MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 6, 2001

David Duval

DAVID DUVAL: I had a great day and anxious to get in here and talk with you. (Laughter.)

DAVID DUVAL: About the same as yesterday. I'm having a great time. Like I said, I felt like I was swinging the golf club good. You know, today I kind of kept myself out of a position where I could hit a couple fliers like I did yesterday, and so I kind of basically -- I think what I did today was shoot the score I could have shot yesterday. So, I feel really good about everything.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, it was actually after the week of Honda. I was done through there. I thought there would be a fair amount of rust, but I guess I hit so many balls, I grooved it pretty good and hopped right back on the horse, it seemed, and I was right back where I wanted, if not better and it has had no effect as of now.

DAVID DUVAL: No. I've played countless golf tournaments. It's not like actually the time off I've had is nothing compared to like what we have had in the past from off-season to the start of the year. So I had some good preparation, I thought, although it was not as much as I may have wanted from Saturday through Wednesday. So I'm not surprised at all.

DAVID DUVAL: Sure, I was curious. I guess I didn't really know what to expect, but at the same time, I knew my golf game was where it needed to be and I knew I was putting extremely well. So basically, I just had to go out there and get out of my own way.

DAVID DUVAL: No. No different than past years. You know, I came in here with every intention of winning the golf tournament, and I still have that. Did I know what to expect? Not necessarily. But after the few days I had of practice, I felt very good about my swing and my putting and the only question I had where I felt like I wasn't maybe hitting my driver as well as I wanted to, really through Wednesday, even, and seemed to hit it pretty good on -- late on Wednesday afternoon, a little bit, and then in the morning, and got up on 1 on Thursday and hit a real nice high cut just way down the fairway and hit it good ever since.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I think all they can do is help. All they can do is help me. I've been there for three straight years and I know what the feelings are like and I know what to expect. So I think that's invaluable here, especially, because you know there's some golf shots that you are going to have to hit and you know how you are going to feel standing over them. So, I am excited about my prospects.

DAVID DUVAL: Well I think that's kind of like, you know, saying, I guess -- I don't know if you were out there, but it's like calling a missed green when you are this far into the fringe (indicating inches) you are splitting hairs right now. I drove it through the fairway on 15 and it was blocked in the green and I just had to chip it. 17, I could not have been five steps off the fairway. That's the way most of them were I guess.

DAVID DUVAL: They are great. I mean, I -- I appreciate everybody's concern. (Laughter.) You know, I've seen: "It's the fifth set"; "the third set"; "tweaked 23 times." You know, it's the second set of golf clubs, and I think they are spectacular. It is exactly what I was looking for, and, you know, thank you. (Laughs).

DAVID DUVAL: You know, I don't know. It's hard to say. I didn't really think about it, so probably -- probably not as long as '98, but, you know, I think as -- after you have are experienced it once and you kind of know again what it feels like, so you just kind of move on and think about, you know, next year and how you can make yourself have a better chance the following year.

DAVID DUVAL: I think it's great. Everything is aligning properly. You know, my intent every year here is -- and as I've said, and I don't -- I think everybody in this room would agree, you have to have some good breaks to win golf tournaments like this. But my intent coming in here is not to need those breaks by hitting the ball well and putting well and playing smart so trying, in essence, to eliminate every mistake so I don't need a break. And that's what I'm trying to do. You know, if I need one, I'd sure would like to get one.

DAVID DUVAL: You know, the shot on 14 was as easy as it is to hit it from 190 yards and hit a big sweeping hook. It's kind of like when you stand on the 12th tee, you have to hit that shot. You have to hit it over the bunkers there. Again, it's just a shot that I had to hit, and I was hoping to hook it around and maybe just run it through the green. I guess it pitched right into the mound short and turned out great. The 18th was not -- I was quite surprised. I thought I hit in the bunker off the tee, and, you know, the golf shot itself was not terrible. It was not difficult. I had 116 yards, so not a terribly difficult shot.

DAVID DUVAL: As a fan, certainly. As a player, this week, I'm really not concerned with any other name on the board except my own. I guess what that means is I'm out there trying to play myself and do the best I can and I'm not getting caught up with who else is out there playing well and who is ahead of me or behind me. It's just I've got a job to do and I've been here, like I said -- severing several times I've had the chance and I have an idea what it takes to win the golf tournament, regardless who is playing. I'm not concerned. That's why I say that.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't think it really changes. It doesn't -- certainly, how you stand in the golf tournament might dictate it, but I thought -- by name specific, it doesn't -- whether it is Tiger Woods or Vijay Singh or Phil Mickelson, the shots that you have to hit are going to be the same. The situation might dictate me to do something regardless of whose name it is that you are ahead of or behind.

DAVID DUVAL: No. It was -- the first day, it was about seven days later was the first time I was kind of pain-free, maybe. Maybe six days. The discomfort was knocked out in there three to four days but I still felt it for a couple day as of that.

DAVID DUVAL: Probably not this year. You know, to be honest with you, as everybody knows, there has been a lot of stuff going on. But that's kind of behind me, a lot of it, and some of it I have no control over when it is going to end. So, you know, then I had to deal with a bit of a wrist injury, so I'm as jacked as can be, and like I said coming in here, I thought if there's one thing I had going for me, I would be the freshest player in the field. The second hole, I knocked it down in the left bunker. I hit it out to about five feet. The seventh hole, I hit sand wedge to about three feet. The eighth hole I hit 3-wood on the green, about 30 feet, 35, something like that and 2-putted. 9, I hit 9-iron to about 12 feet. 12 was an 8-iron to about 20 feet. 13, I hit a 5-iron on the green and 2-putted from -- I don't know, 50 feet maybe, it was. 16, I hit 8-iron to the right -- on the right shelf and stayed there and 3-putted and 18 I hit the sand wedge to about a foot.

DAVID DUVAL: It was nice. You know, 17 wasn't -- nothing bad really happened there. I thought I hit a nice putt through that fringe there, but it felt really good. It was nice to -- I felt like I certainly had -- I should certainly be 7- or 8-under. I felt like I played well enough to be a little bit better than I was, and it's not that I hit such a poor golf shot on 16, like I said, I didn't hit the shot I have to hit and it's not a place you can leave that. But I was very pleased to have that. It was funny, the reaction was so delayed, I don't know what happened, if it just started trickling or had enough spin or what. It was nice -- even better when you are that far, so, you know, to grind over the last one.

DAVID DUVAL: Ten feet maybe. I'd say ten feet maybe. It just went right down to the front of the fringe, just stopped short of the string.