David Duval struggling to make it through at the Qualifying School for the PGA
The once brilliant David Duval, who remained a formidable force on the PGA for quite some time, is still fighting hard to survive the qualifying rounds here at the PGA West, in order to make it in the top-25 who will be awarded a tour card for the next year.
A former number on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), Duval has barely managed to pull in two rounds of even-par at the latest Qualifying rounds at the Jack Nicklaus designed course.
"I obviously, like a lot of people, prefer not to be doing this," Duval said Thursday from PGA West, "I'd be able to get plenty of starts next year from the relationships I've built up over the past 15, 17 years, but I have to help myself first if I can.”
But this isn’t the first time Duval has been trying to work his way up the ranks through the Qualifying School. He returned to the school back in 2009, only to fall back after he had to go to the second stage of the school in order to make yet another attempt.
Duval decided to pull back.
"When I realized had to go to second stage, I thought 'Man, I don't know about that'," said Duval, "It's kind of a nerve-wracking experience. I know the importance of it and knew I'd have to play well to make it to the finals."
For the moment, the qualifying rounds are being led by the young guns, which have either stepped up the heat after a successful Nationwide season or have recently finished school. Will Claxton, the South Carolina native, shot a 2-under 70 in cold and windy
conditions Thursday and is now leading the event by one stroke over Matt Jones and Harris English. Claxton is now 10-under on the aggregate, after his sizzling 64 on the first day. Jones and English are both nine-under for the moment.
Duval is now tied for a disappointing joint 81st alongside some of the other former giants of the tour like Daniel Chopra and Andre Stolz. Chopra had a chance to surge to the top in last month’s European Tour title when he clinched the first round
lead, but succumbed to high scores in the proceeding rounds to fall back. Seung-yul Noh and Marco Dawson are also striving to make it in the top-25 during the six rounds qualification procedure.
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