Waite Has 64, but Duval Has Confidence

By THOMAS BONK

Aug. 17, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

DULUTH, Ga. —

Last month the British Open along the coast in England, this week the PGA Championship in humidity that could wilt a pitching wedge, it must all be starting feel the same to David Duval.

There’s sort of a monotonous quality to major golf tournaments these days. Just point Duval to the starting gate at a major, hand him his sticks, stand back and watch him shoot lights out, which is how he played Thursday’s first round of the PGA Championship.

He rummaged around and pulled an opening round of four-under-par 66 out of Atlanta Athletic Club that wasn’t quite enough for him to lead--Grant Waite has that honor after his late-afternoon 64--but it was solid enough to inform everyone within perspiration distance that he’s the one to beat in the year’s fourth and final major.

It’s simply a confidence thing, Duval said.

“I sat there and told everyone for four straight years at Augusta and for some other events that I knew I had it in me,” he said. “I proved that over there and I think that makes it easier going out and playing now. But I just feel good about my golf and I feel like I know how to win these tournaments and I know what it takes.”

What it takes, of course, is posting a lower score than anyone else and that’s something even Duval couldn’t do while on his roll.

If anyone expected Waite’s low number, they had to be clairvoyant. The 37-year-old from New Zealand had seven missed cuts and one withdrawal in his last nine events. This is his fifth PGA Championship appearance and he has yet to make the cut.

“This is an adventure,” said Waite, who birdied the 490-yard 18th. “I just want to enjoy myself. Hopefully, I’ll continue to play well the rest of the week, but if I don’t, I don’t.”

Duval was one of nine who shot 66, a group that also includes Phil Mickelson, David Toms, Niclas Fasth, Fred Funk, Stuart Appleby, Dudley Hart, Brad Faxon and K.C. Choi.

Mickelson had a share of the lead with Waite until his last hole, where he made a bogey after missing the fairway off the tee. But Mickelson didn’t seem at all upset afterward and said he was pleased with the way he managed his game.

“Shooting a little under par on the first day certainly helps,” Mickelson said. “You can’t win the tournament in any of the first three rounds, but you can put yourself in position for Sunday.”

He also said he has changed his attitude about how to capture his first major.

“Instead of just trying to win, I’m trying to win by a certain number,” he said. “That seems to be spurring me on.”

Then there is Tiger Woods, whose three-over 73 wasn’t exactly what he would have liked for a start.

Actually, he didn’t play his first rounds very well in the last two majors. He started with a 74 at the U.S. Open (when Retief Goosen had a 66) and began the British Open with a 71 (when Colin Montgomerie had a 65).

At least Woods knew what went wrong: “I didn’t hit the ball very good today and I didn’t make that many putts.”

On the other hand, his clothes fit well.

Woods, trying to win his third consecutive PGA title, had two double bogeys and two three-putts but says he’s not exactly out of it yet, even though he’s tied for 100th.

“I’m not that far off,” he said. “If I just eliminate my mistakes, I’m under par. If I can go ahead and do that tomorrow, and play well on top of that, I should be able to move myself up that board a little bit.”

Waite has an entire posse close behind with 21 players within three shots. There are 12 in a chummy group at three-under 67, a bunch led by Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, Thomas Bjorn and Hal Sutton, and 17 more at 68.

By sundown, 69 players posted scores of par or better on the 7,213-yard layout.

“There are a lot of low scores out there,” said Rees Jones, the architect responsible for renovating the course. “That doesn’t make me very happy.”

Maybe not, but there weren’t a lot of sad faces in the locker room. For a layout that was supposed to be room service for the big hitters and jail for the short-knockers, Atlanta Athletic Club couldn’t make up its mind. As it turned out, just about every kind of player had a field day.

At one point in the late afternoon, 11 players were tied for the lead at four under. Appleby, one of them, says the course didn’t play as long as everyone expected because it had dried out, which meant that balls were rolling farther in the fairways.

No matter the conditions, Appleby insists that long hitters still enjoy an advantage.

“Well, long hitters can hit it shorter, but short hitters can’t hit it longer,” he said. “Length and accuracy is ahead of everything. You can’t beat it.”

As for Duval, he was pretty accurate at his third hole, the par-five 12th, but only if he actually aimed for that tree on the left with his second shot. Duval’s three-iron banked off the tree, but instead of bouncing away, it hopped back toward the fairway. He made a birdie there, his third in a row to start his round.

“I didn’t get to see exactly what happened [at 12],” he said. “It clipped the tree and came out to the right and, you know, that’s the kind of break I got at Lytham. Those are the kind of breaks that in the year and a half before Lytham it would have kicked left.”

Last year at this time, Duval was flat on his back in the living room of his house in Ketchum, Idaho, resting his bad back. All he could do was watch the PGA on television.

“It’s a lot more fun being here and playing,” he said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

At Atlanta Athletic Club in Duluth, Ga.; Par 70

First-Round Leaderboard

Grant Waite31-33--64

Fred Funk32-34--66

Niclas Fasth30-36--66

David Toms33-33--66

Stuart Appleby35-31--66

Brad Faxon31-35--66

Dudley Hart31-35--66