NEC WORLD SERIES OF GOLF

August 30, 1998

David Duval

DAVID DUVAL: You know, what do you say, really? I played quite well. You know, when crunch time came, I hit the shots I had to hit, made the putts I needed to make and that's what it takes to win a golf tournament. That's not to say I'm not going to do it next time I have the chance, but today I did, so I'm very pleased about that.

DAVID DUVAL: That helps. Well, you know, it's a hole that -- I mean, if there is a birdie hole on this golf course, that's it. At least, for me, because I can hit it up there. I hit a 2-iron, 3-iron and a 6-iron on the ground and not necessarily in that order. And today I hit a 5-iron right behind the hole. Had actually a tough -- actually, it wasn't very far. Kind of surprising the ball stayed in, actually. Kind of a -- it went in the hole a very funny way because the right side of the hole had either been hit by the hole or the flag was hit when it was being put back in, so it had a piece back out and the ball hit that jumped over to the other lip and bounced over the lip and went into the hole. Certainly to go from a 9 to 11, you may be right. I know as a competitor, you don't ever quit, but this certainly makes it that much more difficult or somebody starting back at 3, 4, 5 to get excited about their chances.

DAVID DUVAL: 15 feet.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, noticeably. Like I was saying yesterday, the greens did get a lot harder. The pins were pretty difficult. It just played harder. And then we had a little bit more wind today than we had the previous three days.

DAVID DUVAL: Right. Haven't really had a chance to -- I mean, just finished a presentation out there. You know, I was saying last year when I was asked about when I won the Tour Championship. You had the four majors and then you've got golf tournaments like the Tour Championship and probably here that you could say -- go right behind there. You could argue the order. Everybody is going to have a different order. Certainly, they are kind of like the second tier, if you will. You know, as I was saying out there, to be eligible for this tournament, you have to be a proven champ. You have to have won golf tournaments. To then beat everybody who is in this field and to look at the final leader board, I'm real excited about that.

DAVID DUVAL: Thank you. Well, I think that's a perfect example of where the stats can be a little misleading. You might look at me and say he's a poor sand player. That doesn't tell that you for -- I might have had 10 or 12 straight lies that got buried in a bunker or under the lip or that I had to play sideways. It might say -- you don't know that I might be hitting beautiful shots but missing 3-, 4-, 5-footers all the time. It's a little misleading. My sand play -- I've gotten a lot of terrible breaks in putting. The ones I have haven't been as good as they should, although I do put in a lot of time. It seems to me that this year when I've had a reasonable shot at it, I've done pretty well. Today I had a couple of very difficult ones that I played out to, putts that you don't really even think about too much and that's nice.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I think so. I mean, I do. You were asking me yesterday what it's going to take to win and a few other questions similar to that and I said that -- you know, that I'm not going to play a perfect game of golf. Never will, never have. So I'm not even worried about that. Now, I am going to play a few bogie-free rounds through the course of the year. Probably less than six or eight of them, though. And if you realize that and if you realize that you're going to play poorly in shots, you're going to get bad shots, good shots. You just try to maximize the good shots, minimize the bad shots and don't let holes where you hit a poor drive turn and dump. That's where I rely on my putter and my wedge. I don't hesitate to chip out if I have to. I don't try to do crazy stuff. You know, it's a lot easier to offset a bogie than it is a double. A double just takes the wind out of you, so I just try not to make any.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I think, yeah, one of the better driving weeks I've had lately. As I was saying, I switched to a new Titleist driver, the one that's so hot on the market right now. It's been a while -- a couple of people -- Steve Matta and Larry worked real hard with me over the course of a year, probably. I found a club I liked and used it. I thought I hit at times maybe a little too high and couldn't control the trajectory as well as I would have liked. So I called Steve Matta and asked him for the exact same golf club, just stick a 65 ball thong on it and it showed up Thursday morning Federal Express and I went out and played with it and it turned out really beautiful.

DAVID DUVAL: That's flattering is the way you have to look at it and I certainly do. I don't know. It's not something that I worry about. You've got to have a lot of arrogance to say you're better than Tiger Woods and better than Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk and Justin Leonard and I just don't have enough arrogance to do that. There's an awful lot of great younger players, as it was proved out this year. There's a heck of a lot of good older players, too. I don't put a whole lot of weight on tags.

DAVID DUVAL: It's a new Titleist 975 D.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, you know, obviously, I'm proud of that. It's a fine accomplishment. I feel very good about that. You know, I don't really know what to say other than that. You know, I believe in what I do. I always stay true to the course. When people were questioning it and when they thought I couldn't win and I feel like I worked hard and I learned each time I didn't. And now it seems in the last 10, 11, 12 months when I've had the opportunity, I've taken advantage of it. I have been beaten and I'll continue to get beaten. You lose a lot more than you win. I feel very good about what I do and how I do it and the approach I have and I know that when I'm playing well, I can certainly beat anybody. Now, does that mean I'm going to beat them all the time? No. But everybody gets playing well at times and when Tiger Woods gets going, you know, you're not going to beat him. Same with Fred Couples and Mark O'Meara. Everyone goes on streaks like that and that's the time you've got to as a competitor and a peer admire what they're doing.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, the eagle to start out my round certainly put a little bit of breathing room, I felt, when I made the turn. I think -- I really don't know. I think I was two shots clear of the field. I felt like I was going to need to make some birdies on the back. I played today okay. Hit a beautiful drive on 11. Had a sand wedge and probably got a little too aggressive. If you're going to make a birdie you're going to make it with a sand wedge. Hit it over the green and made bogie. From that point forward, you know, I -- you can't protect one shot. You have to get aggressive, you have to make some birdies and I certainly felt like I was going to have to make at least two birdies to win the golf tournament. I made a beautiful drive off of 13, hit a nice 7-iron up there about 12 feet and made that. Hit another beautiful drive on 14 and sand wedge. Again, another 12, 14 feet, made that. You know, that got me -- I think 3 shots clear to the field. I got a -- I hit it left on 15 again. I did that 3, 4 days and seemed like I hit it in the exact same spot. I didn't have an agenda against the crowd over there. You know, I don't know why. It just hit the exact same shot every day except for one and then I hit a beautiful chip and that's really what kind of kept it going.

DAVID DUVAL: Right now, my plans are to -- I'm going to go home for a couple of weeks. I'm going to make one overseas trip play in the Lancome Trophy and then I'm going to come back and more than likely I'll continue at the Southern at Calgary Gardens and then my 3 titles to defend: Michelob, Disney and Tour Championship. After that, my set schedule is the Sun City and then the President's Cup.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, you know, at this point, it's not real significant. I think if you looked at the money list and the way the guys are playing and you know that I'm probably -- I probably won't be the only one to break $2 million this year. Come the Tour Championship on Sunday afternoon, if I'm still on top of the money list, that's very important to me. That's a big accomplishment. But to have about two months left in our season, I'm certainly -- I have -- I would envy my position better than No. 2 or 3 on the money list because I'm ahead right now. But it's not real important until the final putt drives and the final tally's made.

DAVID DUVAL: Probably actually going to be playing a few more than most of the other players.

DAVID DUVAL: I think -- yeah. Absolutely, I could. It's a possibility. But I think to do that I'd have to win at the Tour Championship. I think that 720 first prize would put me up high. 2.7 or 8, I think. And then, I'd have to play -- obviously, I'd have to play real well the other events I play. It's a possibility.

DAVID DUVAL: Thank you