By David Duval
Special to the Augusta Chronicle

Masters rookie David Duval, a four-time first team All-American at Georgia Tech, is sharing his thoughts with staff writer David Westin for a daily diary this week. Duval, a fourth-year professional, earned his Masters invitation by finishing among the top 30 money winners on the PGA Tour in 1995. He was 11th with $881,436.

You're not going to believe me but I made a hole-in-one on the par-3 12th hole Monday with an 8-iron shot.

The pin was cut to the left side of the green and I was going to hit it over the bunker to the middle of the green or maybe a little right. I was looking around and I said, no, just hit it at the hole and see if you can knock it in. Lo and behold, it went in.

It hit about 3 or 4 feet in front of the hole and went in. It just trickled in like a putt. They had the tees up and we figured it played at about 142 or 143 yards.

The guys I was playing with, Tim Herron and Steve Stricker, wanted me to hit another ball on No. 12, but I said no. I said I'm done here. My work is done.

The crowd went crazy. There were at least a thousand people around the tee. They were piled in there pretty good.

I played the course six times when I was in college so I joked that it was course knowledge that I made the ace and it was a damn easy hole.

It's a good omen for the week. I've got something I'll never forget.

Someone asked if that was any indication of how I'm hitting my irons shots. I told them there is so much luck involved with a one.

That's my second ace. The first one was in the final round of the 1993 Nike Tour Championship at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Cornelius, Ore.

I never made a hole-in-one as an amateur. I did make one at the course I grew up on in Jacksonville, Timuguana Country Club, but we were playing cross-country. I hit from the third tee to the 16th green and used a 6-iron.

I was really disappointed after shooting 76 in the final round of the BellSouth Classic on Sunday. I was leading by two shots going into the final round and finished third. I made a pretty quick exit.

When I started looking at the scores and thinking about it, I don't think anybody in the last four groups shot under par but the winner, Paul Stankowski, and he shot 71. I don't think there was any reason I shouldn't have got around in 73 or 74. I hit the ball where I needed to on several occasions and hit good putts but didn't make them.

My attitude wasn't very good Sunday night. I was really disappointed. But when you wake up and you're driving down here, you forget about it.

It's hard to look at it like this, but at the same time if you would have told me I would have finished fourth and third after having been off for a month with tendinitis in my shoulder, I would have thought you were pulling my leg. I didn't know I was quite ready to do that.

It's hard to pull positives out of what happened on Sunday. At the same time, I had another chance to win a golf tournament and that's what it's all about. You just want the chance come Sunday. The position I was in was tough; it's tough to play from there. I felt like I did pretty good. I just hit a couple of bad shots here and there and made bogeys from them.

I'm teeing off at 9 a.m. today with Tim Herron, Fuzzy Zoeller and John Daly. It will be a fun group. I'm looking forward to it.