TMZ Report May Explain Why David Duval Is Much More Willing To Talk These Days

Never one to give the impression that he enjoyed answering questions or in general, talking, David Duval has been working for ESPN these days and was in the Open Championship media center longer than anyone a few weeks ago. For someone so reserved it's been a refreshing change. There may be a reason. TMZ reports Duval has a house in foreclosure.

With $18 million in PGA Tour earnings and at one time a massive deal with Nike, I hate to ask, but one does wonder where the money went?

As a former Open Champion, the Daily Mail's crack reporter Daily Mail Reporter, took special interest in the story.

Comments

[d.b.cooper]

House is ostentacious.

Wonder who runs that household.

[Ace]

"Ostentatious"

[Hamilton Guy]

It is worth noting that Colorado is a non-recourse state, which means that if Duval owes, say $5 million and the house sells in foreclosure for $4 million, tha bank cannot go after Duval for the lost $1 million. If you live in a non recourse sate and are under water on your mortgage, it makes sense to walk away from it, even of you could make it good.

Also doesn't the PGA have a sort of pension plan where a percent (10% comes to mind) of a players earnings are placed in a retirement fund, which in Duval's case would suggest that he has $1.8 milllion in that fund.

[Alex H]

I would think he's deliberately walking away from it - apparently he's tried to sell it before, with no success...and probably lives someplace else by now anyhow. The choice probably came down to paying the humongous mortgage, or walk away from it and cut a lesser deal when they come after him for his money. I doubt he's broke.

[Tighthead]

I kind of doubt he is broke, although buying a house like this is how rich guys become broke guys.

[Dsl]

It would be fun to be rich enough to walk away from bad debt with no repercussions. This must be what's going on here. The extremely wealthy can either buy a property, hold onto it and flip it for a profit. Or, they can take out a huge mortgage and pay whatever potion they wish to essentially 'rent' it. If it loses it's value, simply walk away and feel no pain. What a dream. No wonder my kids have no future.

[sgolfer]

Can't wait until Tiggly Wiggly trys to sell his monstrosity in Jupiter someday.

Unless cults become a hell of a lot richer, I can't see him getting his investment back in full.

Other potential buyers such as, Michael Jackson, Liberace, Saddam Hussein, are all dead and died mostly broke.

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

Yeah, it's just a good business decision when a rich man or a corporation walks away from a bad "investment" or abrogates a contract that just didn't work out for the bottom line. However, it is a moral failure when your neighbor down the street defaults on an underwater mortgage, one that is underwater through absolutely no fault of his, because he lost his job. IKEA-Jupiter will bring 12 cents on the dollar when it sells. Probably as a tear-down, albeit with a nice (only?) TWD golf course as a back yard.

[A3]

It's amazing how the newly rich make terrible real estate decisions. Overblown ugly or just plain tacky it seems to happen over and over again with the famous not famous and wannabe famous. Athletes and dictators seem to be the worst of the lot. And yea I agree most of these palaces have no future buyers, please somebody get some taste.

[Richie Rich]

Calm down guys, remain calm. This is peasly nickels and dimes for him. After all it was David Duval who ushered in Commissioner Finchem's new era of golf.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1014994/index.htm

David's superb play helped rein in the PGA Tour's new retirement structure, which happens to be the best retirement plan in all professional sports. David should have tens of millions in there by now.

http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-11-13/a-tour-pros-nest-egg

The other thing David might have working to his advantage is personally knowing Commissioner Finchem. This article didn't mention who built the home but if it was KB Homes David might just be in luck.

http://kbhome.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/timothy-w-finchem-is-the-current-commissioner-of-golfs-pga-tour/

HOPEfully the home in question was built by KB Homes and something can be worked out on David's behalf. Worst case scenario David could file a hardship with the Tour to pull out the necessary money from his retirement to pay the whole thing off. God knows he's got that kind of money in there. Seeking the hardship might present a thorny issue though if it boils down to a judgement call.


http://www.weiunderpar.com/post/472069522

[D. maculata]

Amazing. All this talk about real estate, golf, the rich and not one mention of king you-know-who. Must be a tired subject or he's getting a pass based on reviews of the greatest course in the world? Bagpipers sounding his entrance at the grand opening was the clincher for me.

[RickABQ]

Not sure it would be a KB Home unless there are 25-50 of them hiding inside the massive exterior.....

[GinGHIN]

@ Hamilton Guy - Colorado is a recourse state. Duval would be on the hook for any deficiency unless the bank agrees otherwise.

[Del the Funk]

Make no mistake about it, everyone, rich and poor, retains the option to walk away....

....personally I think Duval's fortunes made an about face when he walked away from Julie McArthur. JMO.

[Jim K.]

The mortgage industry in concert with Wall Street was/is the recipe for theft. Barney Frank, are you out there? Wrapping up and packaging the mortgages so Wall Street could sell them as AAA rated bonds to foreign nationals is why Hank Paulson from Treasury jumped in with all the TARP (take another republicans paycheck) bail out money. We couldn't afford 50 different nations making a run on the United Nations explaining and describing how they were duped with these bonds.

Speaking of bail out cash, Obama fires the CEO of GM? How serious of a problem is fuel economy standards that Obama would schedule those by 2025? Hey Barry!!, here's a bright idea for you to implement TODAY. Flashing left hand arrows at intersections. Who is the A&M retard that invented the left arrow turn signal without considering a yellow flashing arrow? You, and millions of other Americans sitting at intersections daily just waiting for a green left hand turn arrow, REALLY? Millions of barrels a day wasted as one stares at the oncoming lanes where there is NO traffic in sight. We've all heard of think outside the box, this administration has got to start thinking outside the Bun, pull your heads outta your ass!

[Del the Funk]

While I am loathe to get in the middle of what is clearly a rapidly deteriorating thread....if you are interested in drawing a direct line to the beginning of the debacle, read this article:

nytimes(dot)com/1999/09/30/business/fannie-mae-eases-credit-to-aid-mortgage-lending.html

A few snippets...

"Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits."

''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''

"In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's."

''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''

----------------------------

I ain't no fan of the NY Times but if an article ever predicted the future, that one did. And in the interim when the regulators repeatedly tried to reign in Fannie and Freddie good ol' Barney Frank and Maxine Waters repeatedly cut them off at the pass -- it's all out there on youtube if you want to check it out.

When it was apparent that FNM and FRE would buy basically any loan, regardless of documentation and quality, local level mortgage brokers went into a feeding frenzy and then Wall St. firms snapped up a bunch of brokers that got some size (so they would have direct access to product to securitize).

But it all goes back to that initial politically motivated push back in 1999 for the GSE's to sponsor sub-prime lending...

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

This will probably get justifiably "deteriorated" into the ether like my last missive, but...then there is the fact that Gramm/Leach/Blilely was passed in 1999, effectively gutting Glass-Steagall, which led directly to MERS and the perhaps lethal securitization game of musical chairs, which lured the GSE's into the swamp so they could keep up with various and sundry vampire squids, which Sandy Weill now regrets (that's funny right there, I don't care who you are even if you don't have a couple billion to play with). But, whatever. Raines was the compleat idjit, too.

[Brad S]

An update from Garry Smits. Seems Geoff may have jumped the gun.

http://jacksonville.com/sports/golf/2012-07-31/story/david-duval-says-colorado-home-not-foreclosure

[ol Harv]

@DTF I kind of agree with you, It's almost like he has to tell everyone over and over how great his current wife is. If I read one more article telling me how she saved his life and is the greatest thing ever I'm gonna explode.

[Del the Funk]

ol Harv, think about this....does David Duval seem like the kind of guy that wants a palatial eyesore like what is pictured in those articles? In DENVER? Why would he do that? Reminiscent of Chip Beck... John Edward's denied the Enquirer stories when they first hit too...

Ky, there wasn't a broad market for sub-prime loans prior to the GSE's defining it at the behest of the Clinton administration. The Wall St. guys can brainstorm 24/7 but if there isn't a buyer for their product it doesn't matter. And the fact is the product was first exploited by local/regional mortgage brokers (who sold their loans to FNM/FRE) well before Wall St. took notice. This is analogous to Peter Lynch's thesis that the best investment ideas are always identified at the local level long before institutional money managers take notice. A prime example is Legg's/Hanes, ask Mrs. Ghost, she'll know about that. Sure, the street picked up the ball and ran it across the goal line, out of the stadium, down the street, and onto a jet cross country.....but again, they were late to the game and DC not only had ample opportunity to stop the game, they fixed the match in the first place!