A message from David Duval arrived just as the Americans began to seize control in the Presidents Cup.
The last time the matches were held at Royal Melbourne, Duval was the top qualifier for the U.S. team.
On this day, Duval was headed home from a place he never wanted to be.
“It can be bumpy climbing to the top,” he wrote.
The former No. 1 player in the world, whose 14 wins include a British Open, had played in the second stage of Q-school. Duval closed with a 70 and was the runner-up at Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta, Calif., easily advancing to the final stage next week.
What made this so compelling was Duval’s brutal honesty a month earlier.
He was on the practice range at the McGladrey Classic, barely inside the top 150 on the PGA Tour money list and not willing to think about the consequences. Duval already had used his two exemptions from the career money list. He didn’t mind going back to the final stage of Q-school, something he had done two years earlier.
To fall outside the top 150, however, would give him two options – go to the second stage of Q-school, or get limited starts as a past champion and ask for handouts.
“You find out what kind of ego you have,” Duval said that day. “I’ll go to the Q-school final if I have to. I think I owe it to myself to do that. But I won’t go to second stage. I just can’t. Do you know what I mean?”
Sea Island was to be his last tournament because he had accepted an invitation to play in Malaysia. Duval missed the cut, then showed up at Disney for the final official event of the year. He narrowly missed the cut again, and wound up at No. 152 on the money list. He headed home to Denver.
“It took a little bit of soul-searching,” Duval said. “ … I just decided after a little bit of time and some reflection that this is what I want to do and what I’m good at. I’m still good at it.”
Duval reached No. 1 in the world in the spring of 1999 while winning 11 times in 34 starts, a Tiger Woods-like winning rate.
Where his game went remains a mystery even to him. He prefers to talk about his quest to get it back.
There have been a few close calls, enough for him to believe he still has the game.
Duval was tied for the lead with two holes to play at Bethpage Black in the U.S. Open two years ago when his 5-foot par putt spun out of the cup and Lucas Glover birdied to win. Duval tied for second.
A year later, he was tied for the lead at Pebble Beach until Dustin Johnson split the 18th fairway to set up a routine birdie from the greenside bunker and a one-shot win over Duval.
This year was a step back, and it took Duval all the way back to the second stage.
“I’m proud of myself for going,” Duval said of swallowing his pride and going to the second stage of Q-school. “And I’m proud of how I played.”
The second stage came a week after John Daly, who has refused to go to Q-school the last five years he hasn’t had a full card, pumped seven balls in rapid succession into the water at the Australian Open and walked off the course in the second round.
“I’m not John Daly,” Duval said.
Duval was not alone. The list of major champions who went back to the second stage included Todd Hamilton, Rich Beem and Lee Janzen, a two-time U.S. Open winner.
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