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David Duval is a mystery. David Duval is the 2001 Open Championship winner. David Duval was the number-one-ranked player in the world and he was later ranked 882nd in the world. All true.

Duval, 38, must be one of the most intriguing golfers in the game. The former Open Champion went into a prolonged tailspin after winning that major, but nearly won the U.S. Open last summer. He tied for second, having not finished in the top-10 in 116 previous tournaments.

It was his only top-10 last year. In the U.S. Open.

Huh?

But Duval was back after the U.S. Open, right? His coach Puggy Blackmon said so. But he hadn't done much since, missing seven of eight cuts after that, and tying for 76th in two tournaments this year. That is, he hadn't done much until the AT&T National Pro-Am that ended today at the Pebble Beach Golf Links in Monterey, California.

There he was, having shot three-under-par 69 to finish at 15-under 273 in the AT&T National Pro-Am. He was tied for the lead with Dustin Johnson and J.B. Holmes, who had yet to finish their rounds.

Duval had played beautifully during the final round, which he had started six shots from the lead. He'd holed a bunch of birdie putts in the 15-20' range. He birdied the par-three 17th to get to 15-under-par and give himself a chance at getting into a playoff. Duval didn't birdie the par-five last hole, but still, he was in with an opportunity to win for the first time since he took that Open.

Was it really nine years since Duval had won? Wasn't the Open title supposed to propel him to a player who would challenge Tiger Woods for the number-one ranking in the world, and for a long time?

But the aftermath of the Open, for Duval, wasn't what most people think should follow a major win. He was filled with emptiness, as strange a choice of words and as much a contradiction in terms as that is. Winning the claret jug that is given to the Open champion didn't do much for him. It's hard to say what reaching the pinnacle in a sport is supposed to do, except provide a sense of accomplishment for all the hard work an athlete puts in.

Elation? Duval felt little, if any, of that emotion. A deep sense of accomplishment? Not really. Pride? No.

But, eventually, Duval came to realize that he had a tremendous talent for golf. It was a gift, not to say he didn't work hard to get where he was that July day when he held the claret jug: at the top.

Duval went through personal difficulties. Injuries, private matters.

He overcame them. A new marriage, stepchildren, his own children. The emptiness evaporated.

Duval had also become a gym rat in trying to turn himself into a specimen of what he had concluded a golfer should look like. Body fat?

He wanted to get rid of his formerly chunky-looking self. Not chubby.

Chunky. A regular guy who wasn't obsessed with perfection, whatever that was.

Duval gained weight back. He decided he wanted to regain his game, and to show his kids what sort of golfer he had been—that golfer who had won the claret jug. He came so close at last June's U.S. Open, but, oddly, he didn't finish high enough on the PGA Tour's money list to retain his full playing privileges for this year. But he's exempt for the Masters and U.S. Open because of his finish in the latter championship last year.

Duval had shown his kids, and the golfing world, plenty at the U.S Open. Still, he'd not won.

So there he was at Pebble Beach, in with a chance. His kids gathered around him, and he waited to see whether he'd get in a playoff. Holmes missed a 12-foot birdie putt that would have put him a shot ahead of Duval and Johnson.

Johnson, playing in the last group, put his second shot on the final hole into a greenside bunker. He hit his sand shot within four feet of the hole. Duval waited. He'd shot four round in the 60s for the first time since the 2001 Buick Open in Flint, Mich.

That was nine years ago, the same summer he won the Open.

Johnson stood over his birdie putt, and holed it to win the AT&T for the second straight year. Duval hadn't gotten into a playoff. He hadn't won.

But had he lost?

Technically, yes. But maybe he's won something else. Maybe he's won the knowledge that the pleasure is in the process. Sure, he didn't win the gold in this Olympics winter. But maybe the knowledge, and the confidence, and the self-awareness that he must have won by now, will lead to a tournament win.

That's gold the way the world defines it, as in a win. You get the feeling that Duval wants to win that gold again, and that he's on the right track to get there. It's a long track, and he's making his way to the winner's podium.

Slowly, if not surely, nine years later.