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 David becomes golf's Goliath
Posted: Tuesday March 30, 1999 01:16 PM
As the Masters rapidly approaches, one man stands taller than the rest in the world of golf. He's the modest mauler David Duval, who added the "fifth major" to his burgeoning title collection on March 28, and now has now laid down the ground rules for winning the first major of the year at Augusta. Throughout four potentially treacherous days at Sawgrass during The Players' Championship, Duval never did worse than bogey on any one hole. He never got himself on the wrong side of the hole for a three-putt. He didn't flirt with trouble by going for broke on the truly dangerous holes, while some of his rivals did go broke by doing just that, and he did it all with a typical confidence tempered by his natural modesty. That's what it took to win the TPC. It will take that and more to triumph at the Masters. It would take a fool not to include Duval among their favorites for the coveted green jacket. He was in the Augusta title running last year, only to have Mark O'Meara's late heroics to steal the day. But Duval is certainly improved even from last year, and has deservedly taken over from Tiger Woods atop the world golf rankings. Tiger clawed his way to the top 41 weeks earlier. Now his lengthy reign is over. Duval is the PGA Tour's new king. Three tournament wins and that stunning final round, record-breaking 59 to storm from way back to clinch the Bob Hope Classic have seen to that. No other player has more than one victory to his credit this year. Duval now has 10 tournament wins in his last 33 starts going back to October 1997. In five years, he has won more than eight million dollars. He's not flashy, doesn't court publicity. Isn't an advertiser's dream. But that makes Duval all the more real when his golfing accomplishments are so impressive that they appear not to be grounded in reality. The big time is now for a major player -- now for a major title.
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