Duval Wins British Open
LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England (AP) - David Duval never doubted he had the mettle to win a major championship. Now he has a silver claret jug to prove it.
Duval refused to let the British Open turn into the shootout everyone expected, seizing control Sunday with a rock-solid game that carried him to a 4-under 67 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes and gave him his first major championship.
Maintaining a stoic demeanor behind his wraparound shades to the very end, Duval removed his sunglasses, tipped his cap to the adoring crowd and finally walked off the 18th green of a major as a champion.
He finished at 274 for a three-stroke victory over Niklas Fasth of Sweden, the only one among a long list of proven players who sustained any kind of challenge.
Former Masters champion Ian Woosnam might have been on that list. But after nearly making an ace on the opening hole, the Welshman realized he had an extra club in his bag and was assessed a two-stroke penalty.
That might have made Duval's task a little tougher at the end.
Haunted by the costly mistake, Woosnam finished with a 71 and was four strokes back at 278 along with five others.
Three of them were major championship winners - Woosnam, two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer and two-time U.S. Open champion Ernie Els.
Duval takes his place among them.
The only player besides Tiger Woods to be ranked No. 1 in the past three years, Duval expected to be there all along.
He carried some baggage to Royal Lytham - four chances at Augusta National, two at the U.S. Open and even last year at St. Andrews.
He flew home from that British Open with Woods and got a good look at the claret jug. On Sunday, he never really let it out of his grasp.
``It's kind of a big relief,'' he said. ``It's so pressure-packed in major championships, and then you put it on a golf course like this, where any minor mistake is magnified and it makes the pressure even greater. You just can't let up, and I didn't let up today.''
He becomes the sixth American in the past seven years to win golf's oldest championship.
Another major championship passed without Woods in serious contention.
Like so many others, Woods couldn't make enough birdies on a firm, fast links course littered with pot bunkers. He took triple bogey on the par-3 12th and wound up nine strokes behind in a tie for 25th, his worst finish in a major in nearly four years.
``I'm not thrilled that I wasn't able to contend down the stretch, but I had my chances out there,'' Woods said after a 71.
He wasn't alone.
Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland was at 8-under par and rolling - until his tee shot rolled into a pot bunker on No. 17 and he took double bogey.
Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain also got to 8 under until he fell back with back-to-back bogeys. The only other American to make a move was Billy Mayfair, who finished with eight straight pars and wound up in large group at 278.
All of them had their hands full.
From the time Duval holed an 18-foot birdie putt on No. 3, then birdied the back-to-back par 5s to take a two-stroke lead, he never gave anyone else much hope.
Originally published July 22, 2001.
