Duval eager to regain winning touch

David Duval has earned 13 career wins on the PGA TOUR. (Getty Images)

"I enjoyed being out there," he said at Shinnecock. "All in all, I would call it an enormous victory."

But there was something different about Duval on Tuesday, his first trip around Whistling Straits. His tee shots were long and relatively straight. The applause he heard was not from fans just happy to see him, but fans impressed by shots that stopped so close to the pin.

"I feel great," Duval said after his round. "I'm going to play well."

Just as importantly, Duval is going to play more often.

He plans to play in the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston on Labor Day weekend, and probably the Bell Canadian Open at Glen Abbey the following week. Duval wants to play three more times the rest of the season, then resume a full schedule next year and see where it leads him.

"As I stand right now, I think I can win tournaments," Duval said.

The practice round with Woods and Mark O'Meara was no accident. Duval could not recall the last time he practiced with Woods, joking that "I haven't played any practice rounds."

He and Woods have been good friends since their rivalry reached a peak five years ago. He stays at O'Meara's house whenever he plays at Disney.

But the common friend in their group Tuesday was Hank Haney, the swing coach for O'Meara who also has been working with Woods the last several months.

Duval is his latest client.

At O'Meara's recommendation, Duval first met with Haney two weeks ago in Texas. The timing is intriguing, especially since Haney has a cover story in latest issue of Golf Digest magazine called, "How I Cured My Driver Yips."

"I believe driver yips -- not fatigue, stress or some mechanical swing problem -- have sabotaged the careers of David Duval, Seve Ballesteros and Ian Baker-Finch," Haney writes.

Now, Haney is trying to fix one of them.

Duval already has changed to a weaker grip, and is starting to see the results. The biggest problem he has is learning how far he can expect each club to go, because an effort to gain more control has cost him some of the pop in his irons.

Duval shot a 66 at Vaquero, Haney's home course outside Dallas, a few weeks ago with not many trips into the high grass. Haney believes Duval can recover enough of his game to be a regular winner again.

"I'm just seeing if I can get it headed in the right direction," Haney said. "It's like there are two doors in your brain, and you're opening the wrong door. But it's in there."

Where it leads when the right door is opened is anyone's guess, but Duval is eager to find out.

That's the first step.

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