Duval slots into rightful place

Barely five months in advance of the Ryder Cup matches at The Country Club, it is already apparent that the make-up of the competing teams will reflect a dramatic changing of the guard.

Were the two squads to be selected tomorrow, only three players who participated in the historic 14-14 draw at the Belfry 10 years ago (all of them Americans - Fred Couples, Mark O'Meara and Payne Stewart) would qualify. While the captains' picks will augment that total with a few more familiar names, it is plain enough September's matches in Brookline will be contested largely by fresh young faces, and none more fresh than that of 27-year-old David Duval.

Duval was not even a member of the American team that came limping home from Sotogrande two Septembers ago. At the time the Valderrama matches were contested, in fact, he had never won a professional tournament. But over the last year and a half he has been, quite simply, the best golfer on the planet. His win at TPC Sawgrass last Sunday was his 10th in his last 33 tour events, and vaulted him past Tiger Woods and into the world's Number One ranking.

In reaching this lofty station, Duval became just the second golfer in the 13-year history of the world rankings to reach the top without having won a major, an omission which could well be corrected by next weekend. There are no guarantees in his sport, but any reasonable prognosis would have to make Duval the man to beat in Augusta, where he was one putt away - the 30 footer O'Meara drained on the 18th green - from a play-off for the 1998 Masters title.

The seers had forecast that by the time the millennium approached American golf - indeed, golf itself - would come to be dominated by one man, but the fellow who was supposed to do the dominating was Woods, not Duval.

With his trademark wrap-around sunglasses, a sometime goatee and an ice-cool demeanour, Duval became the 1995 PGA Rookie of the Year without winning a tournament. Three ensuing seasons marked him as what the pros describe as a "nice player", one who could expect to earn a comfortable living in years to come, but for whom few predicted greatness.

But after closing out 1997 with three tour victories, Duval added four more last year before embarking on what has become a remarkable Odyssey. He carded a final round 59 on the way to capturing the Bob Hope Classic, and won the Mercedes Championship by a nine-stroke margin. But those accomplishments pale in comparison to his win at TPC, contested over a preposterously difficult course with the added pressures of a hometown audience. He has won three times in seven tries this year.

Jacksonville is located in (remarkably) Duval County, Florida, where Duval spent his boyhood. From the time he was a mere lad he could remember his father, club professional Bob Duval, working as a volunteer manning the scorer's tent at the Tournament Players' Championship. Last weekend's was the fifth time David had played in the TPC event, but he'd attended at least 15 others as a spectator.

"My Dad would always bring a hat to the scorer's tent, and he'd have the players sign it for me," recalled Duval fils. "I grew up watching this tournament and dreaming of playing in it some day."

Duval's familiarity with the course might have helped him somewhat last Sunday, but father Bob opined that the pressures of playing before the hometown folks actually made David's accomplishment even more difficult. In any case, the Duvals became the first father-son duo to win PGA events on the same day on Sunday when Bob recorded his first Senior Tour victory in the Emerald Coast Classic in Pensacola.

Although the US PGA has failed miserably in its efforts to gain acknowledgement of its contention that the Players' Championship constitutes a "fifth major", it should be noted that last weekend's field included 49 of the world's top 50 players.

That Duval needed just 22 putts in his final round is a particularly misleading figure: five of those were to save bogey. He came to the 17th tee nursing a one-shot lead, a daunting situation under any circumstance, particularly when one finds oneself looking at one of the most intimidating holes in golf.

The island green had played havoc with the world's best professionals all day. Time and again, seemingly accurate tee shots had found their target only to carom off the rock-hard surface and roll off the back of the green to join the alligators lurking in the pond.

As he stood on the tee, Duval flashed back to a scene from his formative years. He remembered watching Nick Price play this hole on his way to victory in 1993. "He just walked up, grabbed his club, and hit it," said Duval. So he walked up, grabbed a wedge, and hit it - to six feet.

The birdie putt gave him a two-shot lead. He got up and down from off the green to save par on the last for a $900,000 win that clinched the world number one slot, put him over $8 million in earnings for a career that is not five years old, and had to be the most satisfying of the 10 victories he has reeled off in an 18-month span.

Duval was asked whether he had just experienced the best day of his life.

"Well," he answered truthfully, "it will probably never stray out of the top two or three."

A year ago it was O'Meara who wore the mantle of "best player never to have won a major", a dubious distinction which he shed most emphatically with wins at Augusta and Birkdale. After last weekend's events at TPC, the defending Masters champion seemed more than eager to pass the torch to Duval.

"The thing about David is, we all know he's got every aspect of the game," said O'Meara. "We know he's a great driver, a good iron player. He's got a great short game and he's a wonderful putter. "But one of his biggest assets is he's a very composed player," added O'Meara. "He doesn't let a couple of bad breaks bother him. I think that's why he's playing some of the best golf of anybody in the world."

Having mastered one of America's most difficult courses, Duval now turns his attention to one of its most forgiving. Other big tournaments may sort out the question of who the world's most skilful golfer might be, but the Masters has historically been kind to the hottest player. Just as you knew going in that Woosnam would win at Augusta in 1991, and Couples the next year, a man would have to be foolish to bet against David Duval right now.

"This is turning into a dream year," he pointed out last weekend, "and it's only March!"

And September - are you listening, Monty? - is only six months away.