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HP BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIPMay 15, 2014David DuvalIRVING, TEXAS THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome David Duval into the interview room after a 4‑under par 66. David, from what I'm hearing, any score would have been a good score for you today with the way you felt before the round but a 4‑under, 66 is great. DAVID DUVAL: Based on the score, the day, obviously I'm very pleased. I played pretty well. I hit the ball good. I don't think I would classify it as being "great." I managed to turn one difficult pitch shot on the fifth hole, I holed it, if not, it was probably going to be a bogey. I pitched in on the 7th as well, not as hard of a shot but it would have been right next to the hole. Those little things add up and help. Hit a lot of quality shots, maintained control of the golf ball, just the little things you need to do. That's all. As far as, yeah, the other stuff, it's fair to say that as of 11:30, half hour before I was supposed to tee off I was contemplating if I should play because my arm has been so bad for this week, and it was hurting again. Surprisingly, thankfully, maybe all the medicine I got, it's starting to kick in, the shot that I got, and if anything got better as the day wore on, still not like‑‑ still doesn't feel wonderful. I'll go to the trailer now and get iced down and get some of that stem, just to get blood flow in there. I'm hoping tomorrow I feel mostly fine. It's day‑to‑day and I'm just glad I chose to tee off today because I was seriously considering not. Q. What was the cause of the injury? DAVID DUVAL: I don't know. Q. How long has it bothered you? DAVID DUVAL: I really don't know what happened. It's a muscle issue, it's not a tendon, it's not tendonitis, anything like that. I saw the guys in the trailer, they did a lot of things checking it out, a lot of little tests. I went and saw an orthopedic surgeon, my coach lives here and he got to an ER doctor friend of his and he was willing to see me and he said if I'm going to be able to help him I have to see him tonight. I could speculate. There was no thing like I did that made me feel it and have problems. I started hitting golf balls when I got down here on Tuesday, and basically couldn't move my arm after about 20 or 30 balls and went and had it worked on and it helped. Then I tried to play a few holes, played about six holes and it started getting bad and then I went in there night and had the injection and I was going to play 9 holes down the street from here, got through 20 golf balls and couldn't move my arm again so I came over here and did the same thing, got some more work done on it. This morning I hit about 20 or 30‑‑ maybe 20 balls, didn't feel so good, so I went in the trailer and got some more work done on it. I'm tickled pink it feels as good as it does right now. It was not good and, you know, I'm not getting to play a whole lot right now and it would have been a hard thing to swallow not to be able to tee off. Q. Is this a classic case of beware of the injured golfer? Were you more worried out there about the elbow and golfing became easier? DAVID DUVAL: I was not at all worried about my elbow. My thoughts were hoping it would get better as the round went on, I thought. One of the things that went through my head was the fact that I hit a golf shot, I'm teeing off on the 10th, I'm going to hit a tee shot but I'm not going to have to hit another shot for three or four minutes, so that might be better than the representative slamming the ground every 10 or fifteen seconds on the driving range. Maybe that was the case, I don't know. Maybe the sick, I don't know about the injured! (Laughter.) It's hard to describe how‑‑ I feel like I have a fairly high threshold‑‑ tolerance of pain, you know, but yesterday when we got down hitting balls my oldest ball who was caddying for me, he had to drive. I was like, I can't drive a car. I can't use my right arm. So he had to drive us back. I'm just‑‑ I'm lucky to have had it feel better as the day went on. Like I said, not 100% by any stretch but a 1000% better than it was. Q. You mentioned it started on Tuesday, was there any indication that there was a problem? DAVID DUVAL: Not really. You know, last week I was working around the house, working in the yard doing some stuff and maybe that's what blew it up, I don't know, but it didn't surface until I got down here and started slamming a metal stick in the ground. Like I said, it wasn't a very precise thing that I did to injure it, it's just one of those things. Done a lot this week to try to be able to tee off. Like I say, I played a couple of weeks in New Orleans, played 5 or six weeks before that, so not getting to play a whole lot so I left no stone unturned trying to make sure I got to tee off today and it worked out. Like I say, I hope I feel fine tomorrow. Q. Talk about what the tournament means to players to be able to play in it, what it stands fore. DAVID DUVAL: It's a special place, a special event when you have Mr.Nelson's name on it.  I think all the players always got a big kick out of it when you tee off at Augusta on the first tee and he would be sitting there and he would say hello and he knew everybody's name. He would be, like, sure hoping I plan on seeing you in Dallas, and it's like, "yes, sir. I'm going to be there." I didn't know him particularly great but he was nothing but kind to me. Probably one of the greatest champions the game as ever seen. I'm glad people still come and support the event. Q. Given the injury, are you more surprised that you were able to play or that you were able to shoot 66? DAVID DUVAL: Right. Q. It's one thing to play but another thing to‑‑ DAVID DUVAL: Honestly with how I feel about my game and how I'm playing and swinging and hitting the golf ball, I'm more surprised I got to play. Like I said, I'm not making it up, I went over and talked to the lady and said I gotta try to play. I know you're in a boat and trying to get in and I don't know if he did but I said I have to tee off. I think I can finish. I think I'll be okay. I'm very surprised I got‑‑ especially after it blew up again yesterday after the injection, but they say it's 24 to 48 hours before it starts to kick in, and I got it‑‑ I don't know what time it is, but it was 4:30, I got it 40‑‑ 39 hours ago and I'm start to go feel better. Q. You had a T‑25 in New Orleans. Do you feel like your game is coming into shape? DAVID DUVAL: Yes, I do, very much so. The difficulty I face is the lack of consistency is in getting to play. The next‑‑ I have tomorrow's round of golf in front of me. After that the next golf tournament I know of is Memphis. So it's a little harder that way. You can play and practice all you want at home, however, there is a thing to competition and putting a peg in the ground and putting a pencil to it and playing with the "big boys" so although a little disadvantage when you don't get to play consistently, makes it a little more difficult but I have the utmost confidence in what I'm trying to do right now and I feel like I can succeed even with that sporadic schedule. Q. David, does it bother or annoy you that when you play well we're still asking questions about what shape is your game in and can you get back to where you were? DAVID DUVAL: No, it doesn't. I said something to the affect a few weeks ago when I talked about it, because I started out well the first day and played well a couple of weeks ago. First of all, it's your job. Secondly, it's a legitimate question because it's not like I've played great golf for a while. And I can sit here and tell you, yeah, there's a difference. The glimmers of great play, I've shown over the course of a few years, were simply that, glimmers. And as I started working on my game with Chris here in Dallas and he started to help me swing the golf club like I used to, I looked back at it and for lack of a better word I was delusional about how I was playing. I wasn't swinging well, I wasn't close to playing well, now I'm not. I'm swinging well and hitting quality golf shots and I'm doing good things. I'm hoping that through more rounds of golf and more starts that this is‑‑ we'll become reacquainted again. Q. David, what's your impression of how the game is growing and the young talent emerging? DAVID DUVAL: Wow. I can't address how the game is growing. I don't know. I don't look at numbers, things like that, if you're talking about recreational play, which I assume you are. The thing that's different, I think, now than‑‑ even 20 years ago, I turned pro over 20 years ago and it just seems like there is a lot more really good golfers. I feel like the depth has increased that much more in the past 10 or 15 years. You tee off a lot of weeks in the mid‑90s and you could probably pick out 50 or 60 guys you might expect to win now you can get to 100 pretty easy, and that's the big difference. I think that's why you're not seeing a lot of people have four or five, six‑win seasons any longer. It's just very hard to win out here now. I think that's why you're not seeing somebody bust out all the time and do that. THE MODERATOR: David, keep it going this week. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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