David Robert Duval (born November 9, 1971) is an American professional golfer and former World No. 1 who competes on the PGA Tour.

Background and career

Amateur career
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.

Professional career
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”.

Amateur wins
1992 Northeast Amateur, Porter Cup

Professional wins (19)

PGA Tour wins (13)

Major Championships (1)
Other PGA Tour (12)

Tournament
Michelob Championship
Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic
Tour Championship
Tucson Chrysler Classic
Shell Houston Open
NEC World Series of Golf
Michelob Championship at Kingsmill
Mercedes Championships
Bob Hope Chrysler Classic
The Players Championship
1999 BellSouth Classic
2000 Buick Challenge
2001 British Open

Nationwide Tour wins (2)
Tournament
NIKE Wichita Open
NIKE Tour Championship

Japan Golf Tour wins (1)
2001 Dunlop Phoenix

Other wins (3)
1998 Fred Meyer Challenge (with Jim Furyk - unofficial event)
1999 Franklin Templeton Shark Shootout (with Fred Couples - unofficial event)
2000 WGC-World Cup (with Tiger Woods - unofficial money)

Major Championships

Wins (1)
2001 The Open Championship Tied for lead -10 (69-73-65-67=274) 3 strokes Niclas Fasth

United States national team appearances

Amateur
World Amateur Team Championship: 1990, 1992
Walker Cup: 1991 (winners)

Professional
Presidents Cup: 1996 (winners), 1998, 2000 (winners)
Ryder Cup: 1999 (winners), 2002
World Cup: 2000 (winners), 2001