Tag: David Duval

Photos: David Duval through the years

David Duval now works for Golf Channel as an analyst, but before then, he had a tenured career on the PGA Tour.

David Duval has been an analyst on Golf Channel, but before that, he was a tenured master of the golf course.

The former World No. 1 won his first and only major at the 2001 British Open and came close to two Masters titles (second place in 1998 and T-2 in 2001) and a U.S. Open title in 2009 (T-2).

Duval, who was born on Nov 09, 1971, joined the PGA Tour in 1995 after playing college golf at Georgia Tech. One of Duval’s most memorable achievements was after earning his first Tour victory at the 1997 Michelob Championship at Kingsmill, he went on to win his next two starts in consecutive weeks at the Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic and Tour Championship.

In the 30 years after he participated in his first Tour event, the 1990 U.S. Open, Duval accumulated 13 victories on Tour.

Here are a few of the highlights from his extensive career:

Ernie Els wins, Bernhard Langer ties for third at 2024 Principal Charity Classic on PGA Tour Champions

Els earns his fourth senior circuit victory.

DES MOINES, Iowa — The fourth time is the charm.

It took four appearances at the Principal Charity Classic for Ernie Els to get his first win there, with the South Africa native simultaneously earning his first PGA Tour Champions win this season.

“It’s very special,” Els said. “I haven’t won for a while, and I’ve had quite a few chances. But it gets tougher when you don’t get it over the line.”

Els finished at 21-under 195, winning by two strokes.

The 54-year-old had two birdies on the front nine Sunday and three more on the back. He picked up an eagle on lucky number 13, which gave Els the padding needed for the win, even with making par on the final three holes.

“I was lucky enough to make birdie on 11,” Els said. “I didn’t need a very good approach, made a good putt. And then 12, but 13 was big to make eagle late on the back nine, that was key. Got me into a three-shot lead, and (I) kept with it.”

The win at the Wakonda Club marked the first PGA Tour Champions win of the season for Els, who entered the Principal Charity Classic ranked 16th in the Schwab Cup Standings through eight events.

He claimed the winner’s purse of $300,000, which brings his total winnings the $785,017 this season. Els has now finished in the top 10 three times this season, including third-place ties in the Regions Tradition and Chubb Classic and a tie for sixth at the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.

Els finished two shots ahead of Stephen Ames, the tournament’s defending champion, but it was a close race throughout. Four players were tied for first after finishing the front nine: Ames, Rod Pampling, Ernie Els and Bernhard Langer.

Then, the front group started to split apart.

Ames picked up two birdies to start the back nine, then made par on 12 and 13, and saved par on 14. Els made par on 10, then picked up back-to-back birdies and an eagle on the next three holes to take a two-shot lead. Langer also hit par to start the back nine, then made three birdies in a row before a bogey on 14.

Els’ eagle on lucky number 13 that proved to be the winning shot in Sunday’s competition.

But holistically, he played his best tournament of the year, leading after the first two rounds and hanging on through the final day in Des Moines.

“I had a good game plan,” Els responded when asked about his three-day lead. “I stuck with it all three days. I’ve put the work in and you feel a bit more confident that every aspect of the game is there.

“Then you can just go out there and compete. It was a hell of a week. Everybody played well and just that one hole maybe got it for me. Number 13.”

Els – who thanked the greens staff for the “true championship course” and the weather for cooperating – plans to return to Des Moines.

“We as players love playing here. As long as I can, I’ll come back, especially if I keep winning.”

Ageless wonder Langer, who tore his Achilles tendon while playing pickleball on just four months ago, shot a 63 on Saturday, the 15th time the 66-year-old has shot his age or better on PGA Tour Champions. On Sunday, he shot 68 and tied for third alongside Duval and Pampling.

Six past winners highlight early commits for 2023 PNC Championship field

Vijay and Qass Singh will be back to defend their title in Orlando.

Six past champions have confirmed their entry for the 2023 PNC Championship, including defending champions Vijay and Qass Singh.

Vijay will be joined by colleagues John Daly (winner in 2021), Justin Thomas (2020), David Duval (2016), Stewart Cink (2013) and Bernhard Langer (2005, 2006, 2014, 2019) for the annual parent-child event at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Orlando, Grande Lakes on Dec. 14-17.

“I can’t tell you what it meant to win last year with Qass after 16 attempts. This tournament is so special to us, and it is such an important week for our family every year,” said Vijay. “We love everything about the tournament, from playing amongst so many legends of the game, to getting to know their kids, to just spending quality time with my son as we enjoy this unique inside-the-ropes experience together. I have played in so many tournaments all around the world over the years, but it genuinely is hard to think of a week that I look forward to and enjoy more than the PNC Championship.”

This year’s event, the 12th with PNC Bank as the title sponsor, will be broadcast live on NBC, Golf Channel and Peacock. Last year the PNC Championship boasted a field with 73 major titles. The tournament features 20 players and their relatives competing in a two-day, 36-hole scramble for the Willie Park Trophy. To qualify, players must have won a major championship or the Players Championship, and their partner must not hold any status on a professional tour.

Past champions

1995 – Raymond Floyd and Raymond Floyd Jr. 

1996 – Raymond Floyd and Raymond Floyd Jr. 

1997 – Raymond Floyd and Raymond Floyd Jr. 

1998 – Bob Charles and David Charles 

1999 – Jack Nicklaus and Gary Nicklaus 

2000 – Raymond Floyd and Robert Floyd 

2001 – Raymond Floyd and Robert Floyd 

2002 – Craig Stadler and Kevin Stadler 

2003 – Hale Irwin and Steve Irwin 

2004 – Larry Nelson and Drew Nelson 

2005 – Bernhard Langer and Stefan Langer 

2006 – Bernhard Langer and Stefan Langer 

2007 – Larry Nelson and Josh Nelson 

2008 – Larry Nelson and Drew Nelson 

2012 – Davis Love III and Davis “Dru” Love IV 

2013 – Stewart Cink and Connor Cink 

2014 – Bernhard Langer and Jason Langer 

2015 – Lanny Wadkins and Tucker Wadkins  

2016 – David Duval and Nick Karavites 

2017 – Angel Cabrera and Angel Cabrera, Jr.  

2018 – Davis Love III and Davis “Dru” Love IV 

2019 – Bernhard Langer and Jason Langer 

2020 – Justin Thomas and Mike Thomas

2021 – John Daly and John Daly II

2022 – Vijay Singh and Qass Singh

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Lynch: Dubious invitations risk turning the Zurich Classic from a fun week into a joke

Perhaps fans imperiled by wayward shots enjoyed seeing those on exemptions, but fellow Tour players likely did not.

The criteria by which fields are assembled on the PGA Tour is considerably more byzantine than over on LIV Golf, where competitors require only the blessing of Greg Norman and amoral ambivalence about the abuses and butchery of their princely benefactor.

The Tour’s official list has 39 exemption categories, ranging from the obvious (winners of majors and the FedEx Cup) to the arcane (PGA Section champions, players with 300 career made cuts). They’re ranked by priority and not every classification is used at every event. The Zurich Classic, for example, used 20 categories to compile its field, a trickier construct than usual since the tournament is comprised of 80 two-man teams.

The most opaque criterion has always been sponsor invites, in which those who write the checks are granted tremendous latitude in deciding who gets the call for a handful of spots. As a general rule, that’s fair. Sponsors ought to have a say in drawing attention to their tournaments and not be hostage to filling tee times from a pre-determined pecking order of pedestrian pros, even if the basis for extending invitations appears parochial.

In February, Ricky Barnes was gifted a spot in the WM Phoenix Open — a designated event with a $25 million purse — for no apparent reason other than that he lives locally and is popular with the event organizers.

But an exemption category intended to benefit a tournament can also be a detriment when improperly applied.

When two-time PGA Tour winner Michael Thompson was added to the field at the Zurich Classic, he chose as his team partner Paresh Amin, a 43-year-old military veteran with a beggarly record on mini-tours, and who shot 42-over-par in Q-School for the Mackenzie Tour.

“He’s become my really good friend,” Thompson explained to my colleague, Adam Schupak. “I haven’t had any success with a partner in the team format. If I was going to play a team event, I wanted to be with someone I really liked. He’s trying to play professionally and I wanted to give him a chance to experience a PGA Tour event, meet the equipment reps, meet the caddies.”

In the opening round of best ball, when scores are typically lower, the pair managed only a 71 that placed them 77th among the 80 teams. A 75 in Friday’s alternate shot format dropped them another two spots.

“These guys out here obviously have an advantage over me,” Amin told the Times-Picayune, the local paper in New Orleans. “They’ve been doing it their whole life. I’m just trying to crack the code and make it full-time out here.”

Somewhere, the ghost of Maurice Flitcroft laughs.

Thompson and Amin were spared the indignity of last place only thanks to another pair of sponsor invites: David Duval and John Daly. Zurich presumably hoped the name recognition of these former major winners would draw eyeballs to an event that sits in no man’s land on the calendar, wedged amid majors and designated stops. The tournament could boast some quality names — Cantlay, Schauffele, Fitzpatrick, Morikawa, Homa — but too many others who would be recognized only by job-seeking caddies or alert process servers.

The problem is that Duval and Daly are woefully uncompetitive even on the PGA Tour Champions, much less a more demanding stage. Duval is 0-for-25 in cracking the top 10 in his senior career, while Daly has done so just once in his last 33 attempts. Predictably, their performance was execrable: rounds of 75-83 secured last place by 12 shots. Perhaps the few spectators who were imperiled by the team’s wayward shots enjoyed seeing the old timers, but there are ample reasons why some of their fellow Tour players might not.

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Each member of the winning team in New Orleans earns more than mere cash: fully exempt status through 2025, 400 FedEx Cup points, spots in the upcoming PGA Championship, Charles Schwab Challenge and Memorial Tournament, plus entry to the 2024 Sentry Tournament and Players Championship. It’s a heck of a return for only hitting half of the shots in half of the rounds.

FedEx Cup points are the currency of the PGA Tour, and have never been more valuable. Only the top 50 in points will guarantee access to all of 2024’s lucrative designated events. Only the top 70 will secure playing privileges for next season, down from 125 in years past. Fewer players have guaranteed status as more fields are reduced in size. Points are precious, and so too is the opportunity to earn them. There is less room than ever for veterans who fancy a couple of days in the Big Easy and friends Michael Thompson wants to introduce to equipment reps.

Doubtless, there will be locker room grumbling if Alex Fitzpatrick — an invited non-member of the Tour — earns status by partnering his brother, Matt, to victory in the Zurich Classic on Sunday. Family ties isn’t one of the 39 official exemption categories either. That will at least be a debate about an invitee who proved competitively relevant and earned those rewards, rather than the no-hopers whose presence only served to exclude others more deserving of a shot.

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5 can’t-miss teams for 2023 Zurich Classic in New Orleans

What pairing is your favorite?

Next up on the PGA Tour schedule is the lone team event in New Orleans at the Zurich Classic at TPC Louisiana.

The defending champions, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, are teaming up once again — yes, they’re featured on this list — but they’re going to have to fight off a few loaded teams.

For example, world Nos. 7 and 13, Max Homa and Collin Morikawa, have their eyes set on a W. Both players graduated from Cal and were members of the winning 2022 U.S. Presidents Cup team at Quail Hollow.

Here are our five can’t-miss teams for the Zurich Classic in New Orleans (each player’s world ranking is featured in parenthesis).

John Daly and David Duval sure are an interesting pairing for this week’s Zurich Classic

This year’s event is yielding some of the most interesting partnerships since the tournament went to that format in 2017.

John Daly, playing a golf tournament in New Orleans?

Maybe his partner will keep him on the straight and narrow, at least as far as fairways go.

The PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic will be played next week at the TPC Louisiana in Avondale, La., about 15 miles away and across the Mississippi River from Bourbon Street. Eighty two-man teams will compete in the Tour’s only team stroke-play event.

This year’s event is yielding some of the most interesting partnerships since the tournament went to that format in 2017, including Daly playing with Jacksonville native David Duval, one of two teams to include PGA Tour Champions players.

Daly won two major championships, the 1991 PGA and the 1995 British Open. Duval won the 2001 British Open and the 1999 Players to highlight his 13 PGA Tour titles.

What most of the players in the Zurich field might not know – especially those in the current generation of PGA Tour players – is Duval and Daly occasionally played money games together when they were in their prime on the Tour and did quite well.

Here are some other teams to watch next week:

  • Defending champions Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele return. Word is that Cantlay is already on the clock. However, this has become quite the formidable team: they’ve gone 6-3 together in the last three international match play events (2019 and 2022 Presidents Cups, 2021 Ryder Cup).
  • Billy Horschel of Ponte Vedra Beach and Sam Burns are partnering again. They finished second by two shots last year. Horschel has won the Zurich Classic as an individual (2013) and with a partner (with Scott Piercy in 2018).
  • First Coast players Sam Ryder and Doc Redman are also together again. They finished third last year.
  • Zach Johnson of St. Simons Island, Ga., and Steve Stricker will form a team of the current and most recent U.S. Ryder Cup captains. Stricker is also the defending champion of the Constellation Furyk & Friends.
  • Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim will reunite their 2022 Presidents Cup partnership that resulted in a 1-up victory over Cantlay and Schauffele.
  • The team to beat, however, might be two-time major champion Collin Morikawa and Max Homa.
  • There are two more partnerships in which both players are from the First Coast: David Lingmerth and Jonas Blixt (who also are both natives of Sweden) and Tyson Alexander and Carl Yuan. Blixt won the Zurich Classic with 2022 Players champion Cameron Smith in 2017.

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2023 Zurich Classic field highlighted by teams of Collin Morikawa/Max Homa, Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay and John Daly/David Duval

Find the full field and all teams for the Zurich Classic here.

The PGA Tour heads to Louisiana next week for the Zurich Classic at TPC Louisiana in Avondale, the lone team event on the schedule.

The two-mean teams will alternate between four-ball and foursomes all four days, starting with four-ball on Thursday. A cut will be made after 36 holes.

Eight players ranked inside the top 20 in the Official World Golf Ranking will be teeing it up, highlighted by defending champions Xander Schauffele (sixth) and Patrick Cantlay (fourth) and a new team of Collin Morikawa (11th) and Max Homa (seventh).

Joining the young guns are John Daly and David Duval, two PGA Tour Champions members who are teaming up in NOLA.

Someone keep an eye on Daly this week.

Find the full field and all teams below:

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While the Players still isn’t a bona fide major, the area near TPC Sawgrass has been a hotbed for major champions

Here’s the roll call of players considered “local” to TPC Sawgrass and Ponte Vedra Beach who have won majors. It’s impressive.

Despite the best efforts of the PGA Tour and a younger demographic of players and media who are keeping an open mind, The Players Championship still can’t crack the public consciousness of joining The Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship in being considered a major championship.

The Players will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024 so it’s had time. And the fact that it still isn’t widely recognized as a major has more to do with how entrenched the other four are.

Attitudes and history can change. When Bobby Jones was considered the best golf in the world in the 1920s and 1930s, he won 13 major championships. However, at the time, the U.S. Amateur and British Amateur were considered majors, along with the U.S. Open and British Open — largely because amateur golf was considered a higher level of competition since the professional game hadn’t yet blossomed and the Masters and the Augusta National Golf Club were still unrealized dreams by their founder — Jones.

Six of Jones’ majors were amateur events, five U.S, Opens and one British Open. And in 1930, when he won all four in one year, New York sportswriter George Trevor termed the feat, “the impregnable quadrilateral.”

Respect for Jones was so universal that gradually the Masters came to be thought of as a major, and when professionals such as Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson got into the prime of their careers, the PGA Championship also became more elevated.

Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus solidify the majors

The final piece of the puzzle in why the current four are accepted as majors was Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, whose powerful style of golf and charisma captured fans’ imagination. They especially cemented the Masters as perhaps the top dog of the grand slam events when they combined to win 10 times at Augusta.

Fast forward to the Tiger Woods Era. He had a poster of Jack Nicklaus on his wall at home as a young boy, with a list of Nicklaus’ 18 major championships. Woods dreamed of getting to that goal and he has 15, winning his last at the 2019 Masters — his fifth green jacket.

Woods followed the same script that Nicklaus and Palmer did: save his best for the majors, which only further served to keep their status at the top of the worldwide tournament food chain intact.

Majors history goes back nearly 160 years

Obviously, the majors have a rich history. The British Open is the oldest golf tournament in the world, having started in 1863. The U.S. Open launched in 1895, the PGA in 1916 and the Masters in 1934.

But the history of the world’s two main amateur events can’t be left in a dusty book. The U.S. Amateur began the same year as the U.S. Open and the British Amateur in 1885. Let’s just call them the amateur majors, which is both historically accurate and relevant to the modern game.

The history of those events also involves First Coast and South Georgia natives and those who have lived in the areas on a long-term basis. Six of those men have combined to win the four professional majors nine times. Six more have combined to win the amateur majors 11 times.

Here’s the roll call of players considered “local” to TPC Sawgrass and Ponte Vedra Beach who have won those 20 majors, listed on a chronological basis of when they won their first or only major:

Feeling like a rookie again, 50-year-old David Duval rededicating himself to competitive golf

Duval said, injuries pending, that he may play “20-plus” times.

For most golf fans, the number they quickly associate with David Duval is 59.

As in the 59 Duval shot in the final round of the 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic — the desert’s PGA Tour event now called the American Express — a round that allowed him to come from seven shots behind to win the title with the best closing round in Tour history.

But these days, the number Duval thinks about most is not 59, but 50. When Duval turned 50 in November, he was automatically the latest rookie to be eligible for the PGA Tour Champions. Duval was on hand Tuesday for the announcement of a new PGA Tour Champions event in the Coachella Valley next spring, and he was happy at the prospect of playing competitive golf in the desert again.

“It’s cool that they are adding a new event, that we are going to have another good spot on the schedule,” Duval said of the event planned for Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. “It’s a good time of year, more than likely perfect weather out there. My wife and I have been looking forward to this and getting back to playing full time. We are just kind of learning the in’s and out’s of it again, having not done it so long.”

Unlike some golfers looking ahead to their 50th birthday and eligibility on the PGA Tour Champions, Duval has not packed his schedule full of regular PGA Tour events to sharpen his game.  In fact, Duval has played only one tournament on the regular tour, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, in both 2020 and 2021. The last time he played as many as 10 regular tour events was in the 2013-14 wraparound season.

Injuries, which have hampered Duval’s career since just after that 1999 win in the desert, including two replaced discs in his neck in 2020, have continued to plague him as he approached 50. But he still had the PGA Tour Champions on his mind.

“I don’t know exactly for certain (when he thought about senior golf), but a few years back,” Duval said. “With some of the injuries and things that I had gone through, I was looking to get healthy and try to play 10 or 12 times a year. And as we got closer and closer, it looks like we are going to play more than that, maybe 20-plus.”

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Back on a tour again

Duval has played five PGA Tour Champions events this year, with a best finish of 34th as he tries to return to competitive golf after spending nearly seven years as an analyst on Golf Channel, a position that earned him praise for his commentary on the PGA Tour and its players.

Duval believes his game should be producing better results, but in a recent tournament, he may have discovered a key.

“It started to dawn on me recently in completion that I have been playing golf at home for eight or 10 years, playing very few golf tournaments,” he said. “And I kind of recognized this last time we played in Mississippi that I’m still playing that way. I’m still playing what I call country club golf. And competitive golf, professional golf is not country club golf.

“It’s an entirely different animal and you have to really think your way around the golf course and put the ball in proper positions and be smart about that what you are doing,” Duval said. “Meshing that with how I am actually physically playing is going to kind of get me going.”

As part of that commentary, Duval would at times have to talk about sub-60 rounds on the PGA Tour. No one is more qualified than Duval for that discussion since he shot just the third 59 on tour with his round in 1999. Now there have been a total of 12 sub-60 rounds, including one 58 by Jim Furyk, who also has a 59 to his credit.

Duval acknowledges people still talk about his 59, but he has other things to say about the number than just how he shot his round.

“It gets talked about a little bit. I think more in the framework now of what sub-60 round was the best one. That’s kind of how the discussion has gone now,” he said.

Al Geiberger shot the first round of 59 in 1977 at Colonial Country Club in Memphis, and that round is often ranked ahead of Duval’s round at the Palmer Course at PGA West in La Quinta in 1999 as the best of the sub-60 rounds. While Duval accomplished far more in his career than the 59, including a British Open title, 13 PGA Tour wins and surpassing Tiger Woods to become the No. 1-ranked player in the game in 1999, the 59 discussion is still something Duval enjoys.

“I still feel like, when there were rounds like that shot, over the last number of years when I was doing TV stuff, I always kind of tried to direct it away from me and to the fact that there have only been four of the sub-60 rounds that were 13-under par,” Duval said. “I think there is a distinction there. There is a difference between shooting 11 under, 12 under or 13 under.

“That’s why I kind of direct it away,” he added. “I’m curious to see if someone can shoot 14-under par. They might. Who knows?”

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Miguel Angel Jiménez makes another ace, cruises to win in Arizona desert at Cologuard Classic

The Mechanic earned his 12th victory on the senior circuit in Tucson, Arizona.

TUCSON, Ariz. — Miguel Angel Jiménez survived a playoff to win the PGA Tour Champions season opener in Hawaii. His win Sunday in Tucson, Arizona, was a walk in the park by comparison.

Two aces in 50 holes will do that for a guy.

Leading by three shots in the final round, Jiménez hit a 6-iron from 188 yards on the 14th hole. Four bounces and a clanged flagstick later, Jiménez had himself a second hole-in-one this week and more importantly, a five-shot lead with four to go in the Cologuard Classic.

Jiménez finished his round par-par-par-par to shoot a final-round 65 and finish 18 under, four clear of the field. Bernhard Langer and Woody Austin finished tied for second at 14 under.

Cologuard Ambassador Jerry Kelly started the final round tied for second, two shots back of Jimenez. He closed with a 70 after opening 68-67 and finished solo fourth. Scott Parel was solo fifth at 10 under.

Jiménez’s ace Friday also came off the face of his 6-iron on the 196-yard 7th hole. Tim Petrovic had a pair of aces a year ago but Jiménez used his 1s to guide him to his 12th Champions victory. The aces were the 12th and 13th in competition for Jiménez, who had 10 on the DP World (formerly European) Tour.

Jiménez started birdie-eagle and was five under through eight holes before clipping a tree with his second shot on the 9th. After a third shot to about eight feet, Jiménez missed his par putt but still made the turn at 15 under, four clear of Langer and Jeff Sluman. The lead was down to three after Langer and Woody Austin each birdied the 12th but the Jiménez ace on No. 14 essentially sealed the win.

Jiménez pocketed $270,000 for the win. He has earned $668,795 so far this season. Loren Roberts in 2006 was the last golfer to win two of the first three Champions events to start a season.

Sluman, who co-lead after the first round and was tied for second after 36 holes, was seeking to break a stretch of 2,821 days since his last victory in 2014 when he teamed with Fred Funk to win Big Cedar Lodge Legends of Golf.

Langer came into the week off his win a week ago at the Chubb Classic, his 43rd win on the senior circuit. He finished xx and remains two victories from tying Hale Irwin’s Champions tour mark. Langer will get another chance to cut the gap to one next week at the Hoag Classic in Newport Beach, California.

Other notables in the field:

  • Jim Furyk, playing just 15 miles from his college home at the University of Arizona, 74-74-69 and finished T-25.
  • Omar Uresti, one of four golfers to get through the qualifier on Tuesday, went 73-70-71 and finished T-33.
  • John Daly, in the field on a sponsor exemption, posted scores of 78-71-73 to finish T-66.
  • David Duval, Champions tour rookie and winner of the Tucson Chrysler Classic on this same course on the PGA Tour in 1998, shot 77-77-73 to finish T-69.

Celebrity Challenge winners

Annika Sorenstam, who played at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and Larry Fitzgerald, the former Arizona Cardinals receiver, teamed up to win the Celebrity Challenge on Saturday.

Sorenstam, who has committed to the U.S. Women’s Open in June, was runnerup in the celebrity division at the LPGA’s season-opening Tournament of Champions in January. In the best-ball format in Tucson, Sorenstam made a birdie putt on 18 to get her and Fitzgerald to 4 under to defeat the team of country music star Jake Owen and former NFL running back Eric Dickerson by two.

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