DAVID DUVAL Biography - Famous Sports men and women

 
 

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DAVID DUVAL

Name: David Duval                                                                       
Born: 9 November 1971 Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.                                       
                                                                                         
David Robert Duval (born November 9, 1971) is an American professional golfer           
and former World No. 1 who competes on the PGA Tour.                                     
                                                                                         
Duval was born in Jacksonville, Florida. The son of current Champions Tour               
player Bob Duval, he graduated from the Episcopal High School of Jacksonville.           
He was the U.S. Junior Amateur champion in 1989. He continued his amateur career         
at Georgia Tech, where he was a four-time All-American, two-time ACC Player of           
the Year, and 1993 National Player of the Year. After two years on the Nike Tour,       
he earned his PGA Tour card in 1995.                                                     
                                                                                         
Success came quickly, as Duval posted seven second place finishes on the PGA             
Tour from 1995 to 1997, qualifying for the 1996 President's Cup and posting a 4-0-0     
record for the victorious American team. But a PGA Tour victory eluded him until         
he won the Michelob Championship at Kingsmill in October, 1997, and winning his         
next two tournaments in the same month, including the 1997 Tour Championship.           
Altogether, from 1997 and 2001, he won 13 PGA Tour tournaments, including the           
1997 Tour Championship, the 1999 Players Championship, and the 2001 Open                 
Championship, as well as the 2001 Dunlop Phoenix Open and the 2000 World Cup (with       
Tiger Woods) internationally. He also tied for second in both the 1998 and 2001         
Masters.                                                                                 
                                                                                         
Other career highlights include achieving the number one spot in the Official           
World Golf Rankings in April 1999 and shooting a 59 in the final round of the           
1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic on the Palmer Course at PGA West in La Quinta,           
California (doing so in dramatic fashion by making an eagle on the 18th hole).           
When he won the Players Championship he became the first player in history to           
win on the same day as his father, Bob Duval, who won a Champions Tour event             
that day. Before 1999, only two other golfers in PGA Tour history, Al Geiberger         
and Chip Beck, had posted a 59 in competition and no one had ever done so in a           
final round. He also played on the victorious 1999 Ryder Cup team, as well as           
the 2002 team.                                                                           
                                                                                         
After his Open Championship win, Duval entered a downward spiral in form that           
saw him drop to 80th on the money list in 2002, and 211th in 2003, prompting an         
extended break from the game. Numerous reasons have been postulated for the             
decline, including back, wrist, and shoulder problems; private difficulties; and         
a form of vertigo.                                                                       
                                                                                         
Many commentators believed Duval's career to be over, but he returned to golf in         
2004 at the U.S. Open, where he shot 25 over par and missed the cut. Duval has           
struggled since his return with his highest results a T-13 at the 2004 Deutsche         
Bank Championship and a T-16 at the 2006 U.S. Open. He made the cut in only one         
PGA Tour event in 2005, but did finish in the top ten at the Dunlop Phoenix             
tournament in Japan. While Duval at his peak was viewed as aloof and distant and         
was not a fan favorite, now galleries sympathize with his plight and root for           
him to overcome his issues and to enjoy playing golf.                                   
                                                                                         
Duval had a successful start to the 2006 PGA Tour season, making the cut in his         
first two tournaments, as well as a very respectable finish of T-16 at the U.S.         
Open Championship at Winged Foot Golf Club, where his second round 68 was good           
enough for a tie as the best round of the tournament. Despite not reaching the           
same heights in the remaining two majors of the year, his performances continued         
a general upward trend, with none of the rounds of 80+ that had become so               
familiar in the previous years. Duval is currently taking time off from golf to         
help his wife during her pregnancy.                                                     
                                                                                         
Duval's winning speech at the 2001 Open was welcomed by British commentators as         
"delightfully modest and heartfelt".