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Duval takes over lead with 63

Behind those wraparound glasses, David Duval was quietly hurting.
Long before he shot a 9-under 63 Saturday to take the lead in the Invensys Classic at Las Vegas, Duval thought this would be a year he would just want to forget.

He had broken up with his fiance, his shoulder was injured and his game was in shambles. The passion he had for golf was almost gone.

The fans watching couldn't tell what was going on inside his head. But it showed everytime Duval stepped onto the first tee in a miserable year that only seemed to keep getting worse.

"I feel like I'm as good as anyone leaving it outside the ropes," Duval said. "However, this year it got inside the ropes with me."

That was before the Ryder Cup rekindled Duval's desire and seemed to spark a rebirth of the game that once made him the No. 1 player in the world.

And that was before he shot four superb rounds in this gambling town that have put him a stroke ahead of three-time Vegas winner Jim Furyk (69) and Jeff Sluman (68) and on the brink of his first win since last year's British Open.

Finally, it seems, Duval is ready to reclaim his position among golf's best.

"Don't get me wrong, I continued to work hard. I actually practiced too much," Duval said. "I heard what was being said (about me)."

Injury-free for the first time in three years and more settled in his personal life, Duval has his first chance at winning a tournament in more than a year.

It's not a major championship, like Duval's last win. But winning the British Open wasn't exactly what Duval anticipated, either.

"If you look for identity through your accomplishments you're probably going to have an unhappy life," he said. "It doesn't change the priorities, but if you derive your happiness through how you play you're going to have a miserable time."

Duval has been having a good time this week, and not only because the tournament is in Las Vegas. He's 24 under through four rounds and feeling in control once again of a golf game that was good enough to make him Tiger Woods' chief rival at one time.

Duval made nine birdies and nine pars Saturday, his lowest round since the 2001 Tour Championship.

"Tomorrow I have one goal and that's to win the golf tournament," Duval said.

Duval, who started the day five shots off the lead of Furyk, moved into contention right away with birdies on the first three holes on yet another day of ideal scoring conditions on the TPC at Summerlin.

He shot 31 on the front side, then added four more birdies on the back in a round where he did nothing brilliant but everything very well.

"I derive a lot of satisfaction from making the game look boring and easy," Duval said. "I like to make it stress free."

Duval, who shared the lead last week after two rounds at the Michelob Championship before fading to a tie for 25th, had it by himself playing before sparse crowds on a warm fall afternoon.

But there was plenty of red numbers on the leaderboard, and plenty of would-be challengers lurking just behind.

Jonathan Byrd (64) and Stuart Appleby (67) were 22 under, while six players, including last week's winner Charles Howell III, were four strokes off the lead at 20 under.

Furyk didn't make a bogey for the fourth straight round, but needed a birdie on the 18th hole for his 69.

That kind of score most often means a player is losing ground on a course that has little rough, little trouble and manicured fairways and greens.

"The course is just set up to make birdies," Appleby said. "You're just going to see birdie, birdie, birdie out there."

Furyk and Sluman, two relatively short hitters, will be paired in the final threesome with Duval, one of the longer hitters on tour.

"It's not like Jim Furyk and I are going to hit ground balls 220 yards. We can get it there too," Sluman said.

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