like that tree on 6 is leaning over a little bit more than it has in the past. I don't know if that thing is going to last much longer, but other than that, no.

Q. A lot of guys talk about experience of playing in this tournament on this course being a factor when they do well. Where does that come into play most in terms of dealing with this course and this tournament?

DAVID DUVAL: I think, if anything, it's just a matter of having seen it play under a lot of different conditions, fast and hard, maybe a little soft or in between, that kind of thing. Having gone through the experiences of having to play that last loop of 16, 17, 18 under the gun when you have a chance to win, similar feelings that you have in some of the major championships. The nerves and the difficulty of the shots that are ahead of you.

Q. Where do you rank that bunker shot on 9 in '99, among the best shots you've pulled off, like you said, under the gun?

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know where I'd rank it. I don't know how I'd rank it that way. I could probably say it's probably one of the two or three most important shots I've hit. I don't know about best shots, but certainly at the time, it's comparable to the shot I hit out of the rough at 15 at Lytham last year.

Q. Was it especially difficult?

DAVID DUVAL: The bunker shot?

Q. Yeah, to execute. You didn't have a lot of green to work with.

DAVID DUVAL: It wasn't terribly difficult. The shot before that was probably actually even a little bit better, the sand wedge I hit out of the bunker. If I don't pull it off, I'm making 6 or 7, for sure, and I felt like I just needed to try to hit it at the time. And to get it up there, I was excited, because I felt like I would, for sure, make a 5 at that point. And lo and behold, it made it.

Q. In that respect, how do you weigh your options when you have to have a shot when it is a risky shot? Do you weigh the pain versus the gain? How do you make that call?

DAVID DUVAL: Most of the time, if anything, I err on the side of being conservative, but there's certainly times like that where I don't know why I get the feeling or if it's a gut reaction, but you just feel like it's something that you've got to do. I felt like it was a shot that I had to hit at the time. You know, I wasn't -- I think I might have been over par or 1- or 2-over for the day at that point and was probably behind, actually. It was good for me to try to get up-and-down from 70 yards for par. Just really felt like I needed to pull it off to get on the green. I don't know, that's just, again, maybe a little bit of a feel for the situation and where you are in the golf tournament.

Q. When you won the British, some people said you should change this, change that, it would make you more marketable. What is your response when people say that?

DAVID DUVAL: I didn't hear that.

Q. Didn't hear anybody say anything?

DAVID DUVAL: No, I didn't. So I don't have a response to it, really.

Q. Kind of the age-old criticism, that you are stoic --?

DAVID DUVAL: To be an honest, forthright guy, if that that's the case, I'll stick with it.

Q. David, winning this tournament, what is key here? And if I may, also, how are you putting coming into this tournament?

DAVID DUVAL: I'm putting very well.

The key is to keep it out of the water at the end of the golf tournament, try to make a par or two and not make any mistakes. Pretty simple.

Q. You said your game is rounding into form where you want it to be during this run. A lot of players get ready for this run. What do you do, if anything, differently, to get your game into form? Do you prepare differently? What do you do?

DAVID DUVAL: You know, for me it's been a little different each year. Right now, I think that as much as anything, I think it's just a lot of work for me. Combine that with being rested, making sure you're fresh.

I don't want to linger on it. I don't like to keep going back to it, but I think a lot of the things that I have to do right now or have been doing, is I'm just trying to get back to where I was pre-injuries and trying to get back to the point where I was addressing the golf ball, swinging the club, taking it away the way I was at that point.

Because of the things that had happened, I feel like it really wrecked my golf swing, and finding a way as a player and a competitor to just get it done and compete and try to generate some power and play at the same time with some problems. You know, everything I've been trying to do the last six, eight months, I've really started to accomplish the last month, is just getting back to standing up to the golf ball like I used to and swing at the golf ball like I used to. And for one reason or another, I just haven't done that for quite some time.

Q. Are you close?

DAVID DUVAL: I feel like I'm getting close. I hit some things yesterday and last week and got some alignment issues worked out. Ironically enough, I don't know the exact statistics, but I missed the cut at Doral, probably the first one in over a year, and that's the best I felt on the golf course at all time.

And then I played well at Bay Hill. I had some bad holes on the weekend and kind of really for one reason or another, derailed myself each day. Every day, I had it going and I made a 6 on 18 on Saturday, 9 on Sunday, but for those shots, I'm posting possibly 10-, 11-under a couple of hours before the leaders even finish. It might have been a different story then, so I felt good about that.

Yesterday I was out here for quite some time and worked on a few more things and really started to feel a bit of my old receive which was nice.

Q. You came back from the first injury and won Buick out of the shoot and won British last year. When you look now to the first significant injury, which would be the back, did it do more damage, not so much to the back, but to your game than maybe you first realized; that maybe you realized it late in 2000?

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I think so. Just the way I had to, again, stand up and address the golf ball was just a bad -- it's a really bad way to do it. You know, I had to keep my back, my lower back flat and I end up really rounding from my mid-back into my shoulders, and just flopping the club around trying to generate some power. I look back and see some of the videos or old tournaments and it's just -- it's hard to watch. You know, it was really bad.

Q. It became a hard habit to break?

DAVID DUVAL: Very difficult. Because looking back, I did it for, like I said, I didn't injure my back at the British Open, I injured it at some other point. But looking back, I had been compensating for six or seven months.

You know, when you are doing something for a good year, 15, 18 months, it takes a long time to get out.

Q. Was there any kind of ripple effect? In other words, the way you were hitting the ball and addressing the ball that ultimately changed the way you played course management-wise, thinking-wise?

DAVID DUVAL: I don't think it changed the way I played but I just was not able to accomplish what I was trying to. I could not -- I still was trying to play the golf courses same as I would. But my body just wasn't letting me swing the club like I wanted to; and therefore, I just was not hitting the shots I was trying to.

Q. Since you didn't play last year, are the feelings you're having this week of anticipation comparable to maybe the first time you played this event as a pro? Are you really eager to get out there?

DAVID DUVAL: You know, no more so than in the past, no, I'm not. It's not magnified at all. I'm just really looking forward to playing. I'm excited about the fact that I feel like I'm just right there, and just need a few nice things to happen. You know, I'm excited about the time I'm putting in and the practice and efforts I'm making. And I'm seeing some small results from it, which is always a great thing.

Q. In terms of the way you're swinging, putting, off-course distractions and the results you are getting, how would you compare -- want me to keep going?

DAVID DUVAL: Anything else? (Laughs).

Q. Yeah, how would you compare this year to last year?

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I think we would all recognize that the last few years for me on the West Coast really has, I guess go back to '99 maybe, was the last time I had a nice West Coast. I've had some spot events that I've played well in. I don't know exactly why that is.

But I -- you know, this year so far has been -- it's been a wreck. It's completely been a train wreck. But that's, you know, I've only played -- I think I've completed five golf tournaments, maybe. I think I completed three out West and two out in Florida. Now we're at THE PLAYERS and I'm usually into my eighth or ninth week here.

You know, for one reason or another I have not been able to play as much as I'd like, and when I have there's been no rhythm to it, so it has not been very good golf.

You know, the great thing is that's just how it is, though. It's cyclical, the game, the way you play and the bounces you get. That's just all a part of it. It's really not a big deal to me. I know where I'm at right now and I know where I will be soon and can be, and that's what was exciting is knowing that I can get back there.

Q. When you ever get home like this for a little while, do you still maybe go out and play a couple of holes with your dad once in a while and discuss your games and maybe see something in each other's game like you did a few years back?

DAVID DUVAL: No, I don't go out and play a few holes during tournament week at somewhere else. I'm here working and getting ready, but like any other time when I'm home, certainly if we're on the same schedule, we'll go play. I would think that, yeah, that he has a lot of input, especially considering he was with me for about four hours yesterday hitting balls and he's meeting me here soon again; so it will be another long day for me today.

Q. Speaking of your dad, what do you think of his new book?

DAVID DUVAL: I haven't read it. I got an advance copy, six weeks ago, whatever it's called, reader's proof, and that's obviously not the finished product, but I haven't read it.

Q. What, if anything, has Lytham done for your peace of mind?

DAVID DUVAL: You know, a tremendous sense of accomplishment. You know, I had walked away from Augusta for four years feeling like I had won it a couple of times for sure and didn't get the trophy. And I really felt like I knew I had it in me, and I guess, you know, until you do it, nobody will believe you that you feel that way.

I guess it's -- you know, it was just a great sense of accomplishment, and again, I'll say it, I don't -- you know, the thing that I felt greatest about was not winning that golf tournament; it was how I played that day, especially Saturday and Sunday. I mean, I don't know, if might not make sense, but I feel better about how I played those two days than I did about winning the event, because I just played so well and really managed my game as well as I have, probably, in maybe ever.

And then on Sunday, to go out with -- you may know the stats, I don't -- but I think there was about 15 people within two shots of the lead, to go out and really take over and after 7 holes had made it up to me, whether I was going to win or lose based honest how I played because I had gotten two or three ahead at that point. That's what I think of and really still look back on with a lot of pride.

Q. How do you balance being at home and want to go jump-start your season?

DAVID DUVAL: It's not hard to do, really. You know, the good thing is it's early March still, and the season is young. I'm planning on playing a little over 20 events, so I've just kind of dented my schedule.

A lot of what I look back on, to answer that really directly, is I had to stop playing Doral back in '96 when I had some shoulder impingement. I had to walk off the golf course there, and had left the West Coast a complete disaster. I think I left the West Coast 95 third on the Money List. And I left it in '96 300th; I think I made $13,000 and was struggling and could not play and was out for three or four weeks and came here and I finished fourth, third, something like that, the year Fred won, I was playing with Tommy Tolles.

So I look back at that and realize that I can do that. You know, I look back at other times where I've had to be out and then come back and feel good about my ability to do that.

Q. Talk about some of the frustrations of having a decent round and having one hole destroyed, how does that kind of frustration compare in certain stretches like this to 95, '96, when you were playing well and just weren't winning?

DAVID DUVAL: It was probably harder in '95 and '96, I guess, than it is now. It's not really something I can compare, I don't believe. It's just a matter now of gutting it out and just sticking with it. I felt really good about what I did Sunday on last week, and had that disaster and then I hit this beautiful shot on 17 that I guess I was maybe one of 10 people to actually get it on that green -- I think it was very few. And I teed up and 2-putt and made a nice par and teed up on 18 and hit a beautiful tee shot and stuffed it with a 6-iron to eight feet -- didn't make that, but I felt good to play the last couple of holes. You know, I knew that I had played about 33 really good holes on the weekend and had a couple of really bad ones, and that really hurt me.

Again, when you're working your way out of stuff, you are really looking for the positive and just forgetting about the bad, negatives.

Q. Just wondering, does Lytham carry over permanently or when you get to the next major is it like, okay, now we are starting over and it's a separate entity?

DAVID DUVAL: A little bit of both. It's kind of like some friends of mine are talking about Augusta, "You've played so well you're going to win this year."

You know, I feel like I have a good chance, but it is a different year and each time you have to prepare properly and be ready to play and that week you have to play well and you have to make some putts and stuff.

But at the same time, to answer the other part, I feel like when I showed up in Duluth last August, I felt like I had a little more swagger than I had in the past and felt that much better about my chances.

You certainly go in knowing that it's there for you and I feel great about that. I look forward to that.

Q. Where does your win here rank, now that you've got a British Open? Will it always be special?

DAVID DUVAL: Oh, yeah, that was a great week. That was really -- might not be the right thing to say, but that was the first major championship I won. I look back on how I played 16, 17, 18 that day and really feel good about that. And really, that day, a lot of different things happened good and bad. I just had to stick with it. That was a great, great week for me. It's a very comparable feeling of accomplishment to Lytham.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, David, for joining us.

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