SPRINT INTERNATIONAL

August 20, 1999

David Duval

DAVID DUVAL: Thank you.

DAVID DUVAL: I am just -- I am real excited to play well. I had a chance to win here in 1995, my rookie year. I think Lee Janzen won. I believe I missed the two-day cut every year since, which, to me, doesn't make any sense. I don't have an explanation for it, because it doesn't seem like that should be -- seems like it should fit me well here. I came out early yesterday. I teed off about 12, I think. I hit balls from 10 until I teed off, working on some stuff. It has paid for --I am real happy about what I have done the last couple of days.

DAVID DUVAL: I made 12 or 13 recently.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know. I don't keep track of that. I really don't. I don't know. I am trying think of some scores, but I can't.

DAVID DUVAL: I have played 11 and an eagle, so....

DAVID DUVAL: 15, I hit a 3-wood and sand wedge to about ten feet. 17, I hit a 7-iron onto the green to about twelve feet. Two-putt. No. 1, I chipped to about four feet from about 30 yards short of the green. No. 2, I hit a sand wedge; made about a 30-foot putt, maybe 35 feet. No. 3, hit sand wedge to about six feet. No. 5, hit pitching wedge to about five feet. No. 8, I knocked it on with a 5-iron. 2-putted. No. 9, I hit pitching wedge to about 20 feet.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know. I like to think it was the August doldrums, like the old saying goes. I just -- I am not -- I don't play a ton in the summer. I always like coming here because they don't have the humidity. But maybe it is just from having not played a whole lot. I don't know. I just didn't play good. I don't play good all the time.

DAVID DUVAL: Yesterday they gave us the option of playing the last hole on 18. We chose to play it, and I hit a drive out there in the fairway. We all drove out, then all hit on the green. I hit it about, I don't know. How tall are the flags here? 8, hit it eight feet and three inches, because we actually measured it in case the coins and stuff were moved. I chose -- they actually, the two guys I was playing with, chose not to putt. I was going to. And as I started -- just started getting dark quick. I chose not to putt. Then came out this morning, restart. Had an 8-foot 3-inch putt for birdie. I made it. That was nice.

DAVID DUVAL: Didn't hit a single one.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't prescribe to that, you are going to it there, and you are going to make them all. You are bound to miss one. So hit a few putts. I didn't even hit any putts that broke the same. Kind of a split in the right lip. I hit some left-to-right, right-to-left, but I didn't hit that one.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't think so. They actually -- I don't know if I still have the tee. Let me look. I think I threw it away. They actually drove over all our coins and tees, the mowers were -- I don't have it. It was chopped in half. They were pressed way into the green. Had to dig it out with my ball mark, repair tool, the tees.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I had my coin down, and I put two tees behind it, but they were just pressed all the way down. They didn't try to, you know, move and replace it. They just went right over it.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't -- I didn't enjoy it, last week's attention. But I think on a whole, I do like it, because what it tells me is I'm playing well. It is nice -- don't get me wrong -- to kind of have a week off. But no, I don't want anybody to stop talking to me, because that means I am not playing well.

DAVID DUVAL: Absolutely. I might not miss a few people in some other places, but --

DAVID DUVAL: It is really hard to measure. But on some holes, even you can hit -- choose to hit 3-woods, like some of the uphill holes, and probably hit it further than drivers. Because the higher you can get it in the air, the more it is going to go. So -- but, I mean, certainly counting on at least 10% on a driver, maybe a little bit more. I think as the clubs get longer, you are going to hit them even that much further.

DAVID DUVAL: Oh, I don't know.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, a little one. Had 135 yards. It was a long drive, little into the wind. That was my better ones.

DAVID DUVAL: Uphill --

DAVID DUVAL: No. 17, I don't know. I hit -- I had 175 yards to the hole.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I don't -- I recall them, my first year, being really good. I think last year was probably the worst I have seen. But this year, it's certainly as good, if not the best, that I have seen it everywhere. As I told Mr. Vickers, I said it is nice. It is about three inches rough. I guess it is nice that you can actually try and play out of it, not be in a long, long rough on every hole.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, the 15th hole, hit sand wedge into the water.

DAVID DUVAL: Somewhere in there.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't recall. I was right around it, I believe. I think I was actually a little bit behind a player, two or three. But I was close.

DAVID DUVAL: I would say feel, just more so trying to get comfortable. I wasn't -- haven't been very comfortable standing over the golf ball lately, even into last week in Hartford and British. I just haven't felt real well standing over it. It feels like I am tense, and that is because, probably it was a few positions where -- were a little off, and I tried to just go out and get comfortable really. I guess there is some technical stuff, some mechanics involved, because I was jockeying the ball a little further back and trying to level out my shoulders a little bit. It may be more feel when do I that stuff.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I think that is fair to say. The thing, really- I think the thing that has killed me and -- it hadn't killed me this week, but I have -- certainly haven't bettered my causes. I have never played the par 5s real well. I seem to make a couple of pars and couple of birdies. I never -- I don't know if I have even made an eagle since I have played in this tournament, and you need to make one of those if you are going to win. I think today -- actually, today it was funny. I made the turn; I birdied the first hole. I can't recall the last time I birdied the first hole. That was almost like I'd told Mitch walking off, I said: Those are like bonus points to me. So I have made -- I have made five birdies on the par 5s.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I'd like to think so. But it just seems like I struggled to get it in the fairway on 14, and No. 1 is always -- I have never done that well on that hole. 8 and 17 I have always played okay; but those other two, I have just never capitalized on.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't think so. When we -- there is one place when we, as the players, can go that it doesn't matter what is going on, and that is inside the ropes that you can forget about everything. So I don't -- last week, the reason I didn't do better was because I don't think I -- I don't want to say I putted poorly, because I feel like I putted okay. I didn't make putts because my speed was off. I looked in the stats. I think I was -- I hit, like, I missed 18 greens, I think, all week. I hit a lot of fairways. So basically I just didn't hole putts. That was because of my speed was wrong. Some of them, even this week I still have struggled a little bit with. I have knocked way by or left them short. When we get inside the ropes, at least I can forget about it.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't think that -- everybody is entitled to their opinions. However, I think finally everybody has come around and realized that what everybody is looking to achieve, you know. And I think that everybody has realized that the players aren't looking to get paid to play in it. They are simply talking about allocating monies towards charities of their choices, which it is not unreasonable, I don't think. It is kind of funny what everything that happened. It is not like we are -- somebody was a drunk driver or got thrown in jail for cocaine. I mean, arguing over money to give to charity. And it is a big story. So I think everybody is kind of on the same page now, and it was something that was easy to grasp and run with. I understand it. But I think, like you said, everybody has got their piece, and everybody realizes that all the players who are on the team are more excited about playing and really realize they have a hard job ahead of them, because we really need to win.

DAVID DUVAL: No, I guess -- I don't know if I want to say I get a kick out of it, but it is great. I mean, I think I think like everybody. What endeared Sergio was what he did on 16 to the whole golfing world. You know, what they are saying is probably right, most people would have pitched it out. I don't know what I would have done. But after seeing the shot, it looked like it actually wasn't, the roots weren't as much in play as it looked like it could have been. But it was still, I mean, that has got to go down as one of the best shots certainly this year, if not in a long, long time. For him to come up like that, and for them to get so close, to see Tiger fall back a little bit, I think was good stuff. Whether I am knocked out of that rivalry, you know, whatever. That is fine.

DAVID DUVAL: I ran in yesterday on 9 (laughter).

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know if it is so much what I did for him or might be what he did for me. I was approached about granting him making a wish. And the initial idea was the Ryder Cup, and I said I didn't think that was a good idea, just strictly because I wouldn't have been able to hang out with him and talk with him and mess around. So they said they lived in Nebraska. I said, seems like it would make sense, why don't you try to get it lined up for next week. I said it is not very far from Colorado. So they had all worked it out, and we had a good time. He is a good kid. It is great to look and listen to him talk and hear his kind of -- just see things through his eyes. I think they had a good time, from what I can gather. And they got some good news yesterday, I believe, at the hospital. So, you know, hopefully things will turnaround.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I mean, you know, you just really -- it is kind of funny. Towards the end of last week, I just started laughing about what was going on and happening, and was pretty sure it really wasn't that important. But I was -- my guess that it might not have been terribly important was certainly confirmed this week again. I mean, we make much to do about nothing at times, right? And, you know, I have been through it. I have seen it, and I know what the feelings are like. And, you know, it is just -- who really gives a damn if I finished 10th last week and lost and got cut up. I mean does it really matter? No. You know, at times I think all of us buy into the hype and think what we do is important, when it is not. It just -- just did me a world of good as well.

DAVID DUVAL: Thanks.

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