MERCEDES CHAMPIONSHIPS

January 3, 2002

David Duval

TODD BUDNICK: David Duval, 6-under, 67. Started off with a 6-under 30 on the front with birdies on 2 and 3. Can you walk us through those?

DAVID DUVAL: Do you want me to go through my birdies?

TODD BUDNICK: Please.

DAVID DUVAL: I hit a 3-iron on 2 to 12 feet, something like that, 15 feet.

I hit a sand wedge on 3, ten feet.

I birdied 6. Hit it right on front of the green, chipped it two feet.

No. 7, I hit a 5-iron to a foot and a half.

8, I hit a 6-iron to 15, 14 feet, somewhere.

9, I knocked it on and 2-putted.

No. 14, I hit a sand wedge up there about three feet.

15, I hit it in the hazard off the tee. That's how I made six. Par 5, hit it right.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you. Happy with the way you started the year?

DAVID DUVAL: I'm flustered (laughter). You all have to turn the TV on to the football game.

Q. 7-0.

DAVID DUVAL: I saw it. Y'all are making me (laughter). I can't watch the football game? I played good.

Q. Who do you like tonight?

DAVID DUVAL: I think Miami is going to kill them, would be my guess.

Q. Do you like watching golf? Are you a golf fan?

DAVID DUVAL: Not when there's a National Championship game on (smiling). Yeah, that's the one day I'll preempt golf, for a football game.

But I just played, though. If I wasn't playing this week, I'd probably have a split screen, so...

Q. You're not playing Sony, is that correct?

DAVID DUVAL: Right.

Q. What is your tentative West Coast?

DAVID DUVAL: Bob Hope, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Matchplay, Doral is probably kind of my schedule, I think.

Q. You come into this year overall feeling, I would imagine, very optimistic.

DAVID DUVAL: I am. I feel good. I wasn't maybe quite ready to start, but that's just -- it makes me that much more eager and in anticipation of a break I'll be able to take some other time, you know, because didn't get to have much this year.

As much as anything, I'm hoping my health is good. Since I injured my back a couple years ago, I haven't been on a stretch as long as I am now without having some type of little problem. So that's good for me. I feel like I'm playing good, you know. My golf's good. So I'm looking forward to starting the year. You know, I wasn't -- I was playing real well at the end of last year. I was kind of hoping there was more events, you know, some more to play in because I felt like I was close to winning. Lo and behold, I went and won in Japan. Played like a dog the next week, but, hey, it was 40 degrees.

But I feel good about this year.

Q. Wondering who is winning the Rose Bowl, wondering what's slopes are like for Sunday, in the middle you go out and shoot 67. Is that a fair assessment?

DAVID DUVAL: That's about right (laughter). Trying to figure out what I'll be able to get there.

Q. How close is this kind of weather conditions to when you had the low round here?

DAVID DUVAL: Probably pretty similar. I don't remember, though. I think -- I don't know. I don't remember. I don't remember. I mean, it was very similar. It seemed to me like there was five to ten miles an hour winds the first three days coming into you on the 1, Kona Winds, I guess. Then the last day it got turned a little bit back to Trades a little bit. You know, it blew about 15. It was very, very similar.

Q. What are you expecting out of yourself early in the year when you talk about having played so much toward the end, not quite ready to come here? Are you as excited about playing as you were in maybe '99, '00, '01, last three years?

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I am. It's a different approach, though. It's not -- I'm not coming in off a two-month break, completely rested, chomping at the bit. It's more with having played well and then participating, you know, World Cups, the Williams, things like that, starting to realize that you've got to figure out a better way to take the time off because I'm not going to have that November-December break in the future. I've kind of I guess revised how I look at it in that I got to take more time here and there, that kind of thing, pace myself.

Q. Let me rephrase the question. Why not just blow off Tiger?

DAVID DUVAL: I might very well do that (laughter).

Q. Would you consider maybe next year not playing his tournament, not playing the World Cup, if you're invited? Grand Slams not a bad thing to do.

DAVID DUVAL: Not a guarantee I'll play in those tournaments, no, you know. I don't know what else to say about it. I'm not saying I'm not going to play, but you can't have me on the field, I'm not sure I will be playing in those events.

Q. I'm wondering if you do play heavy November, December, you have to take off more during the official money time of the year.

DAVID DUVAL: Right. And I don't want to do that.

Q. Is this the busiest you've ever been?

DAVID DUVAL: Seems to be. You know, like there wasn't really any break. It was ten days here, ten days there kind of thing. There was a big trip to Japan for a couple weeks in between. Then the Hawaii trip. So, hey, you know, I mean, I don't -- it's all right (smiling).

Q. Just think what happened when you played the Skins. How might that phone conversation go when you call Tiger to tell him you're not playing in his tournament?

DAVID DUVAL: I wouldn't be the one to call (laughter). I'll call the AP. Let it go out on the wire.

Q. Kind of jumping ahead, but through your career, when you cleared a barrier, you've kind of taken off. I'm just wondering, after last year, are you now looking ahead feeling like, with majors, this could be the same type of thing?

DAVID DUVAL: I hope so, certainly. I don't think you can quite draw the same correlation because of just the fact that you have four of them a year, and they're spaced out such. It's not like I won at the Williams then got to play the next week. I didn't win The Open, then get to play the PGA the next week. That's the only difference is the spacing. Certainly I think there's definitely a mental hurdle that has been crossed and a realization -- you know, a realization of what it takes completely. I thought I knew. I actually kind of proved to myself that I did know, that I was right. I think I'll do well.

Q. Are you one of those guys who goes to Augusta on a separate trip before the tournament?

DAVID DUVAL: I have once before.

Q. Would you be more inclined to do it this year because of the changes in the golf course?

DAVID DUVAL: I would have if I could have gotten there a month ago. But it's really not worth it now till after the Players, probably. I played in college. We went once a year. It's wet and cold. So why even go?

Q. It's not the same?

DAVID DUVAL: It's completely different.

Q. Was it this heavy off-season schedule that prevents you from coming to the AT&T this year, or were there other reasons?

DAVID DUVAL: You know what, I've played that golf tournament every year, and I love it. I'm just tired of hitting it a foot from the hole and not knowing if I'm going to make it. It's got nothing to do with the pace of play, which is fine. I mean, everybody loves playing that golf tournament as much as I do. I just need a break from it.

You could hit it six feet 72 times and shoot 12 over there, you know. That's the problem, you know.

Q. There was sun last time.

DAVID DUVAL: The weather was beautiful. The greens were terrible, though. You know, it's wet, so everybody has their spikeless shoes on with the big things. They get filled with mud, so you get a complete quarter-size indentation, seven or eight of them on each green. You get tired of that. I've gotten tired of that. I'm not saying I'm a hundred percent not going to be there, but I'm probably going to take a break this year.

Q. You're not swearing it off forever?

DAVID DUVAL: No. I love it too much. I love the whole idea of it, playing it. You know, I just get tired of hitting it there and watch it go like that. I had a ball fly in last year. Hit it this close, it flew in from that far (indicating about a foot).

Q. Skipped it in?

DAVID DUVAL: Actually, it was going at it, jumped left, hit another spike mark, flew into the other side of the hole from ten inches. I was watching.

Q. Is that only at Pebble or Spyglass also?

DAVID DUVAL: All three of them.

Q. Those greens, there's that much difference? Pretty much the same grease on the West Coast?

DAVID DUVAL: It's just that much more wet. The place is just completely saturated every time we get there.

Q. Poa Amma has a mind of its own.

DAVID DUVAL: Poa Amma can be a tremendous surface to play on. If you have it hard and cut down, as with the Pebble Beach US Opens, some of the others. Great surface, but it's not good wet. If it's soft, it's just going to be that much worse. I don't know. I mean, I like it there so much I'm thinking I still might play. I know I shouldn't. I just need -- God, didn't want to get into that. It's just frustrating to just watch putts from three feet, just don't know what it's going to do, so...

Q. When might you take a deep breath in your schedule since you haven't had much of one?

DAVID DUVAL: I would imagine after The Ryder Cup (laughter). Somewhere in that time of year. Unfortunately, I mean, usually I could tell you, you know, September into October. I can't say that this year because isn't there a WGC event in Ireland the week before The Ryder Cup?

Q. Yes.

DAVID DUVAL: That's usually when I don't play much. You know, I don't know. I haven't completely looked at the schedule. I have a pretty good idea where I'm going to play through April maybe, something like that. I don't foresee there being any four-, five-week blocks anywhere for another year.

Q. Are you concerned about mental fatigue maybe more than anything else?

DAVID DUVAL: No, not really. I mean, that is a little bit of it. Just make sure -- I just want to make sure I'm ready and fresh each time.

Q. Is Atlanta a tough one for you to miss? It sounds like you're not planning on playing.

DAVID DUVAL: I'm not planning on it.

Q. Is that a tough one to miss, given they gave you exemptions in college?

DAVID DUVAL: It is. I don't think I've ever missed it actually without injury. You know, like I said, it's not a given that I won't go there either. The timing is not so good, so... Unfortunately, that's how it is.

Q. Can't play them all?

DAVID DUVAL: No. A few people would like for us, too. But, no, you can't.

Q. Do you go right from here to Idaho?

DAVID DUVAL: Uh-huh, on Sunday, Sunday night. I'll be on the slopes on Monday.

Q. What time?

DAVID DUVAL: Well, they open at 9:00.

Q. How early will you get up to go do that?

DAVID DUVAL: I'll go as early as they'll let me, you know. Sometimes before they open.

Q. Doesn't sound like they're actually going to let you; you're just going to go.

DAVID DUVAL: No, I don't ever do that. You can't. You just have to know the right people, clear the slopes with the ski patrol or something. They do it every day. They've got to clear the slopes, open them.

Q. What was the difference between the front and the back in your round today?

DAVID DUVAL: Back's harder, really. That's all. With that wind, it plays a little harder on a few holes, especially to get it close to the hole. The way they put the pins, looks like some of the pins they expected the Trades with the bottom left pins on 10, on 13. So that's all.

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