A Time to Sow; A Time to Reap

Filed in archive Golf News on December 3, 2007

Those who have written off David Duval may need to rethink their positions.

Duval went through hell and back from about 2002 until the present. First, it was vertigo, then relationship problems.

But now Duval is back on track and ready to try it again with meaning. However, he's also the first to say his life is balanced.

Duval participated in the weekend Del Webb father-son tournament in Florida with his stepson. He and the lad finished in a tie for ninth place with Bernhard Langer and his son.

Not bad. But as this story in the Orlando Sentinel indicates, Duval has different priorities now, chiefly, his family. Golf takes a back seat. Tiger Woods might well be feeling the early stirrings of something similar now that he, too, is a family man.

Life has a way of forcing a re-focusing as the result of choices we make and actions we take: single golfer, multi-millionaire, world by the tail, falls in love, marries, starts family, grows emotionally, realizes there's more to life than a golf ball.

You can substitute anything for "golf ball"; the point is a choice is made and that choice leads one down a path not anticipated. But if you're prepared to embrace that path, as Duval has done, peace of mind gets thrown in as part of the bargain.

Careers, like lives, evolve at different rates. While Duval is well down his path, we have the young pros who are hungry to launch their careers on the PGA Tour.

They are battling in the sixth round of the Tour's Q-School today, looking to grab a rung of that ladder to riches. These are players who will work their tails off to succeed, who will go without in their personal lives, if that's what it takes, to make the grade.

Theirs is a single-minded focus and eventually, given whatever levels of success they experience, that focus will change just like Duval's did.

It's the nature of golf and life. To everything, there is a season.