He went from being the player everyone wanted to see to being almost invisible. He came and went from tournaments like a phantom.
For a time, he became a workout fiend and his body, always more round than chiseled, changed. He was thinner, more athletic-looking, but his scores were too high. Eventually the weight came back but the brilliance rarely did. Out of nowhere, Duval nearly won the U. Open at brutal Bethpage Black. He finished second to Lucas Glover, just his second top finish in five years, the other coming at the U. It felt like a lightning strike on a sunny day.
Despite his struggles, Duval never lost his love for the game or his belief in himself. He still believes he can win on the PGA Tour but Duval spends most tournament weeks talking about other players, evaluating them the way others evaluated him.
He could probably play more but prefers not to write asking for exemptions. After Solomon approached Duval, he was intrigued. He had done a little television work for ESPN but it was toe-in-the-water stuff. This was a big door swinging open. I still think I can play out here. I still think I can win golf tournaments. I plan on playing a few more events this year. Almost immediately, Duval made an impact on television. Golf Channel executives quickly moved him into the Live From shows at major championships, in-depth pre- and post-round shows that provide viewers educated insight from former players who are now television professionals.
As a player, he never played scared. He never spoke scared. In interview rooms, Duval was never afraid to say what was on his mind. There just happens to be a television camera pointed at him. My thoughts on it. Why I thought that way. Why I think about a shot this way. Duval has the glasses and the haircut and a way with words. He talks about hitters more than ballstrikers. Duval projects a cool, almost hipster vibe.
Chamblee looks like a model with his thick head of hair and perfectly tailored clothes. Nobilo has the accent, the beard and the bearing. Lerner is a perfect host, polished and cool managing the television traffic. Solomon and her crew love how Duval says hitters. To many, Duval has been a revelation, like a flower opening. Being an analyst requires insight and opinions.
Duval has both. Johnny Miller was criticized for years for being too blunt and critical but he changed the way golf is broadcast.
Critical is fine. I try to explain why. Especially an awful shot. On Tuesday night of Ryder Cup week last September, another Live From show was rolling along when the subject of team leadership came up. While Nobilo sat between them, Chamblee and Duval fell into a televised debate that was emotional, riveting and, perhaps, a hair over the line.
Does the leadership fill that role? You have to execute out there. Every single player that was at the caliber of Tiger and Phil, going back as far as you want to go, has a winning record in the Ryder Cup and correspondingly their teams won… the two that did not play up to their world rank are Tiger and Phil. Watch the video. Nobilo sat between and listened, turning his head to one side then the other like he was following a tennis match.
This is where one thought was not the other thought and no one was backing down. It might have felt a little personal. It did feel personal to him. I had no intention of hurting. I kind of wish I could take that back.
But he was saying what he had to say and I was, too. People often saw him wearing them on cloudy, overcast days and suggested they were his only shield to the public. The only way to isolate himself on the fairways in front of thousands.
He never mastered the art of handling the media like Tiger did. Tiger would say a ton without ever really saying anything at all. Just smile and give the media something to write down. Duval would sometimes be brash and a little too truthful, like when he voiced his thoughts that Ryder Cup players should be compensated before the competition at Brookline. Duval never displayed a lot of emotion but he fist pumped his way all over Brookline, Mass and showed that he really did have the passion and cared deeply for the team event.
And just like that it was all she wrote. Like someone losing their car keys, he seemingly lost his game forever and not only never won again, but rarely contended. Injuries to his neck, back, and wrist plagued Duval and in he began to battle vertigo. The back first acted up in early when he threw it out due to a sprained lumbar vertebra.
His swing changed in order to cater to the injury, but he developed a 2-way miss. He would literally stand on the tee not knowing if the ball was going left or right, and he was one of the best drivers on tour at the time.
With a drastic body change comes a change to the golf swing, and not always with positive results. Tour veteran Mark Calcavecchia recounted a time during his career that he was pressed to lose some weight by his coach, family, and peers.
Does the Hall of Fame ever enter your thoughts? Oh, I don't even know how you get in there. I know I'd have to do more than I've done. That's a good idea. The first thing that hit me was bursitis in the left shoulder. That's like 10 years ago. Then at the British Open in , the year before I won, I was really hurting.
My back. I was taking a steroid pack and codeine that you can get over-the-counter there. Then I went to the International a couple weeks later and had to quit on the 14th hole of the pro-am. I tried to play the first round and had to quit on the sixth hole. I was out for 10 weeks and missed the PGA Championship.
I had all the stuff done, MRI and all. I don't know what caused it. I can't remember one swing that caused it, or any one time when I was doing anything else, like working out or snowboarding.
Anyway, I wound up just lying on the floor at my place in Sun Valley for six weeks. I got up to eat and rehab, but that's about it. I was miserable. After hurting my right wrist earlier in the season. I started out that year playing incredibly mediocre to poor. My back was still not right, and I was doing everything not to hurt it more. If you look at my swing through part of and my swing after, you'll see a difference.
You'll see me compensating. I couldn't turn like I wanted to. I wasn't pivoting. I was reversing, I was flipping the club, my stance was getting narrower and narrower.
I was a disaster. My back is my back. It is what it is. Everything felt fine at the start of this year, which for me was at the Sony in Hawaii. Then I went to hit some practice balls before the Monday pro-am, and it acted up again.
Acted up a lot. I about cried, I was so disgusted. I love hitting the ball, controlling the ball. And yeah, even the roar of the crowd.
I enjoy the roar of the crowd probably less than some players and more than some. But I'm not out here to be a celebrity. You said after you won the British Open that it wasn't all you expected. How so? I think I figured it would mean personal validation as opposed to professional validation.
You know, look at me: I'm OK. I'm a good guy, not just a good golfer. So in that respect, it was not the end-all, be-all that I made it out to be in my head. And things might have been different had I really felt I was playing well there in Of all the tournaments I've won, I dare say that's the least comfortable I've ever felt with my game and my ability to control the ball. I've played better and lost. But it was satisfying in that respect, because you could say I actually played the best. It almost sounds like a contradiction, but if you're not hitting fairways and greens yet you're still getting it in the hole, you're really playing the game.
Chipping and putting. Don't get me wrong about this, though. I still want to win majors. I want to win the U. Open more than anything. Even more than the Masters. You've had a couple of close calls at Augusta National. What about what the people there have done to toughen the golf course?
I'll just say it's silly, stretching that course to almost 7, yards with those funky greens. The idea that they're Tiger-proofing the course is ridiculous. They're Tiger- prepping it. Or Ernie-prepping it. It doesn't necessarily hurt me, although I don't hit it quite as long as those fellows, but it's definitely cutting down on the number of players you figure can win.
I thought it was great what Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer said, criticizing the changes. I don't understand what they're doing at Augusta National. Does anybody? You didn't have a close call this past April, when you shot 84 in the first round. I had a bad round, no question about that. It takes only a couple bad swings to ruin your score on any course, but especially at Augusta. And I had a couple bad swings starting out the second round, too.
You started with a 6, followed with a 10, yet wound up with 32 on the back for Yeah, on the second hole, I hit everything except the fairway. Like someone said, too bad they don't score like the Olympics, where you can throw out the high number.
But I did get straightened out on the back nine, and if it hadn't been for a couple lip-outs, I could have shot 30 or even I look at the glass as half full. Which is how you felt Thursday night, when your dad wondered whether you might not play on Friday. He did ask me that, and my response was, what kind of a message would that be to my kids, my fans, anybody else?
I had a bad round, shot 84, so I'm going to take my ball and go home, boohoo? I never considered withdrawing, and I don't think my dad really expected me to, either. Of late, you look more like you used to look before you went for the physical-fitness regimen.
You mean I'm fat again? Well, I'm still concerned about health and diet. But I always used to be a little heavy, a little thick, whatever you want to call it. And I just wanted to see how good a shape I could get into if I really worked at it. I was curious. Was it positive or negative?
I can't say. That period did happen to coincide with when I was starting to hurt, and eventually lose my game. But I don't know that I can attach the two. There was a time when people told me I was too thin, too gaunt. I got down as low as 5 percent body fat, my best shape ever.
But, if I looked better, I didn't always like the way I felt. I was working out four, five days a week. Lifting, running, the usual. Then a couple years ago, I was in Japan and it struck me: Everything seems to hurt. I was between and pounds. When I won the British, I was pretty light. I just cleaned up my diet a bit. Tried to eliminate fried foods, fatty stuff, sweets. I enjoy having some wine with [wife] Susie, but I don't really drink much.
I'd gotten pretty heavy about 10 years ago. I was around I'm probably back to now. When someone at the Sony in January mentioned that I looked like I was back in my "comfort zone," I asked him whether he meant my "buffet zone. I never did the workouts so I would look good at the beach. I'm like anyone else, I am somewhat concerned about my appearance. But I'm going for a steak when we're done with this. Your deal with Nike is up at the end of this year.
Do you expect to be back with them next year? If I had my druthers, I would be. I don't want to make any changes. Nike and Bob Wood [president of Nike Golf] are a lot of the reason I've been able to weather what I've been through and turn it around. Bob Wood and I have a good relationship, professionally and personally. He's the kind of guy I would want running my company, if I had a company.
He gets it. I don't know about that. But I haven't had one moment of grief from them. Not one. In fact, when I went to play the U. Open at Shinnecock a couple years ago, after a long break, I actually got a call from Bob.
He questioned me on whether I should go play, because I was playing so poorly. He asked me whether I was ready. He said as much as, "Don't do it for us. Well, a lot of people probably wondered the same thing: If you're hitting it sideways, why subject yourself to that? I couldn't miss a U. Plus, it was at Shinnecock. I wasn't going to miss that. I was exempt. How do you not go play? I shot [], but I don't feel like I embarrassed myself. When you hit the skids as you did, you probably found out who your friends are, correct?
Oh, there's a lot of that. A lot of people stuck by me, people who I know outside of golf, plus a bunch of players. My relationship with Justin Leonard is very tight.
He went where I went for a while, hitting it crooked. I'm just mentioning a few names here, which isn't fair, because I'm going to leave people out. Like Jim Furyk; there's another one. When we interviewed him [June ] he talked about a spat with you at an amateur event years ago. That was a four-man team thing way back in A long time ago. I don't know if I recall it the way he recalls it, but I remember him hitting a ball that struck a cartpath or road.
He wanted to take it out of play because it was scuffed. I told him the ball wasn't cut, so I didn't see how he could. He disagreed. I guess we didn't talk for a couple years after that, but it's over. It was heated at the moment, but I actually think the world of him. Like him a lot. We had some rough patches, like any kid has with parents.
But we're real close, as close as we've ever been. He did a lot of good things for me. The best thing he ever did for me was when I told him about Susie.
I was living in Jacksonville, right near him and his second wife. We were seeing a fair amount of each other, and I told him I was in love with Susie. I wanted to marry her. He said, "Well, that's awesome, that's great. I said, "Well, you know she lives in Denver, and that means I'm out of here.
I'll be leaving Florida for Colorado. Susie Persichitte. It was at the International. I was going to dinner with [Dr. There was a tominute window for Susie and me to cross paths. It was Gio's idea to go into town for dinner. I literally had not left that property in three or four years of going to that tournament. So we went to this place in town for dinner, and almost right away, I saw her across the room, having a glass of wine with a couple of her friends near the bar area.
She had just dropped her kids off at the golf course and was on her way home. I don't notice any issues on the greens. As a guy that just had double cataract surgery a few weeks ago, don't ever go out in the sun without quality sunglasses.
I have worn my M-frames for years. I started to use them about the time Duval got on the tour. Had the opportunity to meet him once and he was great and down to earth. I hope he reinvents himself on the golf course, loved his style. You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
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