The US Tour moved east last week to Florida and the first of the lead-in events to The Masters in the second week in April. Doral has hosted a tour event for more than four decades and, like most Florida courses, it is flat, artificial water hazards play a big part in the strategy and the last hole is the seemingly mandatory long par four around a lake on the left.

The obvious distraction is the question of when Tiger Woods will play again even though the reality is that he has probably only missed three events in his 'sabbatical' - San Diego, the Match Play and last week's World Championship tournament at Doral - that he might normally have played.

No player has been more affected by Woods than the big South African, Ernie Els.

When Els won the U.S Open in 1994, Curtis Strange called him the ‘next God of golf'. He triumphed again at Congressional in 1997 - the championship immediately following Woods' extraordinary 12-shot win at Augusta - but the betting in 1994 was that Els would come close to matching the nine majors won by his countryman, Gary Player.

Instead the awesome presence of Woods has seen Els vying with Phil Mickelson for the title of second best player of his era.

Els began the final round last Sunday tied with another South African, Charl Schwartzel, but his brilliant 66 left all the rest playing for second. He has been quiet these past few years while recuperating from a serious knee injury, dealing with a son diagnosed with autism and a feeling amongst his peers that he isn't one to dedicate himself to the level of obsession reached by Woods.

Nonetheless, he is the most beautiful player to watch and in so many ways the modern era equivalent of the great Sam Snead.

If Woods is to play at Augusta - and at this point every prediction is a guess - he will be competitively rusty and perhaps this is the year Els fulfils what seemingly was his destiny and win at Augusta.

There were two other points of interest at Doral.

The first was that of the top-15 finishers, only three - Mickelson, Matt Kuchar and Bill Haas - were American. That is a staggering statistic and one that would have been unbelievable 20, or even 10, years ago. It is also a sure sign that the balance of power in world golf, for so long in the Americans' favour, has shifted - most likely forever.

Fourteen of the top 15 were pretty predictable but Melbourne man Alistair Presnell tied for sixth after a fantastic, final, nine-birdie round of 64.

Only a month ago, he finished with a brilliant 60 to win the Victorian PGA and whilst that was impressive this was an extraordinary result. He earned a place in the elite field thanks to the money he won at the Moonah Classic last summer.

Obscure players like Presnell are supposed to turn up and bring up the rear of the field in these US Tour events. Instead the Victorian won just over $200,000.

But, illogically, his top-10 finish does not earn him a place in this week's event just up the road in Innisbrook. That is usually the convention but the American tour is good at protecting its own members against the incursion of outsiders like Presnell.

His win at Moonah should have earned him enough money make the top 25 players on the Nationwide Tour but he played less than his best for the rest of the year and fell agonisingly short. My feeling was that his results last year proved he wasn't ready for the main tour but his fabulous play last week showed he has a real future out there.