David Duval entertains as featured guest at Hoag Classic kickoff event
The Hoag Classic Hall of Fame Community Breakfast has often featured some of the shiny new toys on the PGA Tour Champions.
Players may not join the senior circuit until turning 50, so by that time, most have become known commodities, to some degree.
There have been household names, to be sure. David Duval belongs there, a name golf fans likely remember gracing leaderboards, well before he joined the broadcast booth with ESPN and Golf Channel.
Duval was the highlight attraction at the kickoff breakfast Tuesday at VEA Newport Beach, and a crowded ballroom was quite chatty with a personality some may have become accustomed to hearing in their living room.
The first question fielded from the attendees had to do with the ‘Tiger effect,’ a term television viewers of the sport have come to associate with the large crowds that follow Tiger Woods during his round.
“Playing in the same group as Tiger was never an issue,” Duval said. “Playing in front of him is a problem. … You’re playing with him, they have security, marshals, crowd control, he’s a very gracious competitor. … He might not talk a lot, but he’s very gracious. Playing in front of him, there’s 7,000 people running up while you’re trying to putt. … Playing in front of him was awful.”
Once the top-ranked golfer in the world, Duval sizzled from 1997 to 2001, a period during which he won 13 tournaments on the PGA Tour. He finished in the top five on the tour’s money list in each of those seasons, and the run culminated in his only win in a major championship at the 2001 British Open.
Inevitably, Duval was asked to relive one glorious afternoon, when he became the first player on the PGA Tour to shoot a 59 in the final round of a tournament. Duval accomplished the feat in the 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in La Quinta. It marked the third instance of a player shooting that score in competition, and it resulted in a one-stroke win for Duval.
“The day was easy,” Duval recounted. “Easiest round of golf I ever played because I did it next to the hole, basically, all day. The best way to explain it is I made 11 birdies and an eagle, and the total length of those 12 putts was 52 feet.”
Chuckles and gasps followed from an audience in awe.
The Hoag Classic gets underway Friday, with the players scheduled to tee off between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
Robert Callahan, a longtime volunteer, was inducted into the Hoag Charity Sports Hall of Fame. His service to the tournament has included his role as the starters chairman and work on the community relations committee.
Ernie Els is the defending champion of the tournament, which tees off Friday at Newport Beach Country Club.
“He’s been the only voice for Hoag in this golf tournament for a long, long period of time,” Hank Adler, a 2013 Hall of Fame inductee, said of Callahan. “... The starter at Hoag Hospital is the starter for the Wednesday [and] Thursday Pro-Am, as well as the professional tournament on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“If you think about when Bob started doing this, he’s been the voice for Hoag for a month of Wednesdays, a month of Thursdays, a month of Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. An incredible time commitment over a long period of time.”
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