Duval’s dark-horse run

Out of the rough and rubble of a U.S. Open golf tournament that only seems as if it will go on forever has emerged a story as compelling as the event itself.

David Duval is back.

We don’t know how long he will stay or how happy the ending will be.

We do know:

He was No. 1 in the world 10 years ago and is now No. 882.

He won the British Open in 2001 and gradually seemed to drift away into somewhat of an embarrassment after that.

But he has shot rounds of 67, 70, 70 here and was one over par after two holes of his final round, for a two-under tournament total that tied him for third place and was only five shots out of the lead, with the finale scheduled today.

That’s a story.

The return of Duval is deeper, more complicated than that of an athlete making a comeback. In many ways, he is a Simon and Garfunkel song.

“Hello Darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again.”

He was a four-time All-American at Georgia Tech. A guy named Phil Mickelson also achieved that at Arizona State, but few others have.

He earned nearly $2 million in his first two years on the tour and by the late 1990s was the other guy, besides Tiger Woods, who could be No. 1. Duval did things such as shoot a closing-round 59 to win the Bob Hope Classic in 1997.

But the fade seemed to begin after he won the British, and by 2003, his ranking was down to No. 212. There would be occasional forays back onto the tour, and occasional 65s, almost always followed by 81s. He made one cut in 2005, just four in ’07.

But the story of Duval, now 37, appears to be more than some guy just hanging on, trying to recapture the past. You need to know little more than the quote he gave to a Golf Digest reporter five years ago, when he said some of the best times of his life have been when he has played golf alone, in the fog.

“In restless dreams, I walked alone.”

When he was 9, his bone marrow was given to his 12-year-old brother, Brent. Brent died within weeks. Difficult for a 9-year-old to go through, much less understand. Soon, his parents’ marriage ended in divorce. By various reports, Duval became increasingly withdrawn, even as he excelled in college, in the classroom and on the golf course.

He married a woman with children from Colorado -- he lists his residence as Cherry Hills Village, a Denver suburb -- and left the more predictable golf havens of Florida for months of snow and cold and no golf. He suffered from bouts of vertigo and had other injuries. He was MIA on the golf tour several times for long stretches.

He was sitting in a golf cart one day in the early summer of 2004, had barely played golf in the previous seven months and decided, almost on a whim -- since he was exempt and could -- to play in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in New York. He shot 83-82, which was 25 over par.

To give perspective to what he managed in the first three rounds at Bethpage Black with his three-under 207, in the 14 previous U.S. Opens he has played, he has never finished under par. His best finish was four over in 2001 at Southern Hills in Tulsa, and of the 46 rounds he has played coming into this one, 31 have been above par.

Above par, of course, is the norm at U.S. Opens, and this one is a slight aberration, because rain made greens into soft shooting galleries. Still, Duval has had trouble maintaining consistency through four rounds of any tournament. He hasn’t won one on the PGA Tour since that 2001 British Open.

From appearances this week, that was the old Duval. Today’s version seems settled, almost eager to embrace the path he has taken and how it has led to the one he is on. His interviews show depth and thought well beyond the norm on the tour.

Asked about a past Masters, where his scores were dreadful and withdrawing could have saved further embarrassment, he said, “I’m just not a quitter. . . . My older boys had come with me, so you have a rough day and quit and pack it up and go home? . . . I don’t think that’s an example I want to set.”

He points to a maturing process that may include both his personality and game.

“The difference from 10 years ago,” he said Sunday, “I would just grab a golf club and hit it 280 yards and it went straight. . . . [Now] I know exactly what I’m trying to do and I think, because of that, I actually think I’ve become a better striker of the golf ball.”

When the bright lights of television go on today for the completion of the final round, Duval is likely to be central to a story line that certainly will include Mickelson. They are the main name players with a chance to catch leaders Ricky Barnes and Lucas Glover, both fine players but not exactly Nielsen-rating darlings.

“The benefit I have, possibly headed into the next round,” Duval said, “is that I also know the other side of it. I know what the awful golf is all about.”

Duval seems ready for a run, ready, after all these years, to emerge from his personal sounds of silence.

And in the naked light I saw, 10,000 people, maybe more.”

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bill.dwyre@latimes.com

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U.S. Open leaderboard

*--* Player 4th Rd. Hole Par Lucas Glover E 1 -7 Ricky Barnes +1 1 -7 Phil Mickelson E 2 -2 Hunter Mahan E 2 -2 David Duval +1 2 -2 Ross Fisher +1 1 -2 Mike Weir +1 3 -1 Tiger Woods -1 7 E Soren Hansen -1 5 E Graeme E 4 E McDowell Bubba Watson +1 4 E Retief Goosen +1 3 E *--*