David Duval Unique Once Again
Jimmy Roberts
Jimmy Roberts, the famous sportscaster, recently published a book about golf slumps titled Breaking the Slump: How Great Players Survived Their Darkest Moments in Golf–and What You Can Learn from Them.
As Doug and others have noted, I wrote David off awhile back ( David Duval As Teacher ). I just figured he had gone too long without the results. Surely he’d give up The Tour and settle into another line of work. I mean, who even survives a two year slump? I underestimated what makes David Duval tick and at one time made him number 1 in the world.
Making a comeback is not about finding your swing, as David himself professed during a U.S. Open interview. It’s all about confidence and, apparently, he never lost his. In some small way, everyone of us amateurs has been there. You hit a couple of good shots, who knows why, and your confidence goes up dramatically. You’re not thinking about all the bad places your ball might go. Suddenly, you’re thinking of the exact spot where you want the ball to land, and almost by magic, it does!
Just about the time when you feel you’ve finally solved golf’s most enduring puzzle, an errant shot pops up and the good old confidence goes out the window.
If it’s on the putting green the cup looks smaller than your ball. You’re now thinking about everything that could go wrong and the one thing you want to happen.
Somehow over the last eight years David Duval didn’t lose his confidence, even when his play was embarrassing to many of his followers. Maybe golf’s greatest lesson is being taught to us by Mr. Duval and not Mr. Woods.
Or maybe Earl Woods taught Tiger about confidence so early on that we’ve taken it as something he was born with and not something all golfers have to practice and learn.
So what do we duffers do? Somehow we have to figure out how to leave the negatives out every time we step up to hit a shot, even if we’ve shanked the last two. The million dollar question is how? If anyone out there has the answer to that one, I want to buy into your business so I can retire on the golf course of my choice in a year or two.
If nothing else, David Duval is the shining example for all of us that confidence can improve your game as much as the time you spend on the range.
Related posts:
- End of David Duval’s Pro Career?
- Back on Track: The David Duval Swing
- Where’s David Duval?
- David Duval As Teacher
- David Duval Interview
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