Through his victory at Bay Hill on Sunday, Tiger Woods has gone into the top-20 of the all-time tournament winners in the US. And it is reasonable to assume there will be more to come, possibly in the Players' Championship at the TPC Sawgrass in Florida this week.

With 24 US tour victories to his credit, Woods has now moved alongside Tommy Armour, Johnny Miller and Macdonald Smith in a share of 20th place. The list is headed by Sam Snead, with 81 wins, followed by Jack Nicklaus (70), Ben Hogan (63) and Arnold Palmer (60).

Woods surpassed them all, however, by securing 24 US tournament wins before his 25th birthday, in December. And his next target will be the 29 wins which Nicklaus gained between the ages of 20 and 29. It is interesting that alongside his 24 wins, the world's top player has been second only eight times and third also eight times. This compares with figures of 18 wins, 31 seconds and 10 thirds from Greg Norman. For Nicklaus, there were 58 seconds and 34 thirds to go along with his 70 tour wins.

Perhaps Woods' most impressive achievement, however, is to have amassed his wins in only 95 starts, giving him a success rate of 25.26 per cent. Meanwhile, the storm which hit north Florida last weekend is expected to have passed by this afternoon, leaving the greens unusually receptive by the time the tournament gets under way tomorrow. In the rains of the last few days, it was quite a sight to observe fans attempting to juggle an umbrella, pen and programme while seeking autographs among the great and the good.

Among those attempting to steal a march on Woods with some early practice was David Duval, who has now slipped to seventh in the world rankings and an astonishing 95th in the US money list. The taciturn local, who described talk of a Tiger slump as "laughable", found time yesterday to report progress on the wrist injury which caused him to withdraw from Bay Hill.

In attempting to explain a more lengthy slump, Duval conceded he had not been swinging well since the beginning of last year. "I was making some compensations in my address and takeaway which are no longer an issue," he said. Duval, who captured this title in 1999, rates it aas the most serious challenge of the tournament year. "It is the biggest because everybody's here," he said. "And when you take the quality of the field and the quality of the course and then the prize money, you've got a tough event to win."