David Duval didn’t win the U.S. Open. The fact that he was on the leader board is surprising. That he very well could have won is stunning. Just as surprising, in the press conference after the match he said that he wasn’t surprised that he was in the hunt; he was disappointed that he didn’t win. Okay…
“I stand before you certainly happy with how I played, but extremely disappointed in the outcome,” said Duval. “I had no question in my mind that I was going to win the golf tournament today.” All this from a man who began the week ranked No. 882 in the world, and had missed the cut in eight of 13 starts in 2009.
Did I fall in a rabbit hole? Is this 1997? Could anyone possibly have that kind of confidence after not having a top-ten for seven years? Seven years!
Duval’s fall from grace was epic. After finishing second seven times from 1995 through October of 1997, he won his first tournament, the Michelob Championship, then routinely racked up twelve wins including a British Open. David Duval was on top of the golf world.
Then the sky started falling one bad swing at a time. After being crowned the number one player in the world a couple of years earlier, he finished 80th on the money list in 2002. The following year he finished 211th and decided it was time for a break. Some of Duval’s misfortunes are understandable, the injuries and a bout with vertigo. But without question, at some point, it became a lack of confidence that weighed down on him like a sickness. And, for Duval it was like having the flu for seven years.
In baseball they say a slump starts in your bat and ends up in your head. Golf is no different. Duval would ride his slump all the way to 882nd in the world at the start of 2009.
Remember, we’re talking about a guy that buttoned his top button and sold more wrap-around Oakleys in two years than you could shake a stick at. He was an icon. He was the mountain that Tiger needed to climb.
He was number one in the world, for God’s sake!
Today, David Duval has unbuttoned his top button and put on a few pounds. He’s still wearing the Oakleys, and for some reason he has the confidence to believe that he can win the U. S. Open and maybe the British Open coming up in July.
“It’s what I want [to be in a position to win majors]. It may be arrogance, but it’s where I feel I belong and I was glad to come up here, hit the golf ball and control myself like I’ve been saying I’ve been doing,” Duval said. “I’ve been talking about how I know I’ve been playing a lot better than the results have been showing.”
Duval’s instructor, Puggy Blackmon, who also coached Duval at Georgia Tech, said, “I’m not taking any credit for this. David has done all the work. I think if anything, I’ve just been trying to remind him of the way he used to talk to me, the way he used to think and that type of thing… This was phenomenal. This is vintage Duval this week.”
Does all this mean that David Duval is back? Probably not; at least no more than Lucas Glover, Michael Campbell, Steve Jones and Lee Janzen.
At this point in his career, I suspect that David Duval is like the rest of us, simply trying to make it through the night. And he doesn’t need Kris Kristofferson to tell him that “Yesterday is dead and gone and tomorrow is out of sight.”
Duval is a reminder that tomorrow is not promised to anyone, even Tiger Woods, who is likely taking a putting lesson and wondering how in the world he could finish behind David Duval.
