David Duval

David Robert Duval (born November 9, 1971) is an American professional golfer and former World No. 1 Golfer who competed on the PGA Tour and currently plays on the PGA Tour Champions.

The transplant was not successful, and Brent died as a result of sepsis on May 17, 1981 at age 12.

Bob Duval was unable to cope, and moved out of the family home for a year.

Counseling enabled him to reunite with his wife and children in 1982, and David continued to receive golf instruction from his father.

He graduated from the Episcopal High School of Jacksonville in 1989, the same year he was the U.S. Junior Amateur champion.

In 1993, just as Duval was starting his professional golf career, his father again moved out of the family home, this time permanently.

He continued his amateur career for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets men's golf team, where he was a four-time first-team All-American, two-time ACC Player of the Year, and 1993 National Player of the Year.

While in college, he led an official PGA Tour event, the BellSouth Classic (which he would win as a professional), after three rounds.

Duval received his PGA Tour card in 1995, earning it after becoming two-time ACC Player of the Year, 1993 National Player of the Year, and playing two years on the Nike Tour (where he won twice).

After two years on the Nike Tour where he won twice, he earned his PGA Tour card in 1995.

Success came quickly, as Duval posted seven second-place finishes on the PGA Tour from 1995 to 1997, qualifying for the 1996 Presidents Cup and posting a 4–0–0 record for the victorious American team.

Duval won 13 PGA Tour tournaments between 1997 and 2001; including one major title, The Open Championship in 2001.

Between 1997 and 2000, Duval finished all four seasons top-5 on the PGA Tour's money list, including being the leading money winner and scoring leader in 1998.

In addition to his major title, he also won the 1997 Tour Championship and the 1999 Players Championship.

But a PGA Tour victory eluded him until he won the Michelob Championship at Kingsmill in October 1997, and winning his next two tournaments in the same month, including the 1997 Tour Championship.

He ended second on the 1997 and 1999 money lists, seventh in 2000 and eight in 2001.

From 1997 to 2001, he won 13 PGA Tour tournaments, including the 1997 Tour Championship, the 1999 Players Championship, and the 2001 Open Championship, as well as the 2001 Dunlop Phoenix on the Japan Golf Tour and the 2000 World Cup (with Tiger Woods) internationally.

Duval led the PGA Tour money list in 1998, and also won the Vardon Trophy and Byron Nelson Award for lowest scoring average.

He also tied for second in both the 1998 and 2001 Masters.

Other career highlights include achieving the number one spot in the Official World Golf Ranking in March 1999 and shooting a 59 in the final round of the 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic on the Palmer Course at PGA West in La Quinta, California.

Duval made an eagle on the final hole to win the tournament by one shot.

Before 1999, only two other golfers in PGA Tour history, Al Geiberger and Chip Beck, had posted a 59 in competition and no one had ever done so in a final round.

When he won the Players Championship he became the first player in history to win on the same day as his father, Bob Duval, who won a Champions Tour event that same day.

He also played on the victorious 1999 Ryder Cup team, as well as the 2002 team.

Following Duval's victory at the 2001 Open Championship, he never won again on the PGA Tour and his performance declined dramatically due to injuries and various medical conditions.

Duval's winning speech at the 2001 Open was welcomed by British commentators as "delightfully modest and heartfelt".

Duval has not won a tournament on the PGA Tour since his Open Championship victory in 2001.

His last worldwide win was the Dunlop Phoenix Tournament in November 2001 on his 30th birthday.

His 30s proved to be much less lucrative on the golf course.

After his Open Championship win, Duval entered a downward spiral in form that saw him drop to 80th on the money list in 2002 and 211th in 2003, prompting an extended break from the game.

Numerous reasons have been postulated for the decline, including back, wrist and shoulder problems, personal difficulties and a form of vertigo.

Many commentators believed Duval's career to be over but he returned to golf at the U.S. Open in 2004, where he shot 25 over par and missed the cut.

Duval struggled with his best results until 2009 being a T-13 at the Deutsche Bank Championship in 2004 and a T-16 at the U.S. Open in 2006.

As a result, he lost his tour card in 2011.

After his professional golf career slowed, he became a golf analyst and commentator, currently working for Golf Channel and ESPN.

Duval was born in Jacksonville, Florida, the son of golf instructor and club professional Bob Duval and Diane Poole Duval, a member of the FSU Flying High Circus during college.

His brother Brent was two years older, and sister Deirdre was five years younger.

During his early years, his father was club professional at Timuquana Country Club, where he learned to play golf under his father's guidance.

When David was nine, his brother Brent developed aplastic anemia.

The family sought treatment at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, where David underwent surgery to donate bone marrow.