poor swing meets great player....is there HOPE?

The great wall street guru Warren Buffett has often quipped, "when a great company meets poor management the company's reputation usually loses". the same can be said for a poor golf swing teaming up with a great player and this appears to be exactly what happened to David Duval!

BUT! on a crisp sunday morning in 1999 the trashman had invited Peeheed and myself to the hope tent for some breakfast and the final round of this desert classic. Peeheed had already knocked back 4 bloody mary's and i had hit on the food and beverage manager (female) when the monitor flashed that Duval had birdied four out of the first 5 holes holes.

Peeheed needed some fresh air so we headed out to check out the action. Duval had just won the Mercedes shooting a sizzling 26 under but was far back after opening with 70-71-64-70. at -13 he was hardly in contention. still it was the "Hope" and anything is possible on these courses plus Duval was on top of his game and would go
on to post 17 top 25's out of 21 tournaments played in '99 and would win 4 times including the Player's considered by many as a 5th major.

Steve pate was on fire and would shoot a terrific 61 on this sunday. surely enough
to win until Duval hit that magic 5 iron to 20 feet on the final hole and made eagle
to be the first ever to shoot 59 on sunday and win the damn tournament. it was a thrill to watch.

Pate would spend the next 5 years at Q-school and Duval would win only two more tournaments including his only major "the open". What the hell happened? at the end of 1999 Duval was "king of the world" but it wouldn't last. in my humble opinion his poor swing fundamentals finally won out even though he was a great player and number 1 for some time during this stretch.

Tomorrow the "HOPE CLASSIC" begins play and the birds will fly. there is one new course slated to be the home of the hope classic which was built just a few miles east of one of the largest windmill farms in the world. during practice rounds they
had winds up to 50MPH so maybe the scoring will prove difficult on 1 of the 4 tracks.

On the 18th hole of the palmer course there lies a stone in the ground where Duval hit his final approach shot in 1999. i've had the opportunity to play this course a few times since history was made and i still get gooesey bumps as i hit my 3 wood in
to the green from that very spot. i've never even hit the green from that point but
it's always fun to try. we'll be out there on Sunday and hopefully so will David. it's not like he's Ian Baker Flinch or anything. good luck David. maybe Peeheed will be so kind as to analize the Duval swing for us. i'm out..MW