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David Duval's small miracle: five-under at St. Andrews
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — David Duval's iconic blade sunglasses are so far out of style that they're coming back around. He's gained and lost dozens of pounds. So if you squint just the right way, ignoring the lines in the face and the gray in the goatee, you could almost believe that the dominant 2001-era Duval, the onetime No. 1 player in the world and British Open champion, had come back for one more go at St. Andrews.
But, no, this is 2015, a decade and a half removed from Duval's brief prime. He came into this tournament ranked 1,268th in the world, right between a couple guys named Hugo Leon and Jean-Baptiste Gonnet. He's played in four events this year and made the cut in just one, earning a grand total of $7,613. He's suffered financial difficulties, he's seen his invitations to tournaments and opportunities to play for money dwindle. He even spent some time hawking energy-infused beef jerky, of all things, on his bag. He's a Golf Channel analyst now, and the scattered galleries that cheer him are far more likely to be applauding whoever he's playing with or waiting for whoever's next.
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So the fact that Duval, 43 now, could come out and shoot a 5-under round at the British Open ranks as a small miracle. Even better, he crafted this gem just hours after a do-or-die performance to close out the second round. He'd stood on the 16th tee Saturday at even par, the Road Hole and the R&A Clubhouse looming ahead of him, knowing that all he had to do was par the last two holes and he'd make his first cut in a British Open since 2008, his first cut in any major since the 2010 U.S. Open.
He bogeyed the 17th. Another disappointment loomed, another heartbreak in a career that had suffered nothing but.
Except this time, things went different. Things, for once in forever, went right. Duval birdied the 18th on Saturday to make the cut on the number. He followed that up with a bit of Old Course artistry on Sunday, a seven-birdie, two-bogey performance that vaulted him momentarily into the top 5. Sure, St. Andrews was about as vicious as a newborn puppy on Sunday. But Duval knows this course, and for once, his skills could handle the task his mind set before him.
Take, for instance, the par-5 5th hole. The Sunday pin placement is tucked behind a bunker, and it's all but impossible to reach. Rather than trying to fire straight at the pin, Duval trusted himself and his putter, optiing to go for a long two-putt. And he ended up doing exactly what he'd planned: hitting a 3-wood to 70 feet, then two-putting in to birdie the hole.
"You can name a number of holes [at St. Andrews] where the fairway is right at you," he said, pointing straight ahead. "And you've got to go this way" - pointing left - "to have a chance, or that way" - pointing right - "to have a chance. That's sometimes hard to do, because everybody kind of wants to swing towards the target."
You want metaphor, there you go. Duval's game has gone so far off target it's invisible, but every so often, it arcs back to where it ought to be. You want a reason old people like golf? It's for moments like this, moments when the stars of the past dig deep and pull out one more moment of glory. Michael Jordan will never again score 50 in an NBA game, but Jack Nicklaus can win a Masters at 46. Joe Montana won't ever throw another NFL touchdown pass, but Tiger Woods might just pull one more round of 65 out of his bag one day.
Afterward, Duval's caddy, Ron "Bambi" Levin, choked up talking about Duval's struggles and triumph. "David broke through so early, and has been on the scene so long, that everyone thinks he's about to join the senior's tour, about to turn 50. That's obviously not the case; he's 43, he's got a lot of good golf left in him," Levin said. "I've seen the hard times he's gone through and the adversity. It makes me pretty proud of him."
There are lessons to learn from failure, too, if you're willing to pay attention. Moving from the fairway to the announcing booth gave Duval a new perspective on the game, and it was an enlightening one. "When you're not playing well and you're struggling, you feel like everybody else is hitting it beautiful and perfect all the time," Duval said. "So you're sitting up there when you're announcing and recapping the tournaments, realizing, man, these guys hit some really ugly shots. ... Seeing that, it's like, oh, yeah, everybody screws up and does bad things, and so it removes a little bit of the pressure of I have to go out and play perfectly."
A strong performance on Sunday could put Duval back on the radar for tournament and sponsor exemptions, the kind not usually available for a player ranked around 1,300 in the world. But whether or not such exemptions happen, Duval appears a man at peace.
"There's absolutely no pressure on me [Monday]. There's not," he said. "So I'll go play [Monday] and do the best I can. 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."
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.
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