Peter Williams: Duval revival the real story behind Open

It was an underwhelming sort of US Open. The wet weather, the late finish and the unheralded winner combined for a golf tournament that won't be remembered as one of the greats.

At least Lucas Glover can now be relieved of his unfortunate "Flukas" moniker which has stuck since he won his only previous tournament on the PGA Tour, by finishing his final round with a 15m putt on the 17th and a 30m bunker shot on the 18th.

The ebullient New York fans - and in the Big Apple they're fans, not patrons like at Augusta - wanted a star to win. That's because New Yorkers thrive on stars, whether they're on Broadway, Yankee Stadium or Wall Street.

Tiger Woods would have done nicely but his putting was creaky. Phil Mickelson had all the sympathy a man whose wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer should have, and he was so close to claiming the ultimate in tear-jerking victories.

But, after five second-place finishes at the US Open since 1999, you begin to wonder if Mickelson will be haunted by this tournament, the way Tom Watson or Arnold Palmer could never win the PGA Championship or Sam Snead failed to claim a US Open despite being runner-up four times.

But the star who could have given us an even better story if he had just a modicum more luck, was David Duval.

Has one of golf's saddest-ever declines been arrested? Is the 13-time PGA Tour winner at last going to move that tally on from the devil's number?

If golf is a game of good breaks and bad breaks, then Double-D had an especially cruel one in his final round. It came at the par three third hole, where his tee shot not only found a bunker but plugged in the sand.

It took him three to get out, and then with two putts he dropped three shots on that one hole. But such was his comeback that, five birdies later, Duval was tied for the lead on the 17th tee, before making a bogey and finishing second equal, two shots behind Glover.

Even in his pomp Duval was something of an enigma. His emotionless expression was shaded by the wrap-around sunglasses he still wears to keep dust out of his contact lenses.

There was never any embrace by the wider sporting public, even when he won four tournaments, shot a 59 at the Bob Hope Classic and spent four months as the world's number one player in 1999.

His issues were both emotional and physical.

He said after winning the 2001 British Open that a major championship didn't make him feel the way he thought it would. The next year he broke up with his fiancee and injured his back. He lost confidence in his swing and the spiral to obscurity started.

Frankly, I couldn't envisage a result like Bethpage again. It's the first time Duval's had a top 20 finish anywhere since the 2006 US Open and it's his first top five since Jack Nicklaus' Memorial tournament in 2002.

Yet after he'd finished, he insisted, with a straight face, it's where he thought he belonged and there was no question in his mind that he wasn't going to win the tournament.

Now we wait to see if this is a catalyst to revive a once brilliant career. History tells us that once a golfer loses his game, he never gets it back. Witness Ian Baker-Finch and, sadly, Michael Campbell's looking increasingly like he won't either.

But there was just something about Duval at Bethpage that suggests more. Making five birdies in the final round of a US Open is as rare as seeing John Daly on a treadmill.

Golf is a game of confidence. Duval may have injected himself with enough to revive the magic of a decade ago.