Former world No.1 Jason Day has vaulted back into the top 10 and into the conversation for this week's Players Championship - the most important annual tournament outside golf's four majors.
Day's victory in North Carolina on Sunday - his second US PGA Tour win of the season - moved the Australian swiftly up the rankings from 14th to No.7.
He won The Players two years ago, during his career peak when he held the world's top ranking for most of an 18-month span from late 2015 to early 2017. He won his only major trophy in 2015 at the PGA Championship.
Day overcame some wild final-round drives to win by two strokes at Quail Hollow, and the 30-year-old knows he still has work to do in Sawgrass, which lies along northern Florida's Atlantic Coast, just outside Jacksonville in Florida.
"I'd like to be able to hit it a little bit straighter," he conceded on Sunday.
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He's one of the form players on the circuit, but at least as much attention heading into the highly-regarded tournament is on the world's 92nd-ranked player, who finished in a tie for 55th at the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte.
Tiger Woods, the 14-times major winner, continues to mount a comeback from years lost to back problems, boosting crowds and media attention for the tour in the process.
The 42-year-old's second-place finish at a tournament in March fuelled hopes for an improbable return to glory.
But while producing impressive club speed in the wake of his April 2017 spinal fusion surgery, Woods has struggled to keep his drives on the fairway.
Last month, he made the cut but finished 32nd in the Masters at Augusta.
Last week at Quail Hollow, Woods finally dialled in his driver, only for his previously sharp short game to falter.
In a rarity on tour, the entire top 50 is expected at Sawgrass, with nobody injured or sitting out.
After basking in his Masters championship last month, US player Patrick Reed, ranked 10th, returned to the tour last week at Quail Hollow, finishing eighth.
The tournament's purse is up from $US10.5 million ($A14 million) to $US11 million ($A14.7 million) this year.
The winner's share is up to $US1.98 million ($A2.65 million) while the runner-up will settle for $US1.188 million ($A1.59 million).
