While coach Butch Harmon placed the blame for the Lytham defeat on an overly aggressive game plan, Woods said: "I just need to get my mechanics a little more sound."
Dismissing talk of a mini-slump, he went on: "You are not going to play well every week. Everyone who plays this game understands that. I enjoyed this test. It was fun. I just wasn't able to swing the club well." Colin Montgomerie attempted to adopt the same upbeat response to a championship that had seemed his for the taking.
Three shots clear at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the first day, the 38-year-old Scot was hauled in by the chasing pack over the weekend and he could finish no better than tied for 13th place, six shots in arrears of Duval.
"I am trying to be as positive as possible," he said. "But I was just not good enough on the greens. I missed too many putts."
Montgomerie started the final round as one of 27 players from 15 different countries who were within four shots of the lead. His intention was to post a teasing target for the four joint leaders - Duval, Ian Woosnamand the German pairing of Bernhard Langer and Alex Cejka - to aim at.
But the former European No 1 was always on the back foot after dropping a shot at the third and attempts to win that elusive maiden major must now wait until the US PGA.
Instead, it is Duval who now joins the elite who have won a major. The taciturn American was the epitome of cool control as he carded a fourunderpar final round of 67 to finish three ahead of Sweden's Niclas Fasth.
Third place was shared by Ernie Els, Darren Clarke, Billy Mayfair, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Woosnam and Langer, all of whom had chances to challenge, only to lose them among Lytham's penal rough or one of the 197 bunkers that litter the links course.
Langer, Duval's playing partner, said: "David played very well, and he got a few breaks which usually happens to the winner. When he was in what seemed to be long grass he reached the green every time, and that is what made the difference."
