Duval... The Next Beck, Baker-Finch??
I cannot believe that I am writing this post, but sometimes you need to step off the bandwagon and just be very honest.
I remember a few years ago when David Duval won the 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic shooting a beautiful and stunning 59 to win. He was sponsered by Titleist, hid behind is Oakley Sunglasses, and was a man of utter confidence.
Today, when I was looking at scores from Duval's group from the 2005 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, I saw:
First Round: 40 - 42 = 82
Second Round: 41 - 38 = 79
Third Round: 36 - 49 = 85
and I thought to myself... Did pgatour.com screw up and put in a member from his Pro-am team or were these David's scores? Then I thought to myself, I wonder what I would do if I beat a former British Open Champion in a Pro-am, when I pay a large sum of money to hopefully win nice prizes with the tournament? What would I do if I played and whooped on David?
I know that he has had many problems in his life and now is finally for the first time "happy," but for one of my idols when I was playing Jr. golf to probably being a worse player than I am now, it just makes me sad.
I hope that David finds what he wants in life and hopefully will fill my life with more 59's instead of back nine 49's.
Go David!!
6 Comments:
those numbers are pretty disappointing. It may be that DD turns into a "one hit wonder." Let's hope not. Hal Sutton -- who was once touted as the "next Nicklaus" -- made a late turnaround in his career. Hopefully, DD won't need as long.
Truthfully, though, I always found David's swing a little unorthodox -- super strong grip and flat. I heard he's changed his grip to a neutral position. I'm sure it feels really foreign to him, after years of playing with his old grip. This makes me wonder about whether Duval can easily turn things around.
My take isn't quite as nice: by barely breaking 90, he's shown he doesn't belong and that he's taking spots away from players that are both poorer and better than he is. Until he gets his game back, he needs to get his behind off the PGA Tour.
It's sad, but every week he plays the sadness turns more to anger at his reluctance to give up his spot to someone more worthy. :-P
I agree he has no place on the Tour. Back when Tiger first hit the field and everyone was clamoring after him, I predicted that once their careers were over, DD would have more titles and more majors than Tiger.
So much for MY prescience!
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Gee, can you guys kick a person when he's down!!!
So what. David Duval is going through a rough patch. It happens. As we are all golfing hacks (otherwise, we'd be on tour rather than writing about it) we all go through the yips.
It takes more courage to keep it up in the spotlight.
I couldn't agree more with the comments on how Duval should give up spots for up and coming players, but then I put myself in his shoes.
1) He was #1 on the tour at one point. He went through a lot of work and commitments to get to that point. In his mind, he earned the right to go to a tour event whenever he wants no matter how he plays (and the exemption status confirms that).
2) I don't think there is any ProAm guy that is pissed he was paired with David Duval rather than Joe Ogilvie before the tournament started (can't say the same about the winner, Leonard, because he is a major winner as well). Think of the stories you could talk about.
3) David Duval is still one of the highest earning players on tour when you include off-course earnings (he doesn't really have on-course earnings). And on The Golf Channel, you always see his score in the notables column. So the interest is still there, and he brings more viewers to the course than a no-name trying for his card. david worked his way on tour, and he is hardly going to feel bad for a poor Nationwide Tour player trying to work his way on tour when he went through the same experience. No one was giving up a spot for David when he was trying to get into a tournament.
4)If i had a chance to play in a tournament, even at my handicap, and I could stand the press and fans hounding me for the high scores I put up, I'd play in the tournament without a 2nd thought. Period. if i earned it, I'd take my ProAm cash, and I'd play a few rounds of golf, and love every minute of it.
5) He may have a commitment to his equipment sponsors to play a certain number of tournaments a year. So he has no choice but to play.
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