MERCEDES CHAMPIONSHIPS

January 5, 2000

David Duval

DAVID DUVAL: Yes, I do. I think it would be a very good score again (laughter).

DAVID DUVAL: I think so.

DAVID DUVAL: It didn't feel like -- it didn't feel to me like I was trying for a fourth in the row. There was no continuity for it. It's the start of a new year. I have a hard time viewing it that way. It really didn't seem that way to me.

DAVID DUVAL: There weren't a whole lot out there at 7 a.m. Can't say as I blame them. Saw a few towards the end, which was nice. I guess they don't get huge galleries here. There are some other fun things to do, too, so.

DAVID DUVAL: I've worked very hard, I've eaten very well. I've lost very little weight.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, something along those lines.

DAVID DUVAL: No, I did not go on a diet. I just have been working hard.

DAVID DUVAL: There's no secret.

DAVID DUVAL: There's no secret. Go work hard and eat well. You know, that will happen. I guess if there is a secret, that's the secret: to work hard.

DAVID DUVAL: Lifting weights and running.

DAVID DUVAL: Yes. I lift heavy, not at all specific. Just general bodybuilding, like anybody else would do lifting.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't -- I don't know. I've never didn't a max. Not a whole lot, though, probably. I mean, I wouldn't know a number, though.

DAVID DUVAL: I do decreasing reps, increasing weight, somewhere from six to eight sets.

DAVID DUVAL: An hour, an hour and 15.

DAVID DUVAL: Uh-huh.

DAVID DUVAL: How?

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I think what it does is it generally makes me feel better. It makes me know that I am as fit and as strong -- I shouldn't say as strong, but certainly as fit and as athletic as anybody playing right now. It makes you feel good that, you know, after a long week, long weeks, long, hard days, you have the endurance and the strength, it's not going to fail me.

DAVID DUVAL: Four years ago when I started.

DAVID DUVAL: No. I've been out of school for about six years. When I lost a lot of weight four years ago, five years ago maybe now, I don't know.

DAVID DUVAL: I've never worked out golf specific. I don't believe in it. I think it's wrong. You know, I've always lifted, -- when I've lifted, I've done as much as I can. I'm not an expert in all these things. You know, but I would imagine, unless you tax your muscles, you're not going to get stronger. If you lift paper clips all day, you're not going to get stronger. I felt in the off-season or toward really the last third of last year, I needed to change my regimen and get a little more serious about it and step it up as well as my golf.

DAVID DUVAL: No, no. Everything feels pretty good. Everything feels the same.

DAVID DUVAL: Not really.

DAVID DUVAL: No.

DAVID DUVAL: Beg your pardon.

DAVID DUVAL: I didn't lose power in my golf; I lost strength in my muscles.

DAVID DUVAL: My ego. Didn't affect my golf, I mean it really didn't. I just wasn't as strong as I was in June, and I didn't like that.

DAVID DUVAL: Right. In general, yeah. Just bruised my ego.

DAVID DUVAL: (No response.)

DAVID DUVAL: No, I still feel like you have to play well that week and you have to get good breaks. But maybe if what you're asking is if I'm going to try to focus more around them? Yes, I am going to try to be that much more prepared when those weeks start. I'm not saying that I didn't feel like I wasn't in the past, but try a little bit more to get ready, focus a little bit more around them. Like I said, I still think in the end, you have to play well, but you have to get some breaks, you have to have a little bit of luck those weeks.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know. I didn't keep track.

DAVID DUVAL: No.

DAVID DUVAL: I just played well last year, you know. We didn't have the Trade Winds, it didn't play as hard. I was ready to play. I practiced in the off-season.

DAVID DUVAL: I feel like I'm playing pretty good. I don't know if I'm quite playing quite as well as last year, but I'm working on it. It's going to be different, though, because I think we're going to have the winds like they normally do here. It's going to be a lot different than last year.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I certainly have some goals. We were just obviously talking about some of them. Those are my next steps. That's what I'd like to do.

DAVID DUVAL: I'll have to hit the ball a little lower probably, have to be more cautious of the crosswinds. Generally, just do what I have to do to play in the wind. Blowing 30, you can't hit it high and not worry about it. You have to move the ball around a little bit more.

DAVID DUVAL: I'm sorry?

DAVID DUVAL: When?

DAVID DUVAL: Well, yeah, it's blowing 30 today, and it didn't blow last year. Obviously it was different. There wasn't any wind last year. When it blows 30, compared to no wind, it's a lot different playing.

DAVID DUVAL: No. I mean, you know, I want to become a better player, and I want to improve. I feel like to win the tournaments that I want to win, those things are going to have to happen. If it's to beat Tiger, then so be it. If it's to beat somebody else, then so be it. I feel that that's kind of what I need to do to try to get to that next level.

DAVID DUVAL: You know, yeah, he probably has right now. If he hasn't, I don't know who is or what is. How? Well, I think it's kind of like how I played last year, the first half the year. You look at it and realize, "Hey, if you want to beat him, you have to play better, you have to get better." I think that's just, you -- in the first half of this year, it might be Ernie Els who goes there. I think you just continually have to evolve and improve. It just so happens that he's leading the pack right now. I was leading last year, whatever, somebody before that. You know, it's just the progression.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, probably a little bit. You know, that was a long time ago, you know.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, it does, actually (laughter). It does feel like a while ago. That's okay. I mean, a lot of great things happened in the second half of the year, as well, from some -- some super play from some players, some Ryder Cup stuff, the success of some other events.

DAVID DUVAL: I think the biggest factor that I could come up with is that I think it was a poor scheduling on my part. You know, I didn't have a rhythm going like I did in the first half of the year as far as tournaments, playing and such. You know, it just didn't seem to fit together well. I think, therefore, I just had a hard time getting a rhythm on the golf course, as well. I think that's the biggest thing. Then after The Ryder Cup was over, you know, I was spent, the year was, you know, almost over. I mean, it really was for me then. Obviously, I played some. I knew I wasn't going to Spain. I had THE TOUR Championship, a few other events, but otherwise I was kind of done.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I'm going to try, obviously, to do better from like after the US Open through the PGA as much as anything, through that little stretch, to really do better with my scheduling.

DAVID DUVAL: I certainly would prefer to play two in a row, two or three events consecutively as opposed to playing a week, taking a week off, playing a week. But sometimes it just doesn't work out that way, you just can't. I might have to change my schedule a little bit and go to places I haven't been before or go to places I didn't go last year, whatever it might be.

DAVID DUVAL: I'm going to go snowboarding.

DAVID DUVAL: As far as?

DAVID DUVAL: No, no. No, huh-uh. I don't want to change my equipment. I like the clubs. You know, I believe I was very lucky at a point when I hooked up with them. It just so happened they were looking for a younger player. No, I have no intentions of ever not playing Titleist, I think they're by far the most superior equipment on the market.

DAVID DUVAL: The wins or the Top 10s?

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, it is. I think when you talk about a player like Tiger, it's not so much impressive when you stack it against the other players. I think it's just more so for him as an individual to be on top of it, you know, for so long. I mean, he's on top of it now. It's not -- I don't know where he finished at the first half of the year, but I know he won at the West Coast event.

DAVID DUVAL: I'm sure he finished Top 10 a lot of other times, too. Hell, if you look back to when he turned pro, seems like he's finished in the Top 10 every week (laughter). I don't think you want to talk about it as -- I understand about the last part of last year. You know, he's played super golf for a long time. I guess a few things clicked for him last year towards the middle of the year, and he's been -- you know, I don't like to say he's been on fire or on a roll. If you want to say anything, he's been on his game since then. I think, give him credit. Don't say he's been on a roll; he's been on his game and he's been playing like he thinks he can. I would expect nothing less for a while to come.

DAVID DUVAL: Thank you.

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