Golf
Jason Sobel, ESPN Senior Writer 9y

David Duval turns back the clock at St. Andrews

Golf

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- Just minutes after David Duval had completed a third-round, 5-under-par 67 at The Open that could be described more as unfathomable than just unexpected, his caddie, Ron "Bambi" Levin, stood a few hundred yards from the 18th green of the Old Course, dabbing his watery eyes with a muddy golf towel.

Levin was trying to explain how a player who lost his game after a breakthrough victory in this event 14 years ago could suddenly turn back the clock. He was trying to resolve how a man ranked 1,268th in the world could unlock his skills here on these sacred links.

Choked up and wiping away tears, the caddie illustrated this point by telling a story from last week's Scottish Open.

The first hole at Gullane Golf Club is only 390 yards on the scorecard, but plays straight uphill. In one of the first groups of the day in the first round, Duval's opening drive sailed right. They climbed the hill, couldn't find the ball and trudged back to the tee box to hit another one.

The second drive flew a little left of the fairway. Levin yelled toward the marshal, who ducked and didn't see it land. Again, they couldn't find the ball; again, they trudged back to the tee. At this point, there were about three groups standing around, waiting, watching Duval return to hit a third tee shot.

"I felt terrible for him," Levin sighed.

This time, Duval found the fairway. He made a quadruple-bogey, then turned to his caddie and in the most optimistic tone possible, told him, "Let's go shoot under par for the rest of the day."

For the next 16 holes, that's exactly what he did. Three birdies against just two bogeys. Signs of hope rising from the rubble of disaster. Until the final hole, when Duval posted a bookend quadruple-bogey to seemingly erase all of that optimism.

Except, it didn't.

"It was like nothing happened," recalled Levin. "A lot of guys would have been planning their escape, would've broken a club, would've complained, would've made an excuse. There was none of that. It was just, let's do the best we can do. And he did."

The entire story serves as a microcosm for the second half of Duval's career, a career which has seen him fall dramatically from atop the world rankings. He no longer plays golf full-time, serving more time as a talking head for TV broadcasts than he does teeing it up. He wishes this wasn't the case, but the man who won 13 times on the PGA Tour can't even get a spot in many events these days.

Through it all, he has enjoyed brief moments of advancement, only to have them clouded by long bouts of stagnation. Instead of two steps forward and one step back, he's repeatedly taken one step forward and two steps back.

"When you're playing well, you forget immediately about the bad shots," explained Duval, who's at 5-under through three rounds. "But when you're not playing well and you're struggling, you feel like everybody else is hitting it beautiful and perfect all the time."

He was playing well on Sunday -- maybe not the sort of pinpoint precision golf that exemplified the early part of his career -- but not too far off, either.

In the day's first twosome, Duval posted seven birdies and only two bogeys on a soft course that was yielding plenty of low numbers. For the first time in a long time, though, he was able to forget about the bad shots -- a stark departure from his recent thought process.

"I've said this ever since I was on top of the world, that the biggest enjoyment I get in the game of golf is controlling the golf ball," he explained. "Yeah, I loved winning golf tournaments, I loved doing things, but I loved being in control of the golf ball, and I feel like I'm entirely in control of the golf ball.

"I've hit some crappy shots, don't get me wrong. I've hit some really crappy shots. But it's like, OK, so I'll go hit it again now. Being in control and hitting the golf ball where you're trying to hit it, it just gives me great pleasure."

For years, Duval has insisted that his game isn't as far off as the scores and results have suggested. For one day on the game's most hallowed ground, he was able to prove this point. He was able to give us a reason to believe once again. A reason to believe the hope rising from the rubble of disaster won't be enveloped in disappointment again.

And after his best competitive score in more than a year, it left his caddie and friend wiping his eyes with a muddy towel in the aftermath.

"I've seen the hard times he's gone through, the adversity," Levin said. "He keeps going. That makes me pretty proud of him."

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