Duval May Be a Perfect Fit This Year

By MIKE JAMES

April 8, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

AUGUSTA, Ga. — David Duval had the world at his feet last year before he made the trip to the Masters. He had already won four tournaments, had pocketed more than $2.5 million and was the hottest player in golf since, well, you know who.

It seemed almost predestined that 1999 would be the year Duval earned his first major championship and a green jacket at the same time. He’s still waiting for both.

This year, Duval viewed everything on his schedule as preparation for Augusta, and if Friday is any indication, it looks as though he might be onto something.

Duval singed the back nine at Augusta National with four birdies and an eagle in the last seven holes. His seven-under-par 65--the best round of the tournament--gave him a two-day total of 138 and a one-shot lead over three golfers who are just as eager to have Jose Maria Olazabal slip a sport coat over their shoulders Sunday.

Vijay Singh and Ernie Els shot 67s and Phil Mickelson 68, leaving them at five-under 139, one behind Duval on a warm, mostly calm day much more suited to low scores than Thursday’s version of wind-tunnel golf.

Tom Lehman shot 72 and Steve Jones 70 to share fifth place at 141 and Bernhard Langer, Jeff Sluman, Loren Roberts, Retief Goosen and Sergio Garcia are one behind them.

Olazabal won’t get the chance to repeat. He shot 77 Friday and dropped back to five over, missing the cut by one.

There were 17 rounds in the 60s Friday, 15 more than Thursday, and 37 rounds under par, 28 more than the day before. Twenty-three players are even par or better, within six shots of the lead. In the group at 144 is 60-year-old Jack Nicklaus, whose birdie at No. 9 produced a roar that nearly shook the window panes in Butler Cabin. Nicklaus shot 70.

Duval has two third-place finishes this year but hasn’t won, partly because he didn’t let anything get in the way of his grand plan to win this tournament.

“I probably wasn’t as focused on those [other tournaments] as much as I should have been,” he said.

“But I wanted to make sure I was peaked with my golf, with my strength, everything. I just wanted to be ready to play when I arrived here.”

Duval has been close to winning here twice. He finished tied for second in 1998, when the 67 he shot on Sunday wasn’t enough to overcome the three birdies Mark O’Meara had in the final four holes. Last year, Duval was a stroke off the lead before a double bogey on the 11th hole Sunday took him out of contention.

“I’ve made it known all year that I was looking forward to this stretch,” Duval said. “And so here we are.”

Mickelson also is looking for his first major championship, his closest calls being last year’s second-place finish to Payne Stewart in the U.S. Open and his third-place finish here in 1996. Some players take the week before the Masters off to prepare, but Mickelson, as he did a year ago, played in the BellSouth Classic to avoid “all that undue anticipation building up over two weeks before teeing it up Thursday.”

That strategy didn’t turn out badly for Mickelson, who won the BellSouth.

Els, a two-time U.S. Open winner, also thought the better plan going into Augusta was to downplay the importance. He decided against arriving last week.

“I’ve just been too preoccupied to do really well [here], and I’ve put too much pressure on myself to play well,” he said. “You’ve got to hit your shots with ease.”

Singh, who has missed the cut twice and finished no higher than 17th in his six previous Masters, said the secret to playing well at Augusta is to simply not hate it.

“I think the first five times, I probably three-putted 15 times in the whole tournament, and that doesn’t leave a good taste in your mouth,” he said.

“I was very upset when I missed the cut here two years ago, and my wife told me, ‘You can’t come over here thinking you’re going to putt bad. You’ve got to come here very positive.’ If I have a bad attitude on the greens, I might as well not come here.”

Singh had only 27 putts Friday.

First-round leader Dennis Paulson shot a 76 and is at even par. O’Meara and Craig Stadler are among the former champions who didn’t survive the cut.

Tiger Woods, the heir designate to Nicklaus and main challenger to Nicklaus’ 18 major championships, birdied two of the first three holes to erase some of the sting of Thursday’s 75. But consecutive bogeys on 10 and 11 stalled his charge. He missed a 15-foot eagle try on 15 and three-putted 16 for bogey, finished with a 72, is nine shots behind Duval and, in all likelihood, still 16 majors behind Nicklaus.

Lehman, who shot 72, has come up with a nearly flawless game plan here: Don’t get any bogeys. He has done that so far, with one glitch. He has tossed in a double bogey each day.

His double bogey at the par-five 15th Friday was a result of what he thought was a “beautiful sand wedge” that hit the green and spun back into the water.

“Sometimes you don’t get what you deserve and sometime you do,” he said. “Yesterday I got what I deserved. Today on 15, I didn’t. You just go on.”

Lehman has a little history on that hole. In 1994, he trailed Olazabal by a shot going into 15. Olazabal’s second shot barely cleared the water and was on the fringe about 35 feet away. Lehman was looking at a 12-foot eagle putt. But Olazabal made his, Lehman missed and instead of heading to 16 even, he was two down and the tournament belonged to Olazabal.

Duval isn’t planning to let anyone take the tournament away from him. He seems to get more fit daily. If everyone had his posture, chiropractors would have a hard time making a living. After Friday’s round, he headed out for some more work in the weight room.

He has done some heavy lifting this week, some running, and now is lifting “just to relax.”

“I believe that, come Sunday afternoon, the fact that I believe I’m in good shape can pay off,” Duval said. “I’ll be more refreshed than other people and my strength will still be high, and that’s a lot of focus of why I was doing that stuff.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

MASTERS

LEADERS

David Duval: 73-65--138 -6

Phil Mickelson: 71-68--139 -5

Vijay Singh: 72-67--139 -5

Ernie Els: 72-67--139 -5

Tom Lehman: 69-72--141 -3

Steve Jones: 71-70--141 -3

5 tied at 142 -2

OTHERS

Sergio Garcia: 70-72--142 -2