One columnist who
handicapped the top 10 players in the field for the NEC Invitational wrote
that David Duval winning at Firestone would "salvage a disappointing year."
Disappointing?
Duval became the first
player in 25 years to win four times before the Masters. One of those was
The Players Championship, the strongest and deepest field in golf. Another
victory featured a 59, only the third in PGA Tour history and the first
on a Sunday. The bank ledger showed a hefty $3.2 million.
That's hardly a failure,
but it has been forgotten.
For that he can blame
Tiger Woods.
As great as Duval
was in the first three months of the season, Woods has been even better
the past three months.
He won the Memorial
with a short game that left host Jack Nicklaus speechless. He won twice
in Chicago, first in the Western Open and then a month later in the PGA
Championship, becoming the youngest player in 19 years to own two majors
at 23.
His victory Sunday
was his fourth in his seven PGA Tour starts. Including the Deutsche Bank
SAP Open in Germany, which included six of the top 10 players in the world
rankings, Woods has gone 5-for-8.
Is this golf or slow-pitch
softball?
"He's the best player
in the world right now, and he's proving that every week," Fred Couples
said at Firestone.
Funny, but that's
what everyone was saying about Duval only five months ago.
And in many respects,
Woods' streak is similar to the way Duval used to make winning look as
easy as showing up on the first tee.
Woods had a 62 to
launch himself to victory in the NEC Invitational, a limited yet elite
field of Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup players. Duval had a 63 to cruise
to victory in the Mercedes Championship, another field limited only to
winners from the past season.
In a tuneup for the
British Open, Woods held off Mike Weir to win the Western. In a tuneup
for the Masters, Duval surged past Weir and Rory Sabbatini to win the BellSouth
Classic in Atlanta.
The major difference
is a major championship. The Players Championship may be the next best
thing to a major. The Stadium Course on the TPC at Sawgrass may have been
a stiffer test than Medinah. Still, Duval remains the only player to occupy
No. 1 in the world for more than two weeks without having won a major.
Majors aside, the
best two players in the world have put together two incredible stretches
in one year, a remarkable feat given the depth and talent on the PGA Tour
today.
"A lot of good things
went my way for a long time," Duval said.
Nick Price knows the
feeling. He won nine times in 15 months from 1993-94, including back-to-back
majors in the tail end of that streak.
"There was a period
for me where I felt if I played well, I was going to win," Price said.
"It's very hard to describe. And you feel like it's never going to come
to an end. Unfortunately, it does for all of us."
It appears that way
for Duval.
He hasn't won since
the first weekend of April, a span of 11 tournaments, which represents
his longest drought since he started winning in October 1997. Then again,
he gave himself chances in two majors and finished second only two weeks
ago.
Woods, however, may
be an exception.
It's one thing to
look at his performance since he took three weeks off after the MCI Classic.
Woods has finished lower than seventh just once in his last nine tournaments
-- the Sprint International, which came the week after he won the PGA Championship.
To look even further
back than the Masters must be extremely daunting for the rest of professional
golf. While Woods won only twice worldwide in 1998, he had 13 finishes
in the top 10 and only twice finished lower than 20th last year.
Look back even further.
He hasn't missed a cut since the Canadian Open in 1997, the only one of
his career. Since turning pro three years ago, Woods has never gone longer
than four tournaments without contending.
Even after winning
the Masters by 12 strokes, one of six victories in his first 21 tournaments
as a pro, Woods set out to change his entire swing. Keep in mind that Nick
Faldo rebuilt his swing in the mid-1980s and went two years without winning.
"It can still get
better," Woods said.
Is it possible that
the streak he is on now didn't start when he returned from his post-Masters
break? Is it possible that it never really ended?
