Golf Channel analyst David Duval flew home from the Players Championship on Friday, March 12 and has been sheltering in place with his family at their Denver home. The 2001 British Open champion has been keeping busy doing a lot of yard work, and even had to rent a chipper a couple of days ago.
“I’m just hoping we, as a collective group of folks, get through this and realize the blessings of it and stay healthy,” he said. “We’re constantly talking in our family about the clearness of the air, just cutting down the traffic for these 7-8 weeks, has cleared the air and how much the wildlife and nature is taking over. We had a baby owl in our yard for 10 days on a branch. We watched him grow and get bigger and then he was gone. I told my kids, ‘This is something you may never see again in your life.’ ”
FORWARD PRESS PODCAST: Relief efforts, questionable aces amid COVID-19
Q: When did you know you had the talent to be a PGA Tour pro?
DD: You never really know, but I played well at the U.S. Open when I was 18 in 1990 at Medinah, where Hale Irwin won. I shot even par the first three days and on Sunday I fell apart and really blew it (77). Two years later, I was leading the Tour event in Atlanta after three rounds. That’s when I knew I could compete out there.
Q: How humbling was it for you to have to play the Nike Tour after being a four-time All-American at Georgia Tech?
DD: In a way it was. I didn’t feel like it was where I belonged. I missed Q-School in 1993 and played eight or nine events and finished 11th back when only the top 10 got cards. I had to go back to Q-School and missed the four-round cut by a stroke. I had to go back to the Nike Tour. For the first half of the year, I had a bad attitude. I didn’t feel like that was where I should be playing. I had to take a breath. I had to grow up, basically, and stop being a baby.
Q: It took you a little while to get your first win, but when you did, you won three in a row. What did you find during that stretch?
DD: The first one I won, I was hitting the ball really well, so much so I made a remark to my caddie Mitch, at the time, that if we make a few putts we’ve got a good chance to win this week. I had it dialed in to where everything was launching out of the same window. That week, I got a few new putters. The putter I ended up using that week (a Scotty Cameron Newport) is the one that I won all my tournaments with except for one.
At Kingsmill, I won in a playoff. I realized that it’s not as hard as I made it. I don’t know how to better clarify that because that sounds arrogant, and I don’t mean that to be arrogant. Basically, I learned how to get out of my own way finally and things fell in place.
At Disney, I didn’t play any practice rounds, and I bogeyed my first two holes at the Palm Course and shot 65. It was a lesson to just go play and see what happens and not force things. The lesson I learned was to be cautiously aggressive, play smart and minimize mistakes.
Q: What defeat gnaws at you the most?
DD: The best answer would be ’98-01 at Augusta. All of them. I could have won one, two, three or all four of them. And then the fight at Bethpage in the 2009 U.S. Open. We started back up on Monday and I had to start at No. 3, hit a 4-iron that buried under the lip of the bunker and made triple and still fought back and had an opportunity to win but didn’t.
Q: Is there a shot you wish you could have back?
DD: I don’t remember the years but I hit a second shot into the creek at 13 at Augusta. I backed off the shot three times because of the wind. I was back and forth between 4 and 5. Another year, at 16, I had a chance to win and I hit a 7-iron on a perfect line and somehow – probably through adrenaline – it sailed to the back of the green and kicked over. I made a bogey where I thought I was going to have a kick-in birdie.
Q: What do you wish you could have done differently in your career?
DD: I wish I could’ve walked away and let my body heal better than I did instead of forcing myself to play. I wish I had the presence of mind to realize I wasn’t 100 percent and stop and let my body heal.
Q: What part of whose game were you most envious of and why?
DD: I was always awed by how Tiger Woods could hit the ball out of the rough. That was one of the giant differences between him and everybody else. Phil, Vijay, Ernie, me, we’d be hitting a 9-iron or wedge out and he’d hit a 6-iron on the green. His ability to play from the rough was, and is, way underrated.
Q: You gave me an all-time quote at the 2017 Father-Son Challenge that you kept hearing these young pros saying they wanted to play Tiger at his best, and you said, “The hell they do,” except you used a different four-letter word. That proved to be quite prescient, but did you really think he would come back and win another major?
DD: Six, eight, 10 months before, my answer would have been no. If you recall, on Wednesday night on “Live From” we have to pick a winner at all the majors and I picked Tiger Woods at Augusta. I saw something different in his eyes, in his gait and how he was walking and having played with him and competed and traveled and practiced, I saw him again that week heading into the tournament.
Q: What’s your theory on Team Europe’s dominance in the Ryder Cup for the last three decades?
DD: The self-imposed pressure of Team USA and continually being asked about it by TV and writers. It’s not a whole lot more than that. It’s almost expectations that can’t be lived up to, in a way.
Q: Do you have aspirations to be Team USA captain in the future?
DD: Susie and I would certainly do it. We’d love to do it, but it’s not something I’ve really thought about.
Q: Who is the current golfer whose game reminds you the most of your own?
DD: Who do you think it is?
AS: Maybe Viktor Hovland, the way he strikes it. He hits a lot of fairways the way you used to.
DD: I may agree with you. Definitely a ballstriker. I wore people out by hitting the golf ball in play and knocking it on the green. Maybe Collin Morikawa is like that. I had distance and I would wear the field out. I say this on TV all the time: You don’t have to be a great putter to win on the PGA Tour. It’s a ball-hitting contest, not a putting contest. You have to putt well, don’t get me wrong, but if you don’t hit it good you are not going to have a chance.
Q: You turn 49 in November. Is PGA Tour Champions appealing to you?
DD: I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. I need to make sure it is something I’m healthy for. I don’t know if I’ll play a full schedule, but it would sure be fun to play the U.S. Senior Open, Senior Players and things like that. With the schedule change, they’ll go back to St. Andrews for the 150th Open and I’ll be 50 and that will be my sixth playing of the Open at St. Andrews and then I can play the Senior Open the following week.
Q: Are you willing to grind to get back to the winner’s circle, and how meaningful would that be?
DD: It would be fun. It’s a matter of putting in the effort. It’s not like you can just jump out on the Senior Tour. I’ve got to make sure I’m prepared.
Q: If you could require every player on Tour to read one book, what would it be?
DD: I still read a lot. I’ve had cycles where I do and don’t. Funny enough, my reading vision isn’t so good anymore. I have to either hold the book far away or put on reading glasses. I remember going into the scoring trailer at The Open a couple of years ago and asking if they had any readers in there for my scorecard. I remember making fun of the players 20 years ago that had to do that.
But I go from reading stupid, quick spy novels to a lot of non-fiction lately. I’m finishing up the Passion Paradox. That would be a good one to suggest. It’s about how society tries to tell you to lead a balanced life but if you’re in pursuit of excellence to being a Tiger or Rory or Tom Brady, you can’t. It’s a false premise. Your passion is consuming and you have to figure out that you can’t give equal time to everything.
Q: What’s your biggest pet peeve?
DD: Kids not putting their dishes in the dishwasher. You’ve rinsed it out and set it in the sink. Put it in the dishwasher! What’s the big deal?
Q: How do your kids keep you at your best?
DD: They keep me on my toes, basically. This is a difficult time to grow up. To be a young person in an age of instant information, iphones and all these things makes it difficult for them and makes parenting that much more difficult.
Q: What is it about doing golf on TV that you find satisfying?
DD: I feel like I’m pretty good and I try to be really good at conveying the why of what players are doing. I try to explain the thinking of the game.
Q: What do you see as your greatest asset as a TV commentator?
DD: Having experienced the ultimate highs and what you’d call the ultimate lows. Understanding how seemingly simple the game can be and also how frustratingly difficult the game can be.
Q: Where do you keep the Claret Jug?
DD: It’s down in the basement. I have the Bob Hope trophy and the Players trophy along with the actual ball, glove and scorecard from the 59. The rest are up in the attic.
Q: What’s your perfect day like?
DD: We’re all learning what perfect days are now, and what really matters. Hanging with the family, doing some yard work, walking nine holes, doing a little fishing, that’s a good day. This consumer society isn’t really where we want to be and we’re realizing that.
[jwplayer Zmk6chRu-vgFm21H3]