DORAL-RYDER OPEN

March 4, 1998

David Duval

DAVID DUVAL: I've always enjoyed it. I've always liked it. I thought the changes might have been a little overboard last year, but if you were playing good the things they changed didn't come into play any ways. So I guess they made a few changes again this year. I haven't noticed it a whole lot, really. You notice it on 18, especially, because you can actually see the grass is a little different where one of the bunkers was. I always enjoyed it. I didn't see the big fuss that was made last year about it. The only thing I didn't like about the bunkers was they were so soft. Other than that, everything was fine with me.

DAVID DUVAL: No, I didn't really think about it. I mean, obviously, looking back, that's what happened. But it had never been my time. A few things didn't go my way, like you need to have happen. So I didn't sweat it, really.

DAVID DUVAL: I think you might do it subconsciously. But I don't think you're -- at least I don't sit there and draw on it consciously, really.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't think encouraging is the word. I mean it's been -- you look back and say I've accomplished different things and in a different manner each time. And that pleases you as much as anything that you overcame different obstacles.

DAVID DUVAL: No.

DAVID DUVAL: I think, and I still don't think most people don't understand that if you finish second in a PGA TOUR event you've played very, very well. So, what else do you want to say about it, really? It's nothing to hang your head about. You've done some great -- you've played great golf, and made a few putts but you might have come up a shot or two short. There's nothing to hang your head low about in that situation. If you miss eight cuts in a row or something, you might get down. But if you played second you played very good.

DAVID DUVAL: Not really. I remember I didn't score too good. I played well. I was pleased with how I actually played and I think the 7-iron I hit on 15 was probably the best 7-irons I hit all last year, the one I hit in the back bunker. But it was just a day that things didn't really go my way real well, and I kind of gutted it out and still hung in there close, whereas if I could have made a couple of birdies coming in I might have had a chance. You try to hang in close, even if you're not doing your best.

DAVID DUVAL: No, I don't think of it as beating Davis Love at THE TOUR Championship or Justin in Tucson, I don't look at it as playing well to win a golf tournament beating 155 other good players.

DAVID DUVAL: No, I don't think anything really needs to be done. I think if you look at what happened last year, you had a great player who played great golf for four days. I believe he won by 12 shots, maybe, something like that, so -- and didn't break the record, did he shoot 17-under par? You're talking no 3-putts. There was a heck of a good golf tournament back at 2nd, 3rd and 4th place, they shot 6-under. I think if you look, it's kind of like do they need to make Waialae harder now because John Huston shot 28-under. No, it's just an exceptional week by some good players, where things are really clicking and they just beat up on everything and everybody. When there's a big margin of victory like that people start talking about it, but I think you've got to give him his due credit and not take anything away from the golf course.

DAVID DUVAL: You're not listening to my point, though. Everybody else was back at 5, 6, 7 under par. And Tiger shot whatever he did. I mean he finished, I don't know exactly, 18 or 17, 19 under par, and won by a lot. And that kind of thing isn't going to happen all the time, where you're going to be absolutely clicking for a full event.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, Davis won by -- I don't know how many. I think he shattered any tournament records they had there in the past. You haven't heard anybody talking about making Winged Foot harder. I think that kind of talk might actually take a little bit away from what the player accomplished, and I don't believe that should be done.

DAVID DUVAL: Is which part important, talking to Bill or --

DAVID DUVAL: Yes, he was in the position where he was out for at least a year, and he got to learn a lot about it through trial and error. And his suggestions to me have basically been what's been effective for him that he's found. And we have discussed it, although he's not -- he's still not in a position, I guess, to be lifting anytime soon. He does some stuff, I think, now, but his elbow is still sore. I look forward to maybe doing a little more active participation with him, because I think he's very smart there, he knows what's going on.

DAVID DUVAL: I haven't talked to him about the hips much. I guess it goes with -- I mean anything with legs. I think a lot of things -- parts of your body are -- should be stronger. I'm certainly not as strong as I think I should be, I guess is what I should say. My legs are probably stronger than average, but not as strong as I'd like, especially my back. I think it needs to be stronger. But that's just stuff you work on. It took many years to get where I was, and I'm certainly not going to accomplish everything I want to in a year or two. It's going to be a long, evolving process.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I think with the golf --

DAVID DUVAL: As much as anything, I think I like to try -- obviously, you want to be playing well, so you work on that, so your game's close. And then you basically just try to go in and be ready when you get there, come Monday or Tuesday, and not be working on the range hitting balls for hours. Basically it just goes to what I try to do each week, and that's try to be prepared.

DAVID DUVAL: I'm still trying to figure that out, to be honest with you. Some of them I've shown up maybe on a Saturday or Sunday. Come Thursday, even Tuesday or Wednesday, I'm chopping at the bit to get going. So I think I'm going to be more -- certainly, open a couple of practice days, but no more than two rounds. I get bored after three days of -- and they tend to be so slow, the practice rounds, that they just drive you nuts. So I think right now what's going to be best for me is getting in on Mondays and settle in and get into it after Tuesday.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I think so. And before you ask me the next point I can't tell you what you learn, just learn, you just know it. And it's kind of like -- it took me a year and a half to win my first college event, and you get done and say, "Well, what was the big deal? What was I making a fuss over?" You forget how easy it is sometimes. And I'm not meaning to say it's easy to win on Tour, it's not by any means. But you make such a big deal out of it that you kind of overwhelm yourself at times with it. And you get so concerned with playing spectacular golf out here, because there's certainly a couple of players doing that every day. You look at the score down here, and there's always a 64 or 5 being put up. So I think it is something that you also have to get some good breaks. I don't think -- if you watched in Tucson, I certainly didn't get many on Sunday, but I got some nice rolls when I holed out on Friday. You can't look over those breaks that happen early in the week, either, because that kind of thing doesn't really happen. So maybe that's where my good luck came in.

DAVID DUVAL: I think it was. I tend to be a perfectionist, and I think one of the things I realized on a couple of occasions I certainly play better golf if I finish second or third. You just get beat is all it boils down to. Don't get me wrong, I played very well at all the events I won, I'm not trying to say I played poorly. But I think as a player out here it's rare -- you really can go back, like you asked about Augusta, something like that rarely happens, it rarely happens what John Huston did in Hawaii. It rarely happens when somebody is on every day. That's not the nature of this game, and so you can play very good golf, but I think as everybody in here knows, you're always leaving shots out, and you want to leave as few as possible.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I think so. It's really whether you're ready or not, you're going to have to be. And I hear they've made some changes up there, I don't really know what they are, but I think it's important out here not to get numbers -- get a number stuck in your mind early in the week, because I think as a professional the conditions change such that you need to be prepared to struggle in hard conditions and shoot even par in a golf tournament or be prepared to get after it and firing at pins and shoot 20-under par. I don't put much weight in trying to pick a number early in the week.

DAVID DUVAL: I think he'll certainly be a factor. I don't expect Tiger or Greg Norman, but somebody is going to play like that, somebody is going to play spectacular that week, who it is, you don't know. You need to be prepared to do it, and especially if it happens to you. You need to be comfortable with it and be ready to take advantage of it.

DAVID DUVAL: Not really, a little bit, not much.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know. I don't think about it. The ball's not moving.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I would certainly like to maybe have more input in the future, kind of give my ideas. And there's some new persons taking over since Fran resigned. And he seems very receptive to that. And Bob Skinner. I don't have a whole lot of contact with Tommy, and he's in the Tommy retail, and that's different than Tommy golf. He's look over a 700 million dollar company, and the golf is just a smaller part of it.

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, just kind of -- I'm not as creative as far as putting stripes together and colors, but giving my input into what might be a little more classical, I don't know, I guess just basically telling them my tastes is what it boils down to.

DAVID DUVAL: No, I don't spend a whole lot of time with him. I've always felt that Stewart's been a tremendous player, even in college. I think what he's done out here is spectacular, he came out his first year and won a golf tournament. He's played beautifully this year. I certainly expect him to improve and become a great player.