David Duval withdraws with back injury

David Duval's on-course struggles continued on Friday when he was forced to withdraw from the U.S. PGA Championship second round with a back injury.

The former world number one and 2001 British Open champion, who carded an opening 80 at Oak Hill Country Club, pulled out of the tournament after completing four holes.

"I hit my tee shot on five (the fifth hole) and that was it," the 31-year-old American told a tournament official.

"I can tell it's not right. I hurt it (the lower back) last week with the first tee shot at Castle Pines (which staged last week's The International tournament) on Friday.

"I felt all right when I woke up, but now I'm going back to Florida for a while.

"We have to give it a few days and see how it feels. I don't even want to speculate (on the future)," added the Jacksonville-based professional.

Duval, world number one before Tiger Woods established himself as the game's leading player, has battled for form in recent years and missed the cut in the first three majors this season.

In 2003, he has made the cut in only three of 17 PGA Tour stroke-play events and currently averages 74.56 per round.

Last year, he failed to win a title for the first time since 1996, and his relative free-fall from the top of the golfing pile in 1999 has been one of the most perplexing stories in the sport's history.

In 1998, Duval led the U.S. money list with earnings of more than $2.5 million. A year later, he became the third player to shoot a magical 13-under-par 59 on the PGA Tour before eclipsing Woods as the game's number one on March 28 1999.

Just two years ago, he finally clinched his first major after several near misses, when a closing 67 gave him a three-shot victory over Sweden's Niclas Fasth in the British Open at Royal Lytham.

Since then, however, there have been no further additions to the Duval trophy cabinet. He has plummeted to 137th in the world rankings and had missed the cut in five of his last seven major starts before this week.

By his own admission, a myriad of reasons was responsible for his golfing slide.

"It's a combination of confidence, patience, health, focus, my mental approach to thinking of how I'm playing and getting my way around the golf course, those kinds of things," Duval said towards the end of last year.

"I've had things going on elsewhere that are a distraction."

Duval has suffered various injury and health problems over the last three years, struggling with back and wrist trouble in both 2000 and 2001 and from a form of vertigo earlier this season.

At the start of 2002, he broke off his eight-year engagement to fiancee Julie McArthur and even his prodigious driving began to let him down.

Duval used to be acknowledged as one of the biggest hitters in the game but this year he ranks only 118th in average driving distance on the PGA Tour.

However 1997 U.S. PGA champion Davis Love III expects Duval to return to winning ways.

"I think he knows what's going on with his swing," Love said earlier this week. "He got hurt.

"I know if I went over the handlebars of a mountain bike, I would probably never come back.

"It shows he's real strong and he's real fit and just a bad back can still slow you down.

"But I've never seen a guy with a better attitude that was playing bad," added Love. "He will come back. It might not be this week or next week, but he will come back."

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