THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

June 2, 1996

David Duval

DAVID DUVAL: Thanks.

DAVID DUVAL: It went good. It finished great. I didn't play particularly well on the front 9, and for the first several holes on the back 9. I was fighting my swing all week. It wasn't extremely comfortable, and I wasn't doing quite what I wanted to with the golf club, but you know, it came down -- I was only 7 under par for the golf tournament and hit it in the fairway, and now you have a shot that is going to expose any of the deficiencies in your swing. And I hit probably one of the best iron shots I hit all week; hit an 8-iron up there real close, maybe three feet, made birdie. Next hole, I made a long putt for eagle. All of a sudden I'm 10 under, then birdied 16, so I am 11 under. You know, just all of a sudden everything started to kind of fall into place a bit better than it had the several holes prior.

DAVID DUVAL: I bogeyed the first hole. I 3-putted.

DAVID DUVAL: 30 feet. I birdied 2 from about 35 feet. I hit an 8-iron.

DAVID DUVAL: I hit a 4-iron into the right bunker and hit a pretty good shot out about six feet and missed the putt and hit a 7-iron to about, oh, three feet on 6. And then I think I parred 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Then I birdied 14, I guess, with an 8-iron to about three feet. Eagled 15. I hit a 3-wood to probably 40 feet left of the hole. 16: I hit a 5-iron about 18 feet, maybe, to the right of the hole. And 18, I hit a 6-iron to about eight feet behind the hole.

DAVID DUVAL: It just happens. I sure didn't expect it to happen today. I just really wasn't hitting it well. I mean, that is all that was to it. I was hitting big slices off the tees and fighting my iron shots as well hitting slices with those -- catching them bad. I just kept hitting it onto the greens and 2-putting, you know. After I made that birdie on 6, I just kind of fought it and just hung in there and --

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know. It varies depending on the players. I am sure it happens more to someone like Greg Norman than it does to David Duval. But you know, I think -- I haven't had a stretch quite like that this year. I have had a few streaks starting out where you make maybe three or four in a row, birdies, but that has been about the extent of it.

DAVID DUVAL: Probably when I got to 17 I thought I might have a chance if I birdied the last couple of holes, but you know, I am standing on the 14th tee and it is not even -- it -- I want to try to pick up a couple of birdies to just maybe creep back into the top 10, you know, and then they start falling.

DAVID DUVAL: No, I hit the proper shot. I had about 160 yards to the hole and, you know, seeing as I don't feel like I am hitting it quite like I wanted to, I am not going to take a little bit off a 7-iron because that is a little bit long for me than an 8-iron. It is not something that I can really flirt with if I am not real comfortable with how I am playing, confident with my swing, so I just tried to hit a shot back there. I thought I actually might have hit it back of the green than the ball ended up. It is hard to finesse shots into pins like that, just aren't quite sure.

DAVID DUVAL: 8-iron.

DAVID DUVAL: I think it is wonderful. You know, to be honest with you, if Tom Watson is going to win and I have to wait another week or another month, that is fine. It is just nice to see him play so well, you know, so much has been made of his struggles as of late, over the last several years, and I am just getting started. And my time will come, I think. You know, if I have to wait and that first victory is held up because Tom Watson wins the golf tournament, that is fine.

DAVID DUVAL: Extremely. It is a feeling -- the feeling was hard to describe, I guess. You know, I didn't know how -- I guess after I birdied 18, I saw Tom was 13-under through 16, and so I didn't know if -- where he was on 17. I didn't know if he was -- those aren't exactly easy holes 17, 18 coming in and so I felt for me to have a legitimate chance, I needed to birdie 17 and 18, but you know, with those two holes ending up, you just don't know, I guess. But you know, I didn't -- after he had played well on 17, then where he was on 18. To be honest with you, I didn't expect him to make a bogey.

DAVID DUVAL: Upstairs to the TV thing.

DAVID DUVAL: Yes.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, the times I have played here it has been a bit wet, and I hit the ball off the tee a little further than on average. I guess on Tour, I am not one of the longer players, but I hit it a little above average and I also hit it straight. And if you've been out there and seen the rough, you just can't play from the rough out here. And this week, just like last year, I just didn't miss many fairways. I think that is the big key out here. And I think I putted not extremely well, but I didn't shoot myself either with it. I think the only 3-putt I had was on number 1 today for the whole week, and on big greens like these, when you have pins that aren't exactly accessible like 3 and 4, that is pretty good.

DAVID DUVAL: Probably have to lean towards the latter. I know him, obviously, from playing out here with him for a year and a half, but I wouldn't --

DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, I sat with him and Fuzzy this morning before we played and had lunch, but, you know, I don't -- you know, he is a generation ahead, I guess is the best way to put it, and his friends aren't my age and --

DAVID DUVAL: Well, it is hard not to, you know. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to win the golf tournament, but if I am going to get beat, he is not too bad of a player to get beat by.

DAVID DUVAL: Oh, just this and that. (LAUGHTER)

DAVID DUVAL: No, no. That usually doesn't even come up, no. I don't -- I think -- nothing really. I mean, you don't talk about anything of importance, that is for sure.

DAVID DUVAL: These are tough. Well, we -- I don't know. We were eating and watching the sports network ESPN, and we were making sure we weren't watching the weather because that is all they had on everywhere, was the weather. I don't know. We saw Tiger Woods; congratulated him on his fine play. Really nothing of substance.

DAVID DUVAL: Really, there is not a whole lot because I didn't feel like I -- I didn't play this week, ball-striking-wise, nearly as well as I played the three in Texas. I had -- I took last week off and didn't play a practice until I hit a few balls until Saturday. I think I played Monday before I came up here, but I was kind of trying to move into my house and cleaning stuff up, and I think then the mixture of all the heavy winds out at The Colonial, I got here and I just -- it wasn't real comfortable. I wasn't hitting it as nearly as crisply as I was at Houston or Dallas and so, you know, I think -- I am just -- I guess I am happy with myself, staying patient, and not really making, you know, big mistakes out there when I most definitely could have. I hit a few of the shots, the difficult ones -- kind of clutch shots throughout the week -- I hit those well. But it seemed like I was putting from 30 feet all day, you know, everyday this week, and it is hard to have high expectations when you are doing that.

DAVID DUVAL: Eight.

DAVID DUVAL: No.

DAVID DUVAL: I do not think it ever really came down to the wire. He seemed pretty comfortable all day. I don't know if he even made a bogey today. He played well, and it was more that -- you know, I caught a stretch at the end, but he was two or three ahead all day. And when I birdied the 2 of the last 3 to get to 12, that was the only time I guess anybody was within a shot of him, so it wasn't much of a duel out there, I guess.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know. I mean, I didn't -- I guess I just liked watching a lot of players. I kind of, I guess, growing up in golf with a golf family, I just appreciated everybody's way of playing and so I didn't necessarily pull for one player or the other. When I went out to THE PLAYERS Championship, I like to sit behind the range and watch them practice as opposed to going out on the golf course or following them in the practice rounds. So I think it was as much as anything, I was just maybe trying to figure out what they did and why they did it and why they did it so well.

DAVID DUVAL: No, I can't.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know really if I ever did sit down and watch him hit. I kind of watched him since I have been out here because you know, he hits it so perfectly. It is neat to watch the ball come off the same every time and so I caught myself watching him more now than I guess I would have when I was growing up.

DAVID DUVAL: 1987 Nabisco?

DAVID DUVAL: I was about to turn 16. I guess I was practicing it up and studying for my driver's test. (LAUGHTER)

DAVID DUVAL: Everybody makes such a big deal of it in the print you know, with him, I guess because he has been so close on several occasions, you know, -- I think just anybody on Tour will know really because, like I said, he plays well so often that he is up there and when he doesn't win, the big deal is made of the last time he won was in 1987 and he has all these putting woes and this and that. I think today shows that he doesn't have those putting woes.