Tour News: To most, it would seem that the king has regained his crown; and, after an abdication that lasted a whole six months, it's probably not before time. But nobody needs to tell Tiger Woods, reinstalled as the number one in the official world rankings, that the hard part will be to stay there.

Indeed, those now cast in the role of hunters - most pertinently Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson, whom Woods beat in a head-to-head final round of the Ford Championship at Doral on Sunday to take his second win in four starts on the US Tour this year - are all playing remarkably good golf.

All of which adds intrigue to this early part of the season and brings a touch of reality about how well Woods will have to continue playing if he is to remain as world's number one.

"You know, the rankings will take care of itself with wins," remarked a philosophical Woods who, nevertheless, could take some added satisfaction from the fact that his return to the top of the world rankings was achieved by out-gunning his principal adversary.

"I said that from the very beginning - that's how I got there (by winning). That's how Vijay got there. That's how Double-D (David Duval) got there. It's just nothing but winning golf tournaments.

"So far, I've won two this year, which is a nice start to the year."

As his final-round comeback at Doral emphasised, where he overcame a two-shot deficit on Mickelson to add the Ford title to the Buick Invitational he won at Torrey Pines last month, the Woods on view this season is a much-improved version to the one which struggled through last year, when Singh usurped him as world number one.

Without a doubt, there is a far greater solidity to Woods' game and a renewed ability to make the clutch putts. The work conducted on his swing with coach Hank Hainey over the past 18 months has produced an on-course confidence that was sadly lacking when Woods went through 2004 without a major win or, indeed, a strokeplay win on the regular circuit, until he finally won in Japan in November, and then claimed the (non-counting) Target World Challenge in December.

Those wins confirmed the player's belief he wasn't far away from regaining the magical touch that had made him the game's most dominant player.

"I'm very happy with the swing I've got now, there's no doubt about it," said Woods. "I'm able to fly the ball, to hit the shots at the trajectory I want each and every time."

Woods, though, still trails Mickelson in the US Tour's moneylist. Mickelson tops the table with $2,723,056 with Woods in second place on $2,366,333.

But Mickelson tried to look to the positives from his performance last week. "With all the feelings I have about losing, this was probably the best thing that could have happened to me heading into the majors," he said.

"I'm going to work my tail off to salvage a couple more shots. When I come back to the Players' and the Masters, I'm going to be ready," said Mickelson.

Interestingly, Darren Clarke is 26th on the US Tour Order of Merit with $497,575, while Pádraig Harrington, who plays in this week's Honda Classic, lies in 119th position with prize money of $97,826. Despite a slow start to the season, Harrington remains in eighth position in the world rankings.

But Graeme McDowell's climb continues and he has progressed to a career-high 50th position in the latest rankings.

McDowell, who has a sponsor's invitation to play in this week's Honda Classic, has the same points average - 2.16 - as the 49th positioned player, John Daly. But the logjam around this particular part of the rankings is reflected in the fact that Thomas Levet (51st), Richard Green (52nd) and Tim Herron (53rd) are all on the 2.15 points average mark.

So there could be much swapping of places in the coming weeks as final exemptions for both the Players' Championship and the US Masters are decided.

The Players' takes place at Sawgrass in a fortnight and the final places in the field will be given to anyone not already qualified who is positioned in the world's top 50 after next week's Bay Hill Invitational, a tournament to which McDowell is seeking a sponsor's exemption. If McDowell gets into the Players', his next target would be to stay in the top 50 after Sawgrass when the same criteria will be used to determine the final invitations to play at Augusta National.

Currently, Harrington and Clarke are the only Irishmen exempt for the season's first major.

Paul McGinley, meanwhile, needs something special to happen if he is to earn a return to the US Masters. Of Europe's successful Ryder Cup team at Oakland Hills, only McGinley (69th in the world) and Colin Montgomerie (56th) have not earned invitations. For McGinley to break into the top 50, he would need to win this week's Qatar Masters in Doha, where he is one of four Irish players in the field. Gary Murphy, Peter Lawrie and Damien McGrane are also competing.