JACKSONVILLE, Florida — David Duval has returned periodically to the Timuquana Country Club near where he grew up learning to play golf.
Saturday was a bit different: he was hitting shots on the course that counted … not to the results of the Constellation Furyk & Friends PGA Tour Champions event.
That will come next year.
But the shots Duval hit with three Hall of Fame athletes during the Furyk & Friends Celebrity Challenge for Charity counted towards a bigger picture than a golf tournament.
Duval, a 13-time PGA Tour winner, the 1999 Players champion and 2001 Open champion, teamed up with former Pittsburgh Steelers star Lynn Swann against World Golf Hall of Fame member Annika Sorenstam and former St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Ozzie Smith in a nine-hole scramble in which $100,000 was designated for either K9s for Warriors (the Duval-Swann charity) or Wolfson Children’s Hospital (Sorenstam and Smith).
Duval and Swann had won $44,000 in skins through eight holes (thanks in part to an iron shot Swann hit at No. 17, setting up a 10-foot birdie putt for Duval), while Sorenstam-Smith had earned $16,000.
The groups tied on No. 18 and decided to designate $50,000 to each charity.
“It was so great to be back where I grew up,” Duval said. “This is a big event and playing with this group of Hall of Famers was actually really nerve-wracking.”
Duval said the Furyk & Friends was doing Timuquana proud.
“Hats off to Jim and Tabitha [Furyk] for what they have accomplished,” he said. “I’ve played thousands of rounds on this course. I take a lot of pride in playing here and it was such a pleasure to see the turnout from the fans and to see the field that showed up this week.”
Before the competition, Duval gazed out at the range where he hit balls for thousands of hours under the tutelage of his father Bob Duval, Timuquana’s head pro at the time.
“It’s different, the scale of it,” said Duval, who now lives in the Denver area. “I remember it as being a lot bigger because I was a little person growing up here. It’s always cool to be back.”
Duval was greeted warmly by the crowd around the 10th tee when the event started after the final group in the tournament cleared the hole.
“Welcome back, David,” one fan yelled.
And another reminded everything that the Episcopal High graduate was the original “Duuuvaaallll!” when he belted out that ode to Jacksonville.
“It’s really cool to see it like this and have it so cleaned up, with all the work they’ve been doing for years here,” Duval said of the course and how it presented itself for the tournament. “It makes it incredible.”
Duval missed being eligible to play in this tournament by 32 days. He turns 50 years old on Nov. 9.
However, he plans on competing on the PGA Tour Champions next season and Furyk & Friends is already on his list of planned starts.
“Obviously, it will include this,” he said. “I plan on playing and see how everything works out, my health and all that good stuff.”
The charity Duval and Swann were playing for, is close to Duval’s family and his heart. His father and step-mother Shari launched the charity in 2011, which provides service dogs for the military who have returned wounded or suffering from PTSD.
“The charity has saved lives, really, of those warriors,” Duval said. “Placing those dogs gives them some semblance of normalcy in their lives. To have had Dad and Shari start it, it’s wonderful.”
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