| |
Simply the best For now, Duval ends arguments about No. 1
Posted: Tuesday March 30, 1999 01:32 PM
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Ten months ago, David Duval tried to fend off questions about whether he was the best golfer in the world. "I don't think it's fair for me to answer that," he said then, at the Memorial tournament. "If I say yes, then I'm arrogant. If I say no, I have no confidence." Now, the former Georgia Tech golfer doesn't have to say anything at all. He has always preferred to stand on his results, and Sunday was no different in The Players Championship. His patience tested in the most taxing conditions, Duval never lost his poise. Five times over the course of the final round, he had bogey putts of at least 4 feet -- one of them was 15 feet. He made them all. "Before I teed off, I told myself that the person who wins this tournament is going to make these putts," he said. "If I wanted somebody to make it, I wanted me to do it. So let's just knock them in." Duval didn't even flinch on the scariest hole in golf when a tournament is on the line, the island-green 17th at the Stadium Course on the TPC at Sawgrass. He pulled a wedge from the bag and hit it 6 feet from the hole for a birdie that clinched a two-stroke victory over Scott Gump. "All I tried to do was grab the club and hit it," Duval said. It was his third victory this year -- no one else has more than one -- and 10th in his last 33 starts dating to October 1997. It was worth $900,000, enough to put him over the $8 million mark for a career that began less than five years ago. More than anything, it took care of the one number that everyone had been talking about since January. The victory moved Duval to the top world ranking on Monday for the first time, ending Tiger Woods' reign of 41 weeks. Before the week began, Duval said he didn't care about the world ranking. Not much changed as he collected his 10th trophy. "It's nice to be now ranked No. 1 ... but it is not a concern of mine," he said. "I've been playing well for a while. If I had won one out of three golf tournaments and couldn't get to No. 1, then I didn't know exactly what I need to do. So let's forget about it and just play." If watching Duval play over the toughest conditions ever on the Stadium Course was not impressive enough, watching other great players collapse around him only emphasized the state of his game. Duval was a stroke behind Joe Ozaki entering the weekend. Ernie Els, Davis Love III and Nick Price were among those within four shots of the lead. But after the third round, when Duval forged ahead by one stroke, Price was the only player still under par. Price, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker and Payne Stewart, Colin Montgomerie and Mark O'Meara flirted with the lead Sunday. All of them had either a ball in the water (or two) or some other disaster waiting. Not Duval. He doesn't carry a 60-degree sand wedge or try to pull off impossible shots that ostensibly lead to trouble. He prefers to steer clear of danger and let his wedge and putter bail him out. That proved to be a winning ticket in the Players. Duval never got himself on the wrong side of the hole for a three-putt. He never took anything worse than bogey. "I'm very proud of myself how I played," he said. Duval becomes only the third player to be ranked No. 1 in the world without having won a major. Both Ian Woosnam and Fred Couples were at the top just before they won the Masters in 1991 and 1992. Duval doesn't even have one leg of the Grand Slam, but he has a rather peculiar hat trick. He won the Mercedes Championships, beating a winners-only field in Kapalua, Hawaii, by nine strokes in January. He also won the Tour Championship, the season-ending tournament for the top 30 money-winners. And now he has won the Players against what traditionally is the strongest field on tour. Tom Kite is the only other player who has won those three events. Undoubtedly, Duval will be the heavy favorite at Augusta National in two weeks. Just as certain, he will not let the pressure of winning his first major or the burden of expectations stand in the way of the simplicity with which he has always approached the game. His mechanics are sound. He has more confidence than anyone right now. And if the rock-hard greens of the Stadium Course didn't prepare him for Augusta, having won against the third-strongest field assembled this decade certainly doesn't hurt. "I know I can beat the players," he said. "It's just a matter of being ready, being on my game and playing well. It's not a guarantee I will, but I've proven I can do it. I've proven it to myself." And he has proven it to everyone around him.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
