Another Bad Sign for Duval

It wasn’t the finish he was looking for -- bogey, double bogey, bogey, bogey, par -- but when David Duval worked his way through the crowd at the back of the 18th green at Torrey Pines after signing his scorecard for a seven-over-par 79, some of the fans weren’t worried about his score.

“Welcome back, David.”

“Good to see you.”

“Go get ‘em, David.”

He kept his head down and walked toward the driving range, signing badges, hats, magazines and shirts as he moved slowly through the crowd.

Ranked No. 1 just before the Masters in 1999, Duval is now 526th.

“Like I’ve said all along, I’ve got a lot of work to do,” Duval said. “It wasn’t a good day.”

After the first round, Duval is 154th in a 156-player field, but he says he expects to play next week in the Bob Hope tournament.

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Mark O’Meara shot a 73 on the South Course to start what’s going to be an interesting eight weeks. O’Meara needs to make $79,396 in that span to complete a minor medical extension, which is equal to No. 125 on the money list and will make it easier for him to get into tournaments.

O’Meara made $543,866 last year and played only 17 events because of a wrist injury. If he meets his goal, he’ll play out the 2005 season with a major medical extension. If he doesn’t, he can play in tournaments if he’s offered sponsors’ exemptions.

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Dick Mast, 53, who has no exempt status on the Champions Tour, qualified last week for the Sony Open in Honolulu and was 47th. He flew all night to San Diego and shot a 65 on Monday at El Camino Country Club to earn one of the two qualifying spots for the Buick Invitational. Thursday, he shot a par 72 on the North Course.

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He had said he felt rusty, so at least Phil Mickelson was right about that. He opened with a 72 on the South Course, which put him in a tie for 89th. He said he probably left a few shots out on the course and chalked it up to his inactivity, as the Buick is his first event of the year.

“I’m not going to put too much stock in the first day,” he said. “I want to work on it, keep getting better and better.”

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First-round leader Tom Lehman is the captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 2006 and says he hasn’t given up hope that he might even play his way onto the team.

“To me, it’s a goal, a dream,” he said. “It would be a unique situation. People have always talked about that. Tom Kite could have been on the team when he was captain [in 1997]. It’s a long way off -- it would be an upset if I made the team at this point -- but if my game keeps progressing, you never know.”