PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 14, 2001

David Duval

DAVID DUVAL: Thank you.

DAVID DUVAL: I like it a lot. I played it a few times in college, not a lot, but three or four times a year, it seemed. They have made changes since then and I have not been here for eight or nine years. And it is a shame that it is as wet as it is. It is really a good golf course. Ain't nothing that you can about the rain, I guess, but it's muddy and mud and muck and it's splatty when it hits the green, but I hope that it dries out.

DAVID DUVAL: Golf Channel? I didn't know they were filming (Laughter.)

DAVID DUVAL: I don't necessarily feel that way. You know what, it might be a combination of something like that or it might be a combination of you wanting to see me how I am now, as opposed to, you know, painting an evil picture or the bad boy image or something, you know, so maybe it's a combination of both those things.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, it's been a wonderful -- it's a wonderful reception when I got to Toronto immediately after. It was a wonderful reception in Denver and then coming back here to where I went to school and spent so much time, it's been great. A lot of people are yelling, "Get your second in a row," that kind of thing. It's been a lot of fun last day and a half, two days.

DAVID DUVAL: No, I think it's -- I think it's kind of funny that -- having recently won the British Open now, what has happened at Augusta has become good results. (Laughter.) You know, before it was why couldn't you win and now, it's like how many times he's had a chance there, even. Circumstance, you know, when I was a kid playing at Tech here at the Classic, and then having the chance we when we moved to Sugarloaf, I think it was the first year when Scott McCarron won, and then it just happened. I think the rotation with East Lake. I don't read a whole lot more into it than that.

DAVID DUVAL: I never said it was. (Laughter.)

DAVID DUVAL: I think so. I think there's a definite change. You know, the job of you folks sitting in here is to -- really, with a player of his caliber or many others, is to question why you haven't, and we can say I guess as much as we believe it and as wholeheartedly we can, but until you go do it, it doesn't answer the questions that you get from it. So I think it does change how you are looked at and how you are perceived. You know, there's an element of, I don't know -- it's really just that little bit of a question mark of it changes, and I think you get looked at as more of a champion, if you will, as opposed to just having won the other golf tournaments. I don't know. Like I said, it's just been a different reception.

DAVID DUVAL: I haven't thought about it. (Laughter.) You know, I'm going to be in a lot of places before then and I've got something more important this week, and then in a few weeks at the Ryder Cup. Certainly, I know I've qualified and it so happens I will be coming back from Japan, so imagine I might stop by. (Laughter.) But it will be fun. It will be kind of a nice reward for the victory over in England, and I'd sure like to do my part to keep it within the three of us, because I'd like to win this week. I know it will fill the field, but I'd like to be the one with two of them when we are playing.

DAVID DUVAL: I would be surprised that you would mention me in the same breath as Bobby Jones. I was unaware that this was his home club; I thought East Lake was. Just stupidity -- ignorance on my part, maybe. I didn't realize that. Yeah, there's so much history at East Lake with him and building the golf course and then over at Augusta, as well. You know what, I guess I did know that I was the second one at Lytham. I don't know, I haven't thought of it that way at all. You know, I just go out and play and do what I can and then the comparisons come. Inevitably, they come. I have a long ways to go, though, to be compared with him.

DAVID DUVAL: Fairly extensive. I've yet to coax him onto the mountain. We have done some fishing, yes. Tried to get him to come to Idaho, but schedule has not permitted as of yet. It's really kind of weird to talk about it. I mean, it's kind of like me asking you about one of your friends and you having to explain the nature of your relationship. Why are you friends with him is kind of how it comes across. You know what, we get along, like we see things in a similar way. I think he respects me for my golf. I think he respects me for who I am and stating my opinions and standing up for what I believe in. And, obviously, as I've said on many occasions, I have great admiration for him, or so because of what he has to go through, as opposed to how he has played.

DAVID DUVAL: I haven't thought about it. (Laughs). It's just, the rival thing is something that you have put on us, Scott, and whoever -- everybody else in this room wants to, really. They want Tiger to have a rival. Whatever, to me, really. (Laughter.) I just want to play great. I just am working hard to play great golf and to be a good person and to play well out here and to have chances to win these golf tournaments -- not even to have chances, to win these golf tournaments. That's just really how I look at it. I just don't think in terms of rivalry. I view him as we play as somebody I have to beat. I don't view him as my sole competition. I view him as one of the ones I need to beat, though.

DAVID DUVAL: I believe that the participation of the club professionals is as important to this championship as the participation of David Duval or Tiger Woods or anybody else. Those are the guys who put in the long hours at country clubs, and I got to see it growing up, you know, with my father. Those are the guys who work hard and have to respond to members and to club managers and to directors of golf or directors of operations. Those are the ones who have the hard jobs. I think it's for them to be able to come out and play some of these courses, these great courses we get to play, to practice and play with some of the great players of the game. I think it's a real -- it's a real neat kind of goal, if you will, you can qualify through the club pros championship. Like I said, I think it's a part of this tournament that is very important and I hope it stays and doesn't change. I think it adds great, great flavor to the field, and I think it also -- I think it's good for us, because you realize that you see these folks, these guys with their families, their wives and children here, and they are just so excited to be playing, and you realize that you are pretty darned lucky to be out here playing like we do week-in and week-out.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't think they have changed. I will tell you, I think I have greater confidence because of what happened at Lytham. Like I've said, I was obviously extremely excited about winning, but what I was more proud about than winning was how I played, really. And not that I played the best golf I can play because I don't feel like I did. I played well, don't get me wrong. I just feel good about going out and shooting the scores I did on the weekend and winning the golf tournament. Not backing it, not having a huge mistake cost somebody else and me getting into it. I just feel good about going out there and taking control and taking care of it myself. I feel better about that than the actual win.

DAVID DUVAL: What's Claret? Red bordeaux? I have not had that. Many other things. (Laughter.)

DAVID DUVAL: Dom Perignon, Louis XIII, and one other thing that I'm not going to tell you. (Laughter.) I think the R&A might get mad. It wasn't nearly in that price range. (Laughter.) It was only like a couple dollars a bottle, but I had to do it; I had to experience it.

DAVID DUVAL: You know, I'm coming off of -- whether I won that tournament or not, I had a very busy schedule, kind of immediately following up through this past Wednesday. But I got a few days of rest and I'm really looking forward to playing here. Actually, I'm really happy about how I'm hitting the golf ball the last couple days, and I just think -- I think I was right in my assessment, my quick assessment early on, that I just -- my drive, I'm there, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to work and get after it. It's just a wonderful feeling and I want to continue to experience it.

DAVID DUVAL: I covet it a lot more than playing in front of him, that's the tough draw, with all of the people running up. I think that -- I think it's neat. I love that pairing, how it's done here at the PGA. I just think it's a great way to pair up the winners of those events, and I'm looking forward to it a lot, I really am. I think it's going to be two great days.

DAVID DUVAL: I think under the -- with the conditions we have right now, I think this golf course most certainly favors a long hitter, somebody who hits it long and high. You can get away with it, the high shot, not having to hit it quite as high going into the greens, maybe, because they are soft, but you cannot roll the ball out there off the tee. It's all force/carry right now, every yard you hit. I think that brings in the longer hitters. It's kind of -- we come off of Lytham where you could not -- you haven't hit many drivers and coming to a course that it's just a meat course. It's 460, 480, 470, 450, 460, 230, 460. It's nice. There's a lot of drivers out there, and I think that's a test of the players' ability that we don't see -- haven't seen as much lately, and I think it's a good thing that we are here.

DAVID DUVAL: I did run the table in '97.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know. It's a little bit different in that it's not week to week to week. It's April to June to July to August. There's large gaps in between. I think it is a little bit harder to have that momentum kind of carryover effect, if you will. Certainly, I think it opens the doors for me, and I come into these events knowing -- knowing I can win under the various conditions and knowing I can win playing at different levels of my own ability. That was a good thing for me to learn in England.

DAVID DUVAL: Oh, I don't know. I doubt it. I mean, personally speaking, I've counted clubs every round of golf I've played, as does my caddy. So just for those mistakes, it's just one you can't get back; that's just one I've always done. I don't know if it will change how other people approach it or not.

DAVID DUVAL: Sure. It's about a month off, I guess. Like I said, I don't feel like I was playing particularly great last time at Ryder Cup, but I was really putting well, making a lot of putts. I feel like I'm really playing well right now. So, you know, it is a month down the road, but I'm looking forward to it, I think. I think the atmosphere is going to be really great. It's going to be fun over there, and it's going to be good for me having -- it won't be my first one any longer. I will have experienced it and I will have experienced a great Ryder Cup in '99. I'm looking forward to The Belfry a lot.

DAVID DUVAL: No, I can't. I can't give you a sense of it. Like I said, it's been kind of an overwhelming reception. A lot has been made of what I had to say on the 18th green Sunday afternoon there at Lytham. You know, inevitably in those type of situations, you are going to forget to a say few things, and a few people you forgot to thank. I forgot everybody starting out and then got a couple people in. I'm just not good with stage stuff, and I -- so I just -- there was no hidden purpose behind what I had to say. I just felt inclined to tell a couple of the stories that I had experienced over there, and, like you said, it was well received. You know, I left immediately thereafter, but I've heard some -- I have not heard a bad thing about what happened that day, that afternoon on the acceptance speech. That, to me, was -- I didn't expect that. You know, I figured I'd get criticized for, I didn't thank my dad, I didn't thank my high school coach. It always seems like there's something that you forget. I just was speaking from the heart like I always do, and I just -- I love playing golf over there. I have since I went there in '95 and that's just kind of what I tried to relay to the people.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, not -- like I said, I don't think it changes for me in so much as it changes how I am perceived, how my golfing skills are perceived. That Monday was a long day, actually, for me because I went to Toronto and played in the Skins Game, and we had quite a nice celebration on the plane ride over. We were working -- I was working on -- you know, got 15 minutes of rest on the descent and tossed and turned when we got in for a couple hours. So no sleep. It's all adrenaline, but it was -- it was a great day, still. To be kind of right back out in a golfing arena immediately after was probably a good thing. I got an immediate taste of what the difference may be like. It was a good day. I have felt better on Mondays. But, you know what it was fun and I played okay. Not particularly great, but I played okay. Almost missed the golf ball on the first tee, but managed to advance it. Like I said, I think it was good for me to be right back out playing again.

DAVID DUVAL: It doesn't -- well, my take on it is that I think the first assumption we are making, which I don't think you can make is that they are going to utilize every bit of the yardage that they have added. That's just not an assumption you can make until we get there and play. We don't know where we are going to play from. And I think it is going to be difficult if we do play it well back on some of those holes. You know, I'm not -- I don't know the entire history of Augusta National Golf Club, but I feel pretty certain that the greens 50 years ago or 40 years ago or maybe even 30 years ago were not rolling at 12 or 13. It was a little easier to hit 6-iron into maybe the 14th hole and keep it up there. But there's a few holes that I would think if they play them a whole lot longer, you are just going to have difficulty just hitting the ball onto the green itself, let alone getting it close. And, again, you know, the more yardage they add, hey, the better. That's great for me. I think you could very well , you know -- I think it might be the really wrong thing to say, but you keep adding yardage, and I think you just keep eliminating people who can win there.