Duval takes his game to another plane

For a guy the purists say moves his head too much and has too tight a grip, David Duval isn't doing too badly, is he? Indeed, the current world rankings, which have him as number two behind Tiger Woods, could be deemed guilty of a little white lie: to all intents and purposes, Duval is the best player in the world at this time.

He is also an inspiration to all struggling professionals. Five years ago, after missing out at Tour school on two successive occasions, Duval was slogging around on the Nike Tour, before finally winning his full Tour card. Then, a month before the end of the 1997 US season, he was known as a seven-time runner-up who couldn't finish the job on a Sunday.

Not any longer. Since he won the Michelob Championship in October 1997, Duval has won nine times in 28 starts, culminating in last Sunday's final round 59 to win the Bob Hope Classic.

Duval may finally overtake Woods in the rankings after this week's Phoenix Open, but three weeks ago, at the Mercedes Championship in Kapalua, Hawaii, Woods possessed enough humility to acknowledge that he is currently playing second-fiddle to him. "The new game plan is that I should get a shot every nine holes from David," joked Woods.

What happened at PGA West in California on Sunday rubberstamped Duval's elevation to world number one in all but the actual rankings, which are worked out on a complicated, two-year rolling system. "Right now, he is our dominant guy," said Fred Funk. "He has no weakness. He is a great driver of the ball, extremely straight. He has great control of his irons. He chips . . . everything is good. Then, his mental game is as good, if not better, than anybody's."

Duval the struggler has become Duval the invincible. He has played twice on the US Tour this season and won twice. He is 52under-par for the two events - the Mercedes and the Bob Hope - and has already won $1,008,000 in prize money which, in a year where prize money has increased by a massive 40 per cent, makes him odds-on to become the first player to clear the $3 million barrier in a season.

Now, Duval's winning streak bears favourable comparison with Nick Price, who won nine times in just 15 months between 1993-94, and Tom Watson, who won eight times in 12 months in 1979-80.

"I feel I'm the better for all that," Duval says of his years of struggle and the constant questions about his will to win. "In all honesty, the struggle to get through something like that makes you appreciate it all the more than if you did it real quick the first time. I realised it is not easy to win out here (on Tour).

"I'm the type of guy who doesn't rush things, I let them kind of evolve."

Sunday's round of 59 - only the third on the US Tour, after Al Geiberger in 1977 at the Colonial CC in Memphis and Chip Beck in the Las Vegas Invitational in 1991 - has pushed him onto another level. "I was more excited about the score than the prospect of winning, it was like a double bonus," said Duval.

This week, Duval and his wraparound sunglasses move on to the Phoenix Open, and after that he intends to take another break to indulge in his other passion, skiing. But, as the world's best players wind up towards the opening world championship event - the Andersen Consulting matchplay at La Costa, California - next month, it is already apparent that Duval is the man in form and, by then, he could well have overtaken Woods as the official world number one, even if many of his peers already see him in that light.