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BOB HARIGThe 2001 British Open champion continues to have physical issues derail him in tournaments.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The decline of David Duval continued Friday at the PGA Championship, where the 2001 British Open champion withdrew on the fifth hole after a double-bogey, par, triple-bogey, bogey start.
That came after Duval opened with 10-over-par 80, another in a long line of bad rounds for the only player in the past five years to supplant Tiger Woods as No.1 in the world.
Duval, 31, who lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, said his lower back began bothering him last week at the International.
"I hit my tee shot on 5 and that was it," Duval said. "I can tell it's not right. I hurt it last week. ... I felt all right when I woke up. I'm going to go back to Florida for a while. We have to give it a few days and see how it feels."
Duval has had a myriad of personal and physical issues derail him since he won his first major championship and 13th PGA Tour title at Royal Lytham. He broke up with his longtime fiancee and has had several injuries, including shoulder, wrist and back.
This year, Duval has made just four cuts in 19 events. He had a bout with vertigo in March, has shot four rounds in the 80s and has posted no top-10 finishes.
Duval has suggested that trying to work through the injuries caused his problems.
"As we know, practice makes permanent, not actually perfect," Duval told the Golf Channel this week. "What I was ingraining was bad habits. I was making a lot of compensatory moves for my back, my shoulder, my wrist. So through the course of that, I'm ingraining a bad setup, a bad address position, a bad takeaway. Those kind of things are hard to get out of."
Duval said he has seen progress recently. He began working with noted instructor David Leadbetter and shot 62 during the second round of the Capital Open in June, leading to a tie for 28th, his best finish of the year. But he hasn't made a cut in six tournaments since or in the four major championships.
"I think he knows what's going on with (his swing)," friend Davis Love said. "I know if I went over the handlebars of a mountain bike, I would probably never come back. It shows he's real strong and he's real fit and just a bad back can still slow you down."
A mountain bike accident never has been reported, so perhaps there is more to Duval's woes than he is letting on.
"Golf is a tough game," Sergio Garcia said. "You lose a bit of confidence and you start doubting yourself. It's something only David can correct."