This Pair Remains Unrivaled on Course

The Nissan Open begins today at Riviera Country Club, where there are as many story lines as blades of that kikuyu stuff.

For instance:

* David Duval went skiing, then shot a 59 to win the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. Duval went skiing last week.

* Riviera is in its best shape since before they turned the greens into toast for the 1995 PGA Championship, so what’s going to get blamed now when someone stinks up the joint?

* With Duval, Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard, Fred Couples, Jose Maria Olazabal and Davis Love III, probably the strongest field in the history of the tournament has shown up.

* Woods is playing the fourth part of a five-tournament-in-five-week stretch, and the way he’s going, chances are his club heads will melt down before he does.

* Woods and Duval are going to settle their rivalry once and for all.

Uh, check that.

There really isn’t a rivalry.

Sure, there isn’t. After all, Woods and Duval are so not alike. They’re both in their 20s, they both play a game that most of the other players would trade their lifetimes of free lunch buffets for and they’re both threats to win every tournament they enter. So what’s with this rivalry thing?

Tiger, you think about it, right?

“No,” he said.

And you, David, there’s a huge rivalry going on isn’t there?

“I haven’t thought about it, no,” he said.

So there you go. The Rivalry That Isn’t. Come to think of it, it’s actually hard to have a rivalry when neither player thinks there is one. This will never do, so just to make the thing work, we’ll fill in the blanks for them.

Since the beginning of 1998, Woods and Duval have crossed paths in 17 tournaments. Woods has one victory, 12 top 10s and $2.6 million in prize money. Duval has two victories, seven top 10s and $3.7 million.

There are more numbers. Woods is No. 1 in the official world rankings and Duval is No. 2. Duval is No. 1 on the PGA Tour money list this year and Woods is No. 2. Duval was No. 1 and Woods was No. 4 last year. In the six tournaments played this year, Duval has won two and Woods one.

Is this getting monotonous or what?

Anyway, the two best players in golf get together once again to cross irons and match bank accounts and rankings in this tidy $2.8-million event, where there’s $504,000 for the winner, not to mention the enormous reputation points at stake.

Woods won last week at Torrey Pines when he turned in a 62-65 weekend, including an eagle on the 72nd hole Sunday. There was no message there for Duval, Woods said. He also said it’s not about him and Duval.

“It’s more of you [reporters] trying to feed the fire,” Woods said. “I understand, though.

“[A rivalry] would be great for you guys and it would be great for him and me, but I don’t see that happening. There are so many great players out here. You can’t eliminate some of the guys who have been there so long and so it’s not like Tiger and David are going to carry the torch.

“Probably, realistically, there are about 50 guys who can win every week. That makes it really difficult.”

Duval didn’t make it appear all that difficult when he won the first two tournaments he played this year--the Mercedes Championships and the Hope--when he played a combined 52 under par. He has played his last two in a combined two under, but that has no effect on the big picture.

For his part, Duval said he sees an effort to build up a rivalry with Woods, even if it’s not something in which he’s taking an active role.

“I certainly see that trying to be done,” Duval said. “I think it’s flattering toward me as a player to try to be anointed, the one who is going to try to challenge Tiger in the future years.

“However, I haven’t played out here a long time, but I’ve played out here long enough to realize that there are many players out here who are just as able as I am or Tiger Woods is to play and win golf tournaments. So I don’t focus on one-on-one rivalries too much.”

And neither should anyone else. Right.

*

Els and Paul Azinger, who will play each other in the first round of next week’s Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship at La Costa, are paired together for the first two days at Riviera.

*

Bob Duval said the five-iron his son David hit on the last hole at the Bob Hope to set up his chance to shoot 59 was nothing short of perfect.

“The best golf swing I’ve ever seen in my life,” said the elder Duval, who plays on the senior tour and serves as David’s teacher.

Bob Duval said the ball traveled 10 to 15 yards longer than David’s normal five-iron shot. The ball covered 210 yards and stopped six feet from the hole, where Duval made the putt to finish his 59.

Because he knows his son as well as anyone, Bob Duval said he was not surprised that David wasn’t nervous about shooting a 59.

As it turns out, David credits his father for such a mind-set.

“That’s one of the things I think I learned from my father,” Duval said. “I’m not scared of it. I’m not scared of going deep. I think that’s one of the most important things I learned from him.”

*

It’s still about six weeks away, but the Masters is already on some minds. One of the changes that Augusta National made in the course is lengthening the par-five second hole by 50 yards, which means tee shots must travel 329 yards to carry the bunker.

Can you do that, Tiger?

“I don’t know if that’s realistic,” he said.

HELPING HANDS: Call them swing doctors, golf gurus or whatever. Almost all the top players in the world have coaches and best of those instructors share their secrets. Section S

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First on the Tee

Since 1998, David Duval and Tiger Woods have played in the same tournament 17 times. Here’s a summary of how they fared:

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1998 Woods Tournament Duval T-2 Mercedes T-6 T-3 Buick Invitational MC T-9 Doral T-23 T-35 Players Championship T-18 T-8 Masters T-2 1 BellSouth T-14 T-51 Memorial 3 T-18 U.S. Open T-7 3 British Open T-11 T-10 PGA Championship MC 4 Sprint MC T-5 World Series of Golf 1 T-7 Disney T-43 20 Tour Championship T-8 1999 Woods Tournament Duval T-5 Mercedes 1 3 Phoenix T-18 T-53 AT&T; Pebble Beach T-15

*--*

MC--missed cut