David Duval is struggling to play tournaments these days but after two weeks of links golf he took advantage of his early third round tee-off time in the best of the weather to set a spanking early pace, with a five-under round of 67 which he hopes will remind the powers that be that he is far from a spent force.
The 2001 Open champion now spends much of his time working for the Golf Channel but he was in the field for the Scottish Open at Gullane last week, after spending the previous week playing and practising at home, but he failed to make the cut and travelled up to the Old Course where he has been preparing for the main event on it ever since.
“I’ve been on St Andrews since last Saturday every day playing golf. Who gets to say that really? It’s pretty cool,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned I’m on a Scottish links trip. The difficulty I face is not getting to play.
“Competing against the best golfers in the world and the Dustin Johnsons and Jordan Spieths and Rorys is not a fair fight when I haven’t played a golf tournament in three or four months and they’ve been playing constantly.
“I would say physically, mechanically I’m probably playing just like I was back in 2001 but the thing I lack is starts, and from that confidence, the utter confidence that the top players have.”
Duval only made it into the final two rounds here with a birdie at the 18th on Saturday to finish level par and out in the first pairing with Scott Arnold of Australia (one over), after three-putting the Road Hole and seeing a seventh successive missed cut at the Open looming. “You know, I got a lot of congratulations, a lot of thumbs-up kind of thing from players, caddies, about making birdie on 18. Even our walking referee was kind of like – everybody was excited and happy. It’s nice to come to a place you love to be and then perform well.”
The American made his Open debut at St Andrews in 1995 and is playing the fifth of his 19 overall at the Old Course, so he was always well equipped to put up a score and earn a more favourable starting time on Monday.
He was followed in soon after by the two-times champion Ernie Els with a three-under 69 and an hour later by Jim Furyk, who managed a six-under round of 66 as the three 40-somethings made the most of the benign early Sunday morning conditions.
Duval had four birdies in his front nine and three more on the way back with two bogeys for his 67, the last of them when playing safe off the tee at the 455yd 15th with a long iron and going through the green from the light rough with his approach. It looked like he would drop another at the 17th when his drive finished in the semi-rough on the far side of the adjacent 2nd fairway but he saved the day with a long lagged putt from the front of the green for a tap-in par.
As it stands Duval, who last wrote to an event requesting a wildcard more than 12 months ago, thinks that he may get a start when the PGA Tour stops in Reno next month and that will be him for the year as far as tournament play goes, though he would love to get an entry into more fields.
“I make no bones about it, I feel like if I could set a 20-, 22-event schedule I could regain status and play all I wanted, but I’m not in that position,” he added.
“I felt like it was up to me to start performing, and I didn’t get very many starts last year either. I don’t know, maybe things would change if I play well tomorrow, too. Who knows?
“There’s absolutely no pressure on me. Maybe I’ll shoot 67 again, maybe I’ll shoot 77, who knows?
“But I’ll have a smile on my face and enjoy walking around St Andrews, I can tell you that.”
