THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY SOUTHERN COMPANY

November 3, 2000

David Duval

DAVID DUVAL: I am in a great spot. And I would be very pleased to continue to play like I have the first two days this weekend; if I do, I think I will have a real nice chance of winning the golf tournament. That is where I stand.

DAVID DUVAL: You know, I don't know. The key is like it is everyday, hitting it solid and in the fairways and on the green and making a few putts and not shooting yourself in the foot. That is the key everyday. It is pretty simple, really. The hard part is doing it. So...

DAVID DUVAL: Miss what?

DAVID DUVAL: Absolutely. It is -- that is a fun part of being out here and I am -- I have always said, if you are not nervous on Sunday when you are teeing off, then you are probably teeing off really early and that is not what you want to really do. I am excited to have come back in good form and feeling good and playing well.

DAVID DUVAL: Sure, 15 I hit a 3-wood off the tee and got up there. My ball was about two feet behind where it landed. It was just, the left side of -- the ball was covered with mud and just one of those shots that you like to think that you can control, but you can't. You hope to -- you hope when you hit the ball that the impact knocks a lot of that mud off and it doesn't fly too crooked, but it didn't and I aimed it at the left side of the green and it just dove to the right, moved a good 50 yards and just a bad break to get like to have that mud there. And then I had a shot, that was -- my third shot was, you know, difficult, but felt like I could get it up near the green or if not on the green and then make a 5. Hit a pretty good shot as it kind of kicked up the hill and kicked left, I thought it might kick right, then had a chip that is -- was, you know, chip that I certainly felt like I could get up there next to the hole make a 5, and I just happened to hole it. So then the 17th hole I hit a tee shot into that right bunker had a bad, not bad, but felt kind of funny stance where the ball is above me and it is on a slope facing me and it is really kind of an awkward shot, it is just something you hope to -- I was hoping to hit up near the green if I could get on the green and made pretty good contact, but you could -- the way it flew, you can see how the slope and all accentuated the flight and then had a pitch shot of some 40 yards, that if it was actually -- it might have been a little easier had the ball been sitting down further on the ground, so it is kind of suspended a little bit, I just got under it, and then I hit a real nice bunker shot to two feet to make a 5. .

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I feel good putting. I have putted pretty well and I like getting on hard fast greens and I feel like I read the lines very well and that way it is easy to put the proper speed on the ball.

DAVID DUVAL: No. Not particularly. It doesn't matter where they come if you shoot 2-, or 3-under everyday, it doesn't matter how you do it. It would be -- might make it kind of easier feeling for the player if you do it early, but it doesn't matter. You have got a full 18 holes to play. It really doesn't matter where they come. I would prefer to make some earlier -- some more earlier. I have made a few on the front nine today, but I think the front 9 starting out, there is some tough stretch of holes through there. When you get to 7, 8, 9 there is a few holes that you can make some birdies on, but you know, that is just -- it doesn't matter where to me.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I don't know. It is just fun. We get along well.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I guess it means -- you are right and that is a lot of what I say, you want to be playing late and you know, obviously you know, obviously that is the kind of -- he is the standard right now of which you are comparing your golf. And you know, for me, what I want -- when I get in those pairings, I want to go out and play great golf and, you know, show him that I can play too.

DAVID DUVAL: It may have been. Certainly I don't believe I would have had I continued to play, it would have taken a lot of work to get my game back, you know. I got my game back by not playing, by letting my back rest and let it heal and that way I was able to go out there and stand properly and address the golf ball properly; not compensate for an injured back. It is hard to speculate much more than that, but I think that is -- I have looked back on some video and I have seen as far back as Augusta and some others you can see, I was doing the same thing there, addressing the golf ball, that I was doing at the British Open, where my lower back was, I kept it flat and I just rolled my mid-back, kind of hunched over to get to the ball. That leaves me to believe that there was a problem going on a long time back at the beginning of this year even. I wasn't having pain from it, but must have been something happening. And I think a lot of the reason I have come back and played well is because now I get to go out there and play without an injured body part.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, you know, believe it or not, I don't come in here thinking that I have to just beat Tiger and I think that is kind of the insinuation there a little bit. I feel like you come into these events - you have got to play great regardless of what happens. Steve Flesch played some super golf last week and you know, he did what he needed to do beating Tiger in the last group but lo and behold, they got beat by somebody else. So I think if you get too caught up in competing against one player, you are going -- you are not going to win golf tournaments that you maybe should. Like I said, certainly he is the standard right now that we are all trying to compete with, and beat and yes, I am going to be much more excited to be out there, you know, fully equipped. But it doesn't just go to him. I would be excited to just be playing fully equipped with everybody.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't like to use it a whole lot. As much as anything, take some shots when I am playing well and have a kind of a benchmark to compare myself with, if I feel like I am not playing particularly well, but I am just -- I just don't get too caught up in too deep in mechanics. I think I know myself well enough that if I can go back to a few things and if I can set up properly and get ball positioned right, keep my right hand a little higher, just a few small keys, that everything else seems to fall into place okay.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, let's -- I can't hit the golf ball as far as Tiger, there is no two ways about that. I can hit it really far, though (laughter). I can. Promise. I just hit a 9-iron into 16. But I think -- I don't know.

DAVID DUVAL: It is to me, no -- that is, you know, I think that is a great talent, you know, as Ben Crenshaw's putting in his prime or Seve's bunker play. That is a great talent. That is something he has worked on. I just don't have that speed that he has. I certainly think I could probably work on and maybe increase it a little bit, but I am not so sure how that affects the rest of my golf game working on something like that, and I hit it plenty far. And so it is not a big deal. If you get on real long holes and hitting 4, 5-irons then you know you might be hitting more towards the middle of the greens that just comes to course management and knowing your game.

DAVID DUVAL: You know, with all the circumstances, possibly. I think the day I had at THE PLAYERS Championship was a wonderful day. There has been a lot of others that -- only regret I have about that week, something I can't change, I wish I could have played there that week without a back injury. I had a lot of good things going on and I shot, I think 140 the first two days and was -- then shot 6 under the next day. Went the last day 6 behind and I dare say that had I not been injured, I probably would have been 13, 14 and maybe even as low as 15-under after three days and things might have been different. But that is some of the reasons I don't like to talk about stuff because there is nothing -- nothing you can do about it. So you take it as it comes. If you are hitting hooks one week, well, you better play that hook if you want to have a chance to win. It was a good day. I think the biggest turnaround of that day as, we have talked before, was on 10 probably, you know, which left it about that far short right in the middle of the hole; then Tiger made it, I think to get back to maybe 3 ahead. And that was kind of the -- that was the big turnaround and there was a few others but that was the big thing I think that got his confidence going as much as anything.

DAVID DUVAL: I think I am getting there. I think I am real close and as much as anything, I think I am thinking a lot more clearly like I was then. I am excited about how I am playing, obviously, I think I have a great shot this week.

DAVID DUVAL: Not particularly. I have been working on it a good deal since then and that practice has certainly paid off. I spent a fair amount of time in the bunkers this week messing around and hit some nice shots. That just comes from practice and a little guessing.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I mean, I was on top of the leaderboard not too long ago again, a couple of times actually, so that is what you work for. That is where you want to be when you play. I am right where I need to be.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, just kind of what we talked about yesterday, really, that little thing here seeps in, little thing there seeps in, you miss a few putts, they feel like you have got to force it a little closer, you know, not having quite the patience that you really need and you know, just -- changing your game plan to a more aggressive -- playing more aggressive shots than you might typically, and I think now even when I make some bogeys or something I am not -- I am not getting up on the next hole trying to fire away and pick it right back up necessarily. I am just kind of doing a better job of using the whole day.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I don't know. I guess if I had to say I would have thought the 9th at PLAYERS would have been easier because it was out of the sand. I had an idea -- a little more of idea of how it is going to come out; whereas out of this grass a little more of a guess.