Player Interviews
Sunday, June 21, 2009David Duval
Q. Go through your round, birdies and bogeys.
DAVID DUVAL: On the fifth hole, I 3‑putted from 22 feet, something like that maybe.
I bogeyed 7, missed the green just to the left and didn't get up‑and‑down.
Hit a 9‑iron about three feet on 8. Then I hit a 6‑iron on No. 9 to about ten feet probably.
Then I drove it in the rough on 12. I pitched it out on the fairway, 2‑putted for a bogey.
Then I drove it in the rough on 15, pitched it out, knocked it up to about 10 or 12 feet and didn't make it; thought I did.
Hit it left on 16 into the trampled walkway, a great break. Hit a nice, really high hooking 9‑iron over the tree to ten feet.
Then on the last hole, I hit a 7‑iron to five feet, six feet.
Q. How was it to know there's one round left to go; how do you feel to be back in this position again?
DAVID DUVAL: Well, I'm excited to go play some more. It's a little awkward in a way, too, that you're going to tee off and play a hole, you know, and go do it all over again. It's Groundhog Day.
But I'm going to go try to sit down and relax for a while and rest up and go get ready to play a hole. (Laughter).
Q. Hitting into the walkway on 16, how are the conditions ‑‑ were you able to maneuver around, and did they do the right thing in getting the course really tip‑top?
DAVID DUVAL: Yeah, the golf course surprisingly fine. I did have three mud balls out there today: The shot into 7, you know, just went crazy left. I had one on 11, as well, into the green. Fortunately I hit it past the bunkers and didn't have it very far left.
Then on my lay up on 13, I had a mud ball that shot it way left into the tree in the rough.
But I'm relatively certain I'm not the only one that's had that happen today and I won't be the only one that has it happen in the next round, either. Just try to at that point pick out your targets and hit a good shot and hope for the best.
Q. Is there any difference in the way that you would be enjoying the day, or managing yourself out there today, than, say, eight years ago?
DAVID DUVAL: Well, I'd like to think I enjoyed it immensely, you know, eight, ten years ago, when I was on top of the world.
But with a life that's a little more complete, I probably honestly enjoy it more now. I have no less desire at this point than I did back then. However, I probably feel like I don't simply do it for myself anymore. And, you know, that's a nice feeling.
Q. Happy to do that on a Father's Day, to have a day like this?
DAVID DUVAL: It is. Like I said yesterday when asked about playing on Father's Day, I frankly didn't think about it today really, that it was. It's just been so screwy, I barely remember it's Sunday. So just like I'm sure all of y'all, y'all have been out here as much if not more than we have.
Q. It may seem a little off‑topic, back in the Masters when you shot the round in the 80s, I know you made a point to say, "I'm going back out, because what kind of lesson would it be for my kids if I didn't persist." How has that in some sense been a guide through the highs and lows to get back up to where you are now with your life being more complete?
DAVID DUVAL: Well, I just knew that I had developed some very bad swing problems and through it had lost all confidence.
I believed I could get it back. I knew the process was going to be a long time and it would take a lot of work. But you know, I'm just not a player ‑‑ I'm just not a quitter. Certainly not, you know, at that point, what, may be a year into the process of trying to rebuild a golf game and a golf swing.
And you know, the folks there are nice enough to let me come and play. They asked me to play, because even though you qualify for an invitation, they don't have to give you one. Kind of like when I played at Shinnecock and shot a couple rounds in the 80s, I'm damn sure not going to quit at that point. I don't remember what my score was, maybe 84, 85 at Augusta, but I sure wasn't going to quit. My older boys had come with me; so you have a rough day and quit and pack up and go home? That's not what I think how it should be and I don't think that's an example to set.
Q. Past major champions say that often when you're in position going into Sunday that they can draw upon the past. Considering you've been at the top of the golf world, and it's been a while, can you still draw upon your past accomplishments?
DAVID DUVAL: Absolutely. A lot of what happens with confidence and success, they are so closely entwined that as you're not having success, you're losing confidence, and your memory starts to ‑‑ your short‑term memory starts to remember bad stuff, and my short‑term memory had certainly got to that point, but I remember good stuff and I remember good stuff playing well and not two years ago when I knew I was playing well but didn't have anything to kind of draw on.
I know I've been there before. It's not like a distant memory, but I think more than anything, the benefit I have possibly headed into the next round is that I also know the other side of it. I know what the awful golf is about, too. I'm going to go out and play and I'm probably going to hit a lot of good shots in this next round and hit a couple squirrely ones, too, and I'm sure I'll miss a couple of fairways.
But I feel comfortable in what I'm doing and confident in what I'm doing and that's all you can ask for.
Q. How much of a different player do you think you are in terms of when you say confidence, you had a swing that you knew and it was always going straight, and then it started not going straight. I mean, how have you bounced back from that?
DAVID DUVAL: Right, well, work and practice and just a belief in the path I was on of putting my golf swing ‑‑ I want to say back together but not quite because I feel like I made it better. I feel like I made it more reliable than it was, and I know why it works the way it works and I know how it works. And I think that's the difference from ten years ago. I just would grab a golf club and hit it 280 yards and it went straight. I knew a fair amount about it, don't get me wrong. I think I'm a pretty decent student of the game. But I also at this point I really know it in and out and I know exactly what I'm trying to do, and I think because of that, I actually think I've become a better striker of the golf ball.
Q. Thoughts on Ricky, if he wins, his first tournament as a major ‑‑
DAVID DUVAL: You know, it happens, people win their first golf tournament as majors, it happens. It doesn't happen a lot but it sure happens. So, you know, I don't know if anybody should be shocked if it does, but you know, winning's winning. Got to figure it out.
