THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 26, 1999

David Duval

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I had a very -- I played very well again. Actually, I don't think I hit the ball as quite as well as I did yesterday. I am very pleased with my score, so, I look forward to this weekend.

DAVID DUVAL: That is what I just heard. How about that. Took me by 8 (laughter). I don't think the golf course is as hard, though. (laughter)

DAVID DUVAL: It is very difficult. I think the thing that makes it so hard is kind of like what happens at U.S. Opens. Seems like all the water from the fairways -- when they water, reach that first few feet of rough, that is the worst part. I drive the ball pretty well. When I miss a fairway, I just miss it in the worst part. Then you are playing to greens that are very fast and very, very hard. I think the other real hard thing is when you do miss a green, you are chipping out of however long rough they want to call it, five or six inches, and you are actually -- you have to take a pretty good swing to hit, but at the same time try not to progress the ball, but sometimes six feet in the air, sometimes 12, sometimes 15, but not very far. So something is going to give somewhere. That combination doesn't work. That is what makes it so difficult.

DAVID DUVAL: That is great to have made the birdies that I have and, you know, it is not like I have made real long putts to do them. I have hit the ball close on a number of occasions throughout the round today and yesterday. I made some, and I missed some. So that makes you feel real good about you keep giving yourself chances. Obviously, you are going to miss some of them. If you have enough chances, you will make a few.

DAVID DUVAL: I think if I was really in a zone I wouldn't have missed all those putts (laughter). I don't know. I think I am doing a good job of not worrying about what is happening around me, but I feel like I am good at doing that every event I play in. It is neat to come here and play, and by far the largest galleries I have had, and it is just real nice.

DAVID DUVAL: I know Joe a little bit of him being a member of the Tour here the last several years. I have played a few rounds with him. I enjoy being out with him. He is a very nice man.

DAVID DUVAL: Oh, now you are getting me. I don't know. I have done it on more than one occasion.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't think so. I was saying outside, it seemed to me today - I assumed it happened yesterday- that the playing conditions were very, very similar for both draws of the field, because yesterday we played the first nine holes or so without any wind, and then it picked up. And it seemed like today we played the first 10 holes with a good bit of wind, and then it kind of died down a bit. So it seems like it was a very even draw, and the weather didn't play a part in it.

DAVID DUVAL: No, not at all. Because it -- this golf course, although it is in wonderful shape, many months throughout the year, it never plays this way except for this week. They don't keep this golf course like this hard and six-inch rough. Greens aren't ever like this. So I have no advantage that way. If anything, the people that have been playing here for 15, 20 years would have greater advantage, because they have seen it more often than I have under these conditions.

DAVID DUVAL: Absolutely; I made two very good putts on 5 and 6 back-to-back. 5th hole, chipped to about 12, 14 feet by the hole. And 6th hole, I knocked it by a good bit more than that. It was 30 feet, if it was a foot. To make those putts was -- it helped to keep you going. You want to avoid bogeys as much as you can, because although I have made a lot of birdies, they are not easy to make out here.

DAVID DUVAL: What does he mean? The people --

DAVID DUVAL: People will separate themselves a bit?

DAVID DUVAL: Well, certainly could. I understand why he is saying that. But I imagine from what -- the weather is supposed to be very similar, only going to get more difficult, I would think. So that could happen. But you are talking about a lot of -- talking about 144 world-class players here this week, so, I would imagine that the people who are up there under par are obviously playing well, as well as the leaders. They just hadn't quite made putts maybe or something. I don't know. We will see.

DAVID DUVAL: It was one of the big ones (laughs). It was -- I think I have had a bigger one in Palm Springs this year. Something happened on the last day, (laughter) but that was -- certainly that rivaled it, I guess.

DAVID DUVAL: Little bit of both. I think, you know, what would add to it would be the course itself, the conditions under which we are playing. We are competing on a golf course that is very difficult, under very difficult circumstances and a very difficult setup. So that, I think, adds to it as well.

DAVID DUVAL: We played a little bit. Hit a few balls this past -- the previous week. So we worked on a few things, but not a whole lot. I am not a teacher.

DAVID DUVAL: He is my hero?

(Laughter)

DAVID DUVAL: You are right. You don't. I think you need to focus on quality, not quantity. At the same time, over the course of the last few years, I have played myself into position where people expect me to compete to win. And if I don't, they want to know why. So when I tee it up, I feel like I have a responsibility to be prepared and to be ready to play, not just to show up and be a part of the field. So for me to accomplish that, I take time here, take time there, make sure I am fresh and ready to play.

DAVID DUVAL: As far as --

DAVID DUVAL: Well, you know, one week off is nice, but two is a lot better. But, you know, I am -- the longer stretch I am going to play is three; then I am taking two weeks off then I am going to play four weeks in a row. Then sporadic for a while. So that will be my longest stretch which was -- and four is pushing it.

DAVID DUVAL: Better three, but I am going fishing after the second one for a couple of days, so, that is why I figure it won't be too bad. When you do that, I try to when I am on the stretch of three or four, I try to -- I don't play golf on Mondays, maybe do very little on Tuesdays; especially when you get into the third and fourth weeks you need to take some days off.

DAVID DUVAL: Ooh - seems like I am better than most of my Pro-Am partners. I don't know. I am you know, actually I probably snow board like majority of people play golf (laughter). It is not something you can improve at rapidly unlike this game, but you got to be a little bit -- you got to have a couple of screws loose to do some of the stuff that a lot of those people do on those things. But I am certainly no better than in the teens. I hope to improve quickly, but we will see.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, but I think I have kind of probably lost a little, so I might be creeping back in the teens there as well.

DAVID DUVAL: Simple truth, isn't it? It is just -- (laughter). You know, I mean, I am not -- I am really not trying to be mean. It might not have sounded too good when I said it, but--

DAVID DUVAL: No, actually I kind of laugh at myself. Because -- but you got to try a few things if you want to improve, but no, unless -- you can't really kick snow, all you do is fall quickly and hard. But I don't know, it is good fun.

DAVID DUVAL: I wear a wrist guard and a helmet. You know, I am not going to take that chance, you know, it will help hopefully, but it is just so easy to catch an edge and go down quick, you need to have a little bit of protective gear.

DAVID DUVAL: Hit it fat. Yeah, the third shot, just hit it fat.

DAVID DUVAL: Hit it fat out of the fairway bunker for my third shot; chipped long and then 2-putted.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, combining that with hitting it close on one and failing to make that putt, it made it a little more difficult. But it was only second hole too, so, although you certainly feel like you should make the four or five on that hole, at least I was early in the round. The third hole I hit a 7-iron to four feet. The 4th hole hit sand wedge out of the fairway bunker there to two feet. 5th hole, 6th hole we went over. 9th hole, hit sand wedge to six inches. 11th hole, hit it over the green with 2-iron chipped to about four feet. 13th hole, missed the green to the right, chipped to about six feet, missed it. 15, I hit sand wedge to about twelve feet, made that. Parred in, that is it.

DAVID DUVAL: Maybe four feet.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I certainly would have liked to have made it. But I hit a good putt. Just broke more than I had expected. Then if you think about it you go back to a couple of those par putts I made that I shouldn't have. At least the one on 6 maybe I shouldn't have. So it works itself out.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, we will see after tomorrow or the next day, but I think it is close to what -- 1996 when Lee won, 95? You know, I think it is very similar to that right now. If I remember, we had more wind, though. I think blowing 20, 25 miles per hour, but I think the golf course itself is playing very similar. We just have not had as much wind.

DAVID DUVAL: Both. You put great golfers under difficult circumstances and you are going to have some crazy things happen, but both good and bad.

DAVID DUVAL: That would be really nice, wouldn't it?

DAVID DUVAL: No, I don't think so. It is more of him trying to get that first one than anything else.

DAVID DUVAL: A little bit. But, you know, I think he is realizing he is certainly capable of that and so it wouldn't surprise me to see him keep going.

DAVID DUVAL: Maybe. I don't know. Maybe not. I don't know where he is staying so, I spoke to him on Monday -- Tuesday when he left. I haven't spoken with him since.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, he is two shy still. Yeah. That is good, good golf, especially what did you say 4 ahead?

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I think when you see a score not -- within 4 shots, you realize how good that round was. I remember when we played over there on the Nike Tour, my father did that the first round, shot 61; I think the next best score of the day was like 68, so obviously he played a very nice round.

DAVID DUVAL: My dad has?

DAVID DUVAL: Good. Two more and he might be all right.

DAVID DUVAL: Usually I just give him the up-tees.

DAVID DUVAL: He plays up -- out here he plays up. He will play up on -- well, if there -- if you have another SENIOR TOUR player playing, they will gripe about it and want to move up, the two of them, but I don't think he has the courage to gripe about it when he is alone. So like I have played with him and Leonard and they wouldn't play it back on 5 or 7, probably another hole somewhere too. 14, they won't play back. Make sure they get those 420 yard holes, not 460.

DAVID DUVAL: Oh, it is not large at all. Maybe five or ten dollars. They don't want to lose anymore than that. (laughter).