You may say he's washed up.

I say he boasted eight sub-70 scores in his past 16 rounds this year. If he continues in '09, it will be a huge story. (from SI's Jason Sobel Blog)

What do you all think?

PS: DD will be playing on the PGA Tour in '09 using his Top 50 Career Money Exemption Status and will need to finish in the top 125 at the end of 2009 for 2010 eligibility. This a big year for DD!

I like Duval, I hope he does well.

And I say he entered 20 events and made only 5 cuts, with a scoring average of 73.73. This will be at least the fifth year in a row where everyone has gotten all excited about DD and predicted his big comeback, and the fifth year in a row where he disappoints. How many times does it have to happen before people finally realize he isn't coming back?

Yes, you may definitely say he is washed up.

Krusty - Unfortunately, I can certainly understand while you feel that way and you are not alone.

However, I am hopeful for a top 125 finish at the end of 2009 as he will be out of exemptions at year's end. I just think it is a better Tour when DD is playing well and competing.

Stick a fork in him. He's done, unfortunately.

DD's done. It's more mental now than anything else. Bill Rogers never came back when he fell off the map and I just can't see DD coming back either albeit I'm rooting for him.

I am not sure "washed up" should be the correct description. He is on the precipice of disappearing though. He has flashes of game, but on Tour, flashes don't make you a lot of money. Consistency DOES.

I hope DD makes it back, so he can keep his card. The British open was a bright spot for him.

Unfortunately, I think he is done as well. I like DD so I really, really hope he surprises me...but there aren't any real indications he can compete at the top level anymore.

If comes back in 2009 50lbs lighter we will know he's serious. Right now, he's toast unfortunately.

Even if he finishes outside the top 125 (or 150 even) you'll still see him playing plenty of times if he chooses to. He can get unlimited sponsors exemptions.

Im not sure how DD makes it a better Tour.  Im not sure why everyone feels sorry for DD, he IS in the top 50 career $$$.  Im sure he's not sitting at home crying....  lol  If he does trim down, and get in better shape, he may pickup some confidence in his game along the way.

I really like Duval, got to watch him play last month. If ballstriking was very iffy, if he can get things together he'll have a great 2009. If he strikes it like he did when I saw him, constantly having to get up and down, he will surely have a tough time. I wish the best for him; he and his family are very nice people.

If you look at when DD was playing his best it was when he was "out of shape". In 2001 when he got so thin he started to loose it. When he got on that health kick he injured his back working out so hard and was never able to adjust to his new body. I know he won the Open in '01 but he was already on the down turn. He also went through a tough period with injuries and even a case of Vertigo which made things even tougher. When you go 30 years with one body type and one swing it can be difficult to change your body type so dramatically without having some swing trouble. I think the fact that he is back to his old body type will be good for his swing and his game.

I think his biggest issue now is where he is in his life. He has said many times that since he got re-married and started a family golf is no longer as important as it once was. To play at the level that those guys play at I think you have to be a little one sided. If he wants to get back to the level he was at, golf has to become the center of his world again, and I don't see that happening. I know he has said recently that he wants to put more time into his game but once you gain the kind of perspective that he has its hard to go back to being so single minded.

I have always been a fan of David's and I hope to see him return to the form he once saw, but if he has gotten to the point in his life where he is happy with playing a few tournaments here and there than Im cool with that too.

Sadly, as a Duval fan, I don't see a miraculous return to major-winning form for Duval; which is a shame because in his prime he was one of the best ball strikers and players out there and for me has been the only serious rival to Woods' brilliance in the last decade or so.

I don't think it's beyond the realms of fantasy that he'll regain some semblance of form, perhaps even to a level where he seriously contends on a reasonably frequent basis again or wins a tournament or two, but I don't see another Open Championship in his future, sadly.

What's remarkable to me (as it was in Sandy Lyle's case, and even in Seve's) was why he had such a catastrophic loss of form. I know his radical changes in body shape were mooted as a possible reason but he played his best golf after hitting the weights and losing some of the lard, even if he did begin to pick up annoyingly niggling injuries afterwards. That said, Duval's swing always looked like one that could run into problems to my untrained eye. A strong grip and everything else, that was red hot when running on all four cylinders, but always had the potential to go a bit wonky.

Fingers crossed for the lad, and no doubt the regular 'Duval's Back!' threads will continue unabated every time he hits a few fairways and breaks 70, but I'm not having a flutter for next years' Masters or for Turnberry.

i see 2-3 victories and 5-7 top tens for duval in 09'

good one bro,i needed a good laugh today.

I followed David Duval at the Ginn Sur Mer Classic, in the Saturday round, this year. There where only about 30 of us in his gallery. And 10 of those 30 people were his family....wife, mother-in-law, father, Mr. Bob Duval, and some other family members I didn't know....looked like maybe cousins or in-laws. Anyway, we (my father and I) got the chance to chat quite a bit with Bob, and David happened to be playing very well that day. The main thing that Bob kept saying is that it is all in David's head. He went through a slump, but it was a mental slump. He said that now, David has gotten focused and is ready to begin that climb. Now, was he just saying nice things about his son that any father would say?
I am going to have to say not, since that day, Duval could not have hit the ball any better. He was just puring every drive, and every iron shot. Even his chipping/pitching was hot....but his putting was a little shaky. Based on what I saw, up close and personal, Bob Duval was right....it's all in his head. If he can get focused, he's got just as much physical talent as anybody out there.....and I mean anybody. We'll see if he can find that focus next year. I sincerely hope so since I am a home-town, long time fan of David Duval.

DD has always been and will always be my favorite player. Until the day he retires, I'll be pulling for him. the issue might be in his head, but its certainly not in his heart. the guy is tough and always answers questions about his form by saying he's putting in the hard work and just waiting for his game to fire on all cylinders. here's to a solid year in 2009.



question though......if he were to fall out of the top 50, then a year or two make it back in the top 50, can he use the top 50 exemption again? same could be said for the top 25 (which he has already used i believe)

Correct, he already used his Top 25 Career Exemption for '07 and when he uses his Top 50 Career Exemption for '09, he will be out of exemptions as you can only use them once. He used a medical exemption for '08 since he had to miss most/all of '07 due to his wife's illness during her pregnancy with their second child together, her 5th.

I had a similar encounter following DD at The Memorial Tournament. I watched DD warm up on the range with his coach Puggy Blackmon. DD did not miss a shot during warm up and I really thought he would have a great round. However, he pull hooked his first tee shot with the driver on #10 and struggled mentally all day. I walked the first 4 holes with Puggy and he offered some great insight about DD and what they have been working on. Then on the 5th hole, (14) his wife - Susie, carrying their 1 year old daughter arrived, along with her father and her oldest son Deano (played with DD in last year's Del Web Father/Son). I met all of them and they were very genuine and very nice people.

Funny that you mention Bill Rogers, he was my favorite player from 1980-1984. He too, after winning the British Open, lost his game and never returned. He struggled on the Senior Tour as well. He is a great guy though, and a true Texas golf legend....

You can add Ian Baker Finch to that list as well:
Bill Rogers won The Open in 1981
Ian Baker Finch won The Open in 1991
DD won The Open in 2001

...man, you don't want to win The Open in 2011, it's a curse...

I don't feel sorry for him at all. Hell, he's made 16 Million dollars playing golf and about 7 Million more in endorsements - Nike, Oakley, Momentus, well mostly Nike...

He plays better with the weight on and actually has stayed healthier with the weight as well. He could probably loose about 15 pounds though as he currently does appear to be at his heaviest state.

I do not get the fascination with DD. He is toast, done, burnt, never to compete again.

Fantastic player, one of the all time best ballstrikers in his prime and a class act with a great temperament and personality. He also seems to have a conspicuous absence of attitude or big-headedness and is an articulate and educated individual - a contrast to many of the current stars who prance about like prima donnas on the course and then struggle to string a few words together when interviewed. All in between poncing about posing in ridiculous clothes and engaging in the sort of diva-esque behaviour that would put Mariah Carey to shame of course.

he may be a class act but great temperament and personality? he was one of the most boring interviews in golf. always emotionless and somewhat robotic.

Fair comment that he's not the most animated of characters; but he's certainly an intelligent man with an insightful mind - his Champion Golfer speech of a few years being a prime example - and strikes me as someone who, although a bit guarded, at least isn't a 'let's talk about me and how great I am until everyone's fed up of hearing it' merchant with the obligatory 'nothing's ever my fault' lines and one of those 'the world owes me a bloody good living' attitudes.

I'd much rather hear an interview with golfer who's got a lot going on upstairs but filters most of it out and, in the end, says very little; rather than a bloke who insists on waffling on about just about everything even though he's actually got very little to say that's worth hearing.

After initially seeing Duval in only domestic US coverage in his early days, I took note of the permanent shades and took him to be a surly individual with about as much personality as a wet flannel. After following him around in one of his early Open Championships though, I realised that he was a handy player and actually a bit of a character. I also remember seeing his play and some of his reactions at Brookline in the Ryder Cup and realised that he was a fiery character with a great deal of determination and drive. We all know what a player he became for, as it turned out, an unfortunately brief period.

As I say, I don't see Duval scaling the dizzy heights of his 1999-2001 purple patch for a variety of reasons. Form is fleeting but class is permanent though, and what I've seen of Duval convinces me that there's enough left in the tank for him to at least regain some semblance of form if the pieces all slot into place. An in-form Duval is really a treat to see and I for one would like to see him back performing at something like his best on some sort of a regular basis. I don't think it's a pipe dream to think that he may yet bag another tournament win or two in the next couple of seasons and he's a player I always take an interest in whenever he makes an appearance. Each to their own, but there are players who I'd much rather see humbled by the game than Duval.

I'll still take the Open win in 2011 and worry about the curse in 2012 though!!

Well said Mat, agree 100%

Come on guys never say never. Doesn't anybody watch James Bond? LOL. But I feel a good year for DD will be maybe a win in a somewhat low competition field and a couple top 10's, but I don't know if that will be enough for him. I hope he does well, I enjoy watching him play. So for all intensive purposes DD will have a "good" season, I just hope it's enough to get his card for 2010. Either way, DD is a better story than JD.

I just wanted to Wish Double D good luck this week at Pebble. So far this year it's been the same ole Duval, but I hope he can find some of the old magic this week.

Could not have said it better! I'm also a fan of David's and would love to see him back in the mix. His swing and follow through is super and I love his full turn finish.
It would be great to see him playing well but only time will tell if he can dig down and find something that was lost long ago.

I say he's washed up, but don't take that to mean that I wished that he was not.

interesting to read was that in the GD survey this month 1 in 5 tour players feel he will win again.

take it from those closest to him.

It's funny how a man who was world number one and a major winner can just become the golfer he is now. It shows how much of this game really is mental now that he is struggling to stay on tour.

He will NEVER return to near the level he was once at. I predict 1 top ten for the year.

Having watched DD's struggles and reading all the posts, I was too perplexed
to even respond. I've kind of just sat back and wished for a return to form
without a clue as to what the problem might be. Then I listened to TW talking
about when he might be back, and he says when he feels ready to win, as in,
I'm not going to play till I feel mentally and physically ready to win the tournament.
I take this to mean, I'm not playing my way back into shape, I'm practiceing my
way back. I know DD was away much longer than Tiger, but maybe this same approach would
have been better. Its like the more he plays medicore, the more medicore he becomes.
Good luck to him, but I'm not optimistic.

It's mental with DD, which is worse than it being a swing problem.

He played in the pairing in front of me last week at my club and he was hitting the ball beautifully. He's the real deal, just needs to clear the head. Try less hard.

My guess.

Duval never again win's a PGA Tourney, has a handful of top 20's, loses his exempt status after this year and never regains full exempt status on the PGA Tour. He was a great golfer, but I think a combination of time away, and lack of desire has finished him as a golfer who could break the top 50 in world rankings. You have to remember that when Duval was #1 in the world he was a friggen robot, and it totally ruined his personal life, I don't think he ever wants to go back to that even if that means he won't be as successful of a golfer.

Here is to hopeing he proves me wrong, I never want to wish any bad luck on someone.

I really hate to say this and really hope I'm wrong but I think he is washed up.

Spot on post, IMO. Tiger understands that mediocrity begets mediocrity; mediocrity becomes the expectation, and that prophesy self-fulfills. Tiger saying he will return when he is ready to win puts pressure on him the first Tour event he plays, but that is pressure he has lived with before and handled successfully.

I may be wrong, but I think you will see Tiger return with a vengeance for just that reason. The indicator for me was when he acknowledged that there were new young guns on Tour now, but then said, "Most of their success has come when I wasn't there." The perfect winning attitude, IMO.

Done, with a capital DONE

DD will be back.........When Duval comes to the Stanford in Memphis, im gonna see if he wants to stay at my house. (i only live 2 miles from TPC Southwind and have played there before and i know his e-mail)

IMO, he is washed up.

I love nothing more than veterans, so I wish Duval the best in 09.

When DD was in his prime he had a very strong grip with a nice rotary action that allowd him to pure long strong power fades all day long. He was probably the best driver on tour in terms of a combination of distance and accuracy and a great iron player. He was also a really good putter and made tons of 10 to 20 foot putts which he had plenty of opportunities to make. His short game was a little inconsistent and I dont think he relished hitting all the creative greenside shots Tiger is so good at. His game was actually somehat similar to Nicklaus's although his techique was a little different. For Duval to make a comeback he is going to have to regain confidence in his driver, he will never win hitting it like Tiger, his forte is not scrambling but controlled power, he will also have to have confidence in his putter. the real thing he is going to have to overcome his the 6 inches between his ears, his has to have drive, passion and regain his confidence. I do not know what is goin gone in his head, I question whether he really wants it again, if he does decide he wants it, then I predict he might do enough to make the top 125 and make the tour next year, but I would be suprised if we ever saw him again if he does not. I dont think DD's goals were ever similar to Tigers, he is an interesting character, a former great player but my gut tells me we have seen his best golf.

DD has some inner demons that he needs to control or exorcise, its not his golf swing, when he was hot that golf swing held up in the heat of battle.the problem is between his ears. I hope he can make it back, when he was on he could go way low and feared very few if any...

i am 100% sure that he will have a top 125 finish by the end of 2009.

I am not a sure as stated above, but I still have not jumped off the wagon just yet. I will always be pulling for him. I hope it is true he is finally healthy and he can just work on the confidence.

Double D has started out with a bogie ... +1 already

What does it say about the state of professional golf when David Duval is STILL a hot topic?