Duval showing signs of return to form

David Duval has parked himself at his locker and kicked off his spikes when the unavoidable happens.

It's the daily inquisition, where only the guys with the pencils in hand seem to change. Whether the questions are well-intentioned or not, it has become almost unendurable.

Duval removes his cap, silently buries his face in his hands for several moments and slowly massages his forehead, letting out an audible sigh. He seems fatigued.

"No, I'm fine," he said. "It's just the same ol' same ol', you know?"

Like many of his sideways drives earlier this year, he's a shade off-center -- albeit thankfully, this time. After months of facing ceaseless queries and whispers about his yearlong slump, Duval is at last fielding questions about turning his game around.

Duval, a Jacksonville native and arguably the greatest Florida-born player ever, has enlisted two Orlandoans to help him emerge from the forest of doubt, and as he tees it up today in the first round of the 103rd U.S. Open, he's showing glimpses of regaining his old, feisty form.

"Yes, there have been some blips on the radar screen," Orlando swing coach David Leadbetter cracked.

That's a welcome sight. This season's flight pattern has been frightful, including a string in which he missed nine of 10 stroke-play cuts. But the guy in the wraparound shades has made two cuts in a row and fired a course-record 62 last week at the FBR Capital Classic, his best performance in months.

He hasn't won since the 2001 British Open, his first victory in a major and a moment that most expected would serve as a watershed event in his career.

Headed up from No. 82

Eighteen months ago, Duval started the 2002 season ranked third in the world. Now, he sits at No. 82, which underscores how far he has fallen and how much work is left.

"The game is hard, brutally hard, and it beats people up," said Dr. Gio Valiante, a psychology professor at Rollins College. "It kicked his butt for a while. The harder you try, the more it beats you down, and it runs a lot of people out. I think it was close to running him out."

Valiante, an avid golf fan who began working with PGA Tour pros last year essentially as a hobby, was driving home from paying off a traffic ticket at the Osceola County courthouse last month when his cell phone rang. The voice on the other end of a bad connection identified himself as David.

"Who?" Valiante said.

Duval repeated himself -- as he has done often while trying to explain his slump. Valiante, who also works with Davis Love III and rising star Chad Campbell, among others, agreed to meet with Duval, who had just shot a first-round 77 in the Byron Nelson Classic.

"I didn't really know him personally," Valiante said, "but I was definitely intrigued."

Duval, who always had used his father and noted psychologist Bob Rotella as his swing and mental-game coaches, was in need of fresh input. He was about to miss his seventh cut in a row when he called Valiante.

"I decided to get a little help outside the box," Duval said. "You can't always control what's happening in your head. Nobody can, regardless of what they think. But you can control some of the physical things. That's what we're working on and slowly trying to build some confidence."

Based on where he was in 1999 -- No. 1 in the world -- Duval's performance over his past two starts has been little to shout about. But given that he opened last week ranked no higher than 179th in earnings, driving accuracy, greens in regulation and scoring average, he has made a quantum leap.

"He's been busting his butt," Leadbetter said. "He's got the bug back, that's for sure. I'm not sure he ever lost it, but he's certainly a lot more enthused."

Grip and yip

As much as anything, Duval had become gripped by tension and apprehension, the predictable byproducts of bad shots and poor play. Off the tee, despite changing drivers more often than his socks, he was a menace to his scorecard and any spectator stationed along the right side of the fairway.

It was grip it and yip it, frankly.

"There was some anxiety going on that I hadn't figured out how to resolve," he said. "It was mainly [in the] tee box. I had become fixated on that, and it didn't matter whether it was the driver, 3-wood or 2-iron. None of them were behaving particularly well."

Thanks in part to some relaxation techniques offered by Valiante, Duval is finding the straight and narrow of the fairways more often, which will come in handy this week at Olympia Fields. Duval has reduced his grip pressure and shoulder tension, among other things, to free up his swing.

Then there's the mental side. As is frequently the case, it's tough to fathom which started first for Duval -- the poor shots or what Hal Sutton so accurately has dubbed "the stinkin' thinkin.'" Either way, Duval's struggles have been painful to watch and, for him, infuriating to read about.

"Contrary to what everybody wants to believe, I have been working hard for some time," Duval said. "I do care. People think I have been complacent and haven't been trying and don't have any desire."

Leadbetter said most of his input has been positive reinforcement rather than any significant swing tinkering.

"Confidence is one of those elusive intangibles that few people can put a finger on," Leadbetter said. "It can come and go before you know it, and you don't know why. Technically, you can actually swing it better and, in fact, play worse."

Many issues to consider

Duval, who took anti-depressants at one point, has dealt in rapid succession with the break-up from his longtime fiancee, a shoulder injury, a bout with vertigo and a vexing inability to keep his drives in the fairway, among other issues. No wonder he seems like a psychological smorgasbord at times.

"What happens between the ears always shows up on the golf course," Valiante said. "We are sensitive to psychological fluctuations. That was very explicit in David's game."

So is the progress. Last week in particular, when he hit a series of poor shots, he countered with birdies. He tied for 28th, his best finish of the year.

"Each time where I was at a point where it could have gotten completely out of control, like it has over the past six months, I was able to hang on and turn it around," Duval said. "I just feel like I have a better grasp of what's going on. I know that's kind of general, but there's a direction and a foreseeable goal, you know?"

No question, Duval is one of the most articulate and thoughtful players on tour, but he does not suffer fools well. He has little patience for those who don't do their homework and, consequently, has alienated some members of the media.

"I think I'm a lot stronger than people want to give me credit for," he said. "I feel like I have more faith in me than others do. It's funny how they want to write you off quickly and blast you, pretty much. I feel like I have been nothing but up front and honest about what's going on, how I have played the past year, and I feel like I have been disrespected in a sense.

"That's left a real bitter taste. The toughest part of my career so far, the biggest obstacle I have faced, is that I have been as forthright as anybody, and it is a shame it has not been reciprocated. So I am talking less and less now."

He speaks with his clubs, which don't betray him as often lately, thanks in part to his new coach and psychologist.

"What am I doing to help him? Asking the right questions," Valiante said. "Nobody had gotten him to articulate his problems. He figured it out. And there's still more figuring to do."

Though some might dispute it, Duval says he kept the game in perspective.

"I'm very appreciative of what I do and people don't believe it," he said. "I'm a lucky guy to do what I do, and believe me, I know it. A guy asked me last week if golf owed me something. Golf doesn't owe anybody anything. It's been nothing but good to me and I have gotten a lot out it. But I have a lot more left in me, too."