NEC WORLD SERIES OF GOLF

August 28, 1998

David Duval

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know. I played well. I hit the ball pretty well. I just didn't make any mistakes. Made a couple birdie putts, made a nice save on 9 for par and finished 4-under. That was probably it.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah. On 2, I hit a 2-iron about -- well, about 20 feet, 2-putted. 3, I hit pitching wedge to about 10 feet. 4, I hit a 7-iron to about 2 feet.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I hit a 7-iron about 12 feet behind the hole.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I hit it low, right off the tee into the rough. Didn't have a great lob. Tried to hit it into the tree in front of me and run it up to the green and hit the tree and kicked -- stayed in the rough but came out and I had a shot at least and hit a pitching wedge out into the rough there to about 18 feet to the right of the hole and made that.

DAVID DUVAL: 139 yards to the hole.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know. I hit it pretty well. I hit some shots that didn't turn out quite as good as I thought they would. Like I say, I didn't make any mistakes, I just had a nice run on the front nine, made a nice putt on 12. Other than that, the good putts I had for birdies, I didn't make. You know, I hit a lot of shots 15 to 20 feet from the hole today and just 2-putted.

DAVID DUVAL: Right. I went to see a place called "Red Rocks" there in Denver, like a natural ampitheater on Saturday and just kind of messed around the rest of the day and then flew over here -- no, actually, into Portland on Sunday to play at Fred Meyer. Did that and then came in here Tuesday night.

DAVID DUVAL: Right. You know, at the PGA, it was probably just a case of golf course and me having clashing personalities. And then, at the SPRINT, I actually played well. I was pleased with how I played the game there. I just didn't make any putts and I felt like I putted pretty well, just didn't make anything -- ran the lips for a couple of days there and I felt like all I needed, really, to happen was to start making a couple of putts. And I did that. We got up to Portland and there weren't but 24 people playing there and they had the golf course in perfect shape and so the greens were not -- they were a little slower than they are here. Kind of like if you hit your putt too hard, it will go two-and-a-half feet, it wouldn't go four feet. So it just really helped me start putting better again. Because I can be aggressive. I made a lot of putts.

DAVID DUVAL: Me? I don't think that's necessarily fair to say. I've played well on fast courses, I think, and I've almost won at the AT&T a couple of years, almost won at MEMORIAL a couple of times, the notoriously slow golf courses. So I don't know. I played -- yesterday, I played pretty well. I just -- nothing really happened and I finally made a couple of putts on 17, 18. Maybe carried it over a little bit today. And if anything, I probably didn't hit my irons quite as good as I did yesterday. But I still played well and, so, you know, -- as nice as it's speeding up -- I mean, I do like them to be fast.

DAVID DUVAL: You know, I feel like I played pretty good, actually. You know, at THE MASTERS, it took a 20-foot putt on the last hole to keep me out of a playoff. Although I didn't necessarily contend at the U.S. OPEN and BRITISH OPEN, I played okay. And then I've played -- with the exception of the last two tournaments coming into here -- you know, I saw something on the tour not too long ago where I played five straight weeks starting the year. And that's too much, really, for me. And I missed the cut in San Diego where I miss the cut every year. And with the exception of that cut before the last two weeks, I don't think I finished worse than like 23rd or something. I think that's pretty good. I've won a couple of golf tournaments, had a good chance to win THE MASTERS. So, you know, I think all and all it's been good. I would have like to have played a little bit better at the OPEN -- at the Opens and at the PGA. But other than that, I'm pretty pleased.

DAVID DUVAL: No, because I said it back in October last year and now -- you know, I had a great run at the end of the year and, soon enough, it would be best player not to have won this and best player not to have won that. So it's starting to happen. That's just the normal progression.

DAVID DUVAL: You know, the nicest and best plays -- I'm not going to go any further than this -- I just did not like the golf course.

DAVID DUVAL: Here?

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know. I mean, you know, it's not playing any differently than any other 18 hole. I hit driver off the tee and had 167 yards to the flag and, so, yesterday I hit a driver off the tee and 190 yards and hit a 6-iron on the green and made a par. You expect to hit it -- I've hit good drives like those -- you expect to certainly knock it on the green or at least right around on the fringe or something. So I can see because of the tough slope, you know, in the fairway that it would be easy, if you get the ball moving a little bit left, to knock it into the left and then you're probably going to make a bogey. Other than that, I've hit two nice drives and so the hole set up well.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't think about that stuff.

DAVID DUVAL: Right. Well, yeah, it is, actually. You know, I don't know if it necessarily means I'll alter my plans for the rest of the year, but I think after this week I think there's probably 6 or 7, 8, 10 players -- whatever it may be -- that are kind of going to look at where they stand and then maybe assess if they're going to add an event or two up to their schedule to maybe have a better chance. And that would be the best way for me and the fairest thing for me to say is I'll probably do the same thing. This is a pretty big week and it could tell a lot towards what happens at the final money standings. You know, and then to have -- it's kind of like -- nothing's safe. I guess the only way you can be safe is if you get $700,000 ahead headed into the Tour Championship because, if you finish last, I guess you could make $662,000 or something because then you get 60,000 for last and then you can't get past. But so much can change at that event that I don't think it's going to -- you know, you might see guys adding an event but probably not a couple or 3.

DAVID DUVAL: Right.

DAVID DUVAL: Oh, no, too early. I have know, certainly a lot better to be at 5-under par right now than it would be to be at a couple of over par, but it's hard to say even that 5-under is even any better than 2- or 3-under right now. Because there is a lot -- there's 36 holes to play and I don't know what any of the weather forecasts are like. The golf course is getting faster. If it continues to, the greens were noticably harder today, so it's going to get that much more difficult. So two shots is nothing. It's not like 5-under is really any better than 3 under par right now. There is too much golf left.

DAVID DUVAL: What it is is I have a relationship with Charles Schwab, as does the Tour, and they approached me about a contest where -- it's you don't get a weekend, it's a round at the Players Club at Sawgrass and it sounded certainly -- you know, it's kind of, you know, it's kind of a give-and-take, like all relationships are and that's how I feel like I am a Tommy Hilfinger and Titleist. I try to help them out and they try to help me out. I don't want to ever be one-sided.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, there, as it turned out, there was. So I didn't -- I -- have you ever been there? I got to drive up and look and drive out because they had some reggae show or something going on so I didn't actually get to see -- it was kind of funny you asked because there was a concert.

DAVID DUVAL: Thanks. Okay.