- So Long Baby, Goodbye?:  Unlike some who have long considered him too intellectual (read different) for their golfing tastes, I have always been a big David Duval fan.  Anyone who watched this prodigious talent play during the late 1990s understands viscerally how much there was to like about his game, but I also found his general outlook to be refreshingly unique.  In a game where 99% of his fellow professionals eat, breath and sleep their pursuit of excellence, Duval actively embraced other interests.  In short, though he was probably tipping his hand regarding the apparent lack of competitive drive that has derailed his career of late, any world-class player who guessed that by age 40 he’d be running a used book store in Jacksonville sounded pretty good to me.  In any event, Duval began 2008 playing on what the PGA Tour calls a Major Medical Extension – that is, he is being given extra time to extend his playing privileges due to missing most of 2007 while helping his wife with a difficult pregnancy.  He arrived at his first event, the Bob Hope, sounding optimistic, talking about winning again and playing his way onto the next Ryder Cup team.  He then proceeded to miss the Hope cut by a wide margin and has yet to make one since, his early exit this week in Atlanta (off rounds of 78-77) representing his eighth straight MC in as many ’08 starts.  He has yet to shoot a single round in the 60s (though to be fair, he hasn’t ballooned into the 80s either) and arrived in Atlanta ranked a stunning 926th in the world – a long, long way south for a former world number one.  So is Duval absolutely, irretrievably finished? As I’ve written previously on this site, few players of his era have possessed his majestic ball-striking ability (anyone who heard the sound of his impact up close during the late ‘90s knows what I mean) and much of that physical talent still remains.  But clearly this is a man whose other interests – which now include marriage and a family – have superceded whatever desire he has left to play competitive golf.  True, Duval’s probably genuinely happier today then when he was winning the 2001 British Open – and it’s hard not to admire him for that.  But his slow fade is also a real loss to the PGA Tour, because aside from being one of the rare players to actually prove himself capable of battling Tiger Woods on at least somewhat equal terms, Duval was simply a rare talent who could play the game like few others.    Here’s hoping…but I’m not holding my breath.

- But Should He Wish To Continue...: On the assumption that David Duval will not earn enough money to retain his playing privileges for 2009 (I wonder what sort of odds Ladbrokes might offer on that), will he still be playing competitive golf next year?  Duval could return to his roots on the Nationwide Tour (fat chance) or he could go overseas (for some of those family educational trips touted by Phil Mickelson), but neither of those seem like options he’s likely to pursue on a regular basis.  Instead, Duval, winner of the 2001 British Open, would probably take advantage of the PGA Tour rule allowing Major champions to receive unlimited sponsor exemptions (aka the John Daly Rule), thus allowing him to tee it up at any Tour event that welcomes his presence.  Of course, it will be most interesting to see if the various tournament directors are as enthralled with the former world number one’s potential drawing power as they clearly are with prospect of watching Daly implode (or, more likely, withdraw) during the course of their tournaments...

- Already Gone:  Not that anyone can blame him, of course, but I was a little disappointed to see Franklin Langham withdraw on Friday morning rather than return to complete his rain-shortened Thursday round in Atlanta.  I say this not because I take any pleasure in watching a man post a score in the 90s, but rather because Langham showed a lot of grit even finishing the first 17 holes after opening his round with a nightmarish 13 at the par-5 10th hole, and he would have further cemented his status as a gamer had he returned to post a score.  Still, it’s hard not to sympathize with his plight during what is, by any measure, an almost surreal period of his career.

- It Was Good While It Lasted (the PowerHouse Fizzles): With Desvonde Botes carding a flawless seven-under-par 65, it might not have mattered anyway, but our favorite son, PowerHouse McIntyre, blew himself out of contention at the Sunshine Tour’s Nashua Challenge on Friday with a disappointing 75 over the shorter Lost City Golf Course.  But in true PowerHouse style, he at least made it exciting: coming to the long par-4 ninth (his 18th) at even par for the day, he managed to rack up a smooth triple-bogey seven, falling from a tie for 3rd to a tie for 13th.  I mean seriously, who else on that tour would you want to watch?