The Open 2012: David Duval in love with life and Lytham

The last Open winner at Lytham shows his love for the course and says injuries caused his downturn, not domestic bliss

Even at the moment of his greatest triumph, David Duval took great care to maintain a healthy sense of perspective. "This is just a silly old game," he smiled on the Sunday evening of the last Open played here at Lytham & St Annes, the Auld Claret Jug cradled lightly in his arms. "All we are doing is playing a game."

A calm, gentle and mature demeanour had served the 29-year-old first-time major winner well: he'd bounced back from a humbling at the previous year's Open at St Andrews, where as 54-hole leader he'd taken four shots to escape the Road Hole bunker on his way to a final-round 75.

It would serve him well over the following decade, too, albeit in vastly different circumstances. Duval, expected to be Tiger Woods's chief rival during the 2000s, would win no more major titles. Nor, a close shave in the 2009 US Open at Bethpage Black apart, would he even seriously compete for one. Instead his time was spent floundering in one long well-documented slump. He crashed from world No1 to 172nd in the rankings. In his annus mirabilis of 2001, he won nearly $3m in prize money; four years later, his annual haul was a mere $7,630.

In a slump, but not the slough of despond. In fact Duval's story is as warm and as life-affirming as they come, the tale of a content man who realises there is a whole world outside the boundaries of the golf course.

"I fully understood the magnitude of the accomplishment of winning the Open, the height of the mountain," reflects Duval, now 40. "It was a bit of an existential moment and time period for me. But that sure as hell wasn't all there was. My life in general has blown up exponentially in a wonderful way, with meeting my wife, having an instant family with stepchildren and having a couple of kids of my own biologically. I don't see my stepchildren any different, they're like my kids. I've got a wife that loves me. I love her. Maybe it's not cool to say, but I think she hung the moon. I've been lucky."

Yet Duval is unwilling to offer domestic bliss and lack of focus as a facile excuse for a career not quite fulfilled. "Is it my attitude? When it was pouring yesterday, I was out on the range hitting balls, soaked. I've worked my tail off. Unfortunately I've had multiple nagging little injuries. I've had tendonitis in both shoulders. I've got it in my elbows. I have bone bruises in my knees, which I've never really talked about before. I have a back problem that's well documented, had tendonitis in my wrists. I've had vertigo. So, I mean, there's a laundry list of problems.

"And that stuff, you know, wrecks golf games. The big detriment about wonderful athletes, wonderful golfers and football players, is that we're sometimes not smart enough to stop. Our egos think we can just play and get through it. And I did, and all it did was get worse and wreck my game and wreck my confidence. In hindsight, the big mistake I made in my career was not stopping sometime in early 2002 and not playing again until '04. I should have taken at least a year, maybe more off, got healed, and protected my confidence. Just given away that year and a half, not the eight years like I did."

The intelligent and thoughtful Floridian has only escaped the cut three times since winning at Lytham in 2001. He ended his title defence at Muirfield tied for 22nd, while the only other two weekend sorties – auguring well for this week – came at the only two subsequent stagings of the Open in the north-west, at Hoylake in 2006 and Birkdale two years later. "I feel good about what I'm doing," says Duval. "I played well last week at the John Deere, hitting 31, 32 out of 36 greens, hit most all of the fairways. I understand there's some things a little more important than golf, but it doesn't mean I don't love it, don't think I'm really good at it, don't think I can be really great at it again, and don't desire to be."

Furthermore, if Duval could pick and choose a championship to mount a comeback at, this would be the one. "Players spout about tournaments and the best weeks of the year, but when you hear this is the best week of the year, that's when they're finally telling you the truth. They say that in a lot of places, but the majority of players feel like this is the biggest and best golf tournament." Such effusiveness is only to be expected from a former Open champion, but anecdotal evidence suggests it is particularly heartfelt. Lytham's club professional, Eddie Birchenough, recalls running into Duval in the clubhouse on the evening of his 2001 win. "

He was as high on life as I've ever seen anyone, absolutely hyper," says Birchenough who, to put this in context, was at the club when Whirlwind Seve laid the course to waste on the final day in 1988. "His eyes were glazed, they were darting everywhere. His speech upon lifting the trophy was gentlemanly, gracious and humble. He was famous for wearing those wraparound shades but it opened a door into his spirits. He is a very nice man indeed."

Lytham's love is certainly reciprocated by Duval. "I haven't been here for 11 years, and it was kind of cool to see my name on the club board, in the gold ink on the wood, along with the other tournaments they have and stuff. It makes you feel like you're kind of part of the club. I like it here."