Duval’s Bad Year Gets Even Worse

The magical misery tour continues for David Duval, who withdrew from the PGA Championship Friday because of back problems after completing four holes of his second round.

“I hit my tee shot on five and that was it,” Duval said. “I can tell it’s not right. I hurt it last week with the first tee shot at Castle Pines [in the International] on Friday. I felt all right when I woke up. I’m going to go back to Florida for a while. We have to give it a few days and see how it feels.”

Duval shot 10-over 80 in his opening round. The former No. 1 player in the world has missed 13 cuts this season and has withdrawn from two tournaments.

In the four tournaments in which he made the cut, Duval finished tied for 42nd, tied for 33rd, tied for 64th and tied for 28th.

He has shot 32 rounds over par and earned $84,707.85.

Duval says he hurt his back last week playing golf, but Davis Love III says the injury might have stemmed from an off-course injury.

The two played a practice round together Wednesday and afterward Love was asked how Duval was coping with his golf problems.

“Well, we know what’s going on with his game,” Love said. “I think he knows what’s going on with it. He got hurt. I know if I went over the handlebars of a mountain bike, I would probably never come back. It shows he’s real strong and he’s real fit, and just a bad back can still slow you down.”

Love said he expected Duval would one day return to the form that made him one of the world’s elite players.

“I’ve never seen a guy with a better attitude that was playing bad,” Love said. “He will come back.”

*

Thursday’s energy crisis hit many areas in Rochester, but had minimal impact on first-round play. Most golfers had completed their rounds when the outage hit.

Power was temporarily lost in the media tent but was quickly restored via a backup generator.

Monroe County executive Jack Doyle had imposed a restriction on “unnecessary travel” Thursday evening but it was lifted at 6 a.m. Friday in time for shuttle transportation to the PGA Championship.

Second-round play began as scheduled.

*

Leading the pack of players who missed the cut was none other than Love, a four-time winner this year who shot 74-75 and was nine over par. Seventy players made the cut at eight-over 148.

Love, who also missed the cut at the U.S. Open, didn’t help himself in the player-of-the-year race. He said Oak Hill was just too tough.

“If you miss the fairway you are in deep trouble and you can maybe, every once in a while, make par,” he said. “But I hit two in the fairways and made double, and that just ruined me.”

If you miss too many fairways?

“You are going to shoot a big number.”

At least Love had company on the sideline. He was one of 12 major-tournament winners who missed the cut, including defending champion Rich Beem and British Open champion Ben Curtis.

Others missing the cut included Sergio Garcia, Thomas Bjorn, Colin Montgomerie, John Daly, Retief Goosen, Tom Watson, Lee Westwood, Justin Rose and Darren Clarke.

*

Chad Campbell might not have thought too much about his 72, but he’s still one over after 36 holes and very much in the hunt.

Campbell has been one of the unheralded surprises on the PGA Tour this year with six top-10 finishes, including back-to-back seconds at Tucson and the Honda Classic, plus $1.8 million in prize money.

The 29-year-old from Lewisville, Texas, is playing in only his second PGA Championship and believes the best is yet to come.

“I’m working real hard this year and just can’t put it all together,” he said. “Hopefully, one of these weeks pretty soon it will all come together for me.

“I’m more relaxed. I can just go out there and play and not worry about anything. Seeing all the guys I looked up to when I watched them on TV for so long, I’ve gotten to know everybody.”