Former Open champion Duval shoots 91 after 'godawful nightmare' 14-stroke hole
When golfers wake in the middle of the night screaming, it’s because of holes like the one David Duval shot on Thursday at the Open Championship.
Duval, a former champion and a guy who once carded a 59 in a round, went about as far in the other direction as you realistically could on Thursday, finishing his round at a 20-over 91 — that’s not a typo — in a round that included a 14-stroke hole.
How does one finish 20 strokes over par? Miss the putt to get in at +19, the old joke goes. Beyond that, Duval’s wretched round centered on the seventh hole, where he played the wrong ball for much of the hole ... then had to go back and start over all over again once his error was discovered.
“Just a funny situation on the 7th hole,” Duval said. “The marshal had another ball. I asked if it was a 2, Titleist 2. And then I looked at it and saw 2 and then played almost the entirety of the hole, and it turns out with the wrong ball. So then I had to go back to the tee, basically start the hole over.”
The hole initially went up as a 15, soon after got corrected to a 13, and after the round was re-corrected to a 14. The R&A explained in a statement:
“The adjustment was made following an error in reviewing his score on the 7th hole. David lost his first two balls from the tee and then played a wrong ball for the third ball played from the tee. On discovering the mistake at the green he had to return to where the wrong ball was played but the correct ball could not be found. Therefore he had to play again from the tee for a fourth time under penalty of stroke and distance.
“He played six shots in completing the hole with the fourth ball from the tee. He incurred a two-shot penalty for playing the wrong ball but the strokes played with the wrong ball do not count in his score.”
Duval has battled tendinitis in arm for years; he’s withdrawn after the first round in two of the last three Open Championships. But he intends to go on with this one, even though he currently sits in last place. His round is the worst at the Open in 22 years, and his 14-stroke seventh is the second-worst in Open history.
“It was fairly unsettling, obviously,” Duval said after the round. “I came in here obviously with fairly high hopes. I had some good practice. I played in Colorado last week, and although my scores weren't that good, I drove the ball like I used to drive the ball. And hit shots like normal. Everything was there ... It's just one of those god-awful nightmare scenarios that happened today and I happened to be on the end of it.”
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.
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