By Melanie Hauser
SportsLine Staff Writer

He's the best player in the world.

He's also the best player never to win a major.

Think that second tag is going to last for long?

Try 12 days. And start measuring him for a green jacket.

Yes, David Duval is THAT good. If you don't believe it, watch the replay of his 71st hole at last week's Players Championship. He doesn't fool around. He trusts his focus and his swing. He steps to the tee, plucks the pitching wedge from his bag and produces -- on one terrifying pressure-packed par-3 -- a brilliant shot to six feet.

He never doubted it. He never doubted himself either. The Players Championship was his. So was the No. 1 ranking.

Any questions?

This is a man who has won 10 of his last 33 events. He's thrown golf's equivalent of a perfect game in a closing round to win. He's beaten the TPC at Sawgrass at it's gut-check, frightening best. He's scored better than anyone.

He's putted better than Ben Crenshaw did as a kid.

Duval shows off his most recent crystal acquisition.(Allsport)

For the first time since Fred Couples strolled onto the grounds in 1992, we have someone playing at so high a level it's hard to pick against him.

Back then, those expectations hung on Couples' shoulders as easily as those oversized sweatshirts of his. He wasn't distracted by the cameras and the questions. He didn't worry about what everyone was thinking, but rather how he was playing.

Couples deflected the pressure with a trip to the NCAA semifinals and an all-night bull session in the hospitality room just before flying to Augusta; a trip to the grocery store for chips and salsa -- what's an NCAA finals without some? -- on the Monday of Masters week. He wasn't worried about stimpmeters or course setup or what Greg Norman would or wouldn't shoot.

Expect the same from Duval.

He went from a guy who couldn't win to a guy who can't stop winning; from a sinister-looking guy with a chip on his shoulder to a top player who is -- week by week -- getting more comfortable with the spotlight. He can laugh at major questions. He delivers wisecracks back at reporters. He smiles. He relaxes. He understands this comes with life at the top and the more he wins, the more likeable he gets.

Who can't like a guy who fits weeks of snowboarding into his schedule? A guy who goes fishing for a couple of weeks to clear his head? A guy who swills Diet Coke and keeps life in perspective?

He's relaxed, yet intense -- an icy stare step up from Couples' Pooh-like strolls down the fairway; miles away from Tiger's emotional game. A Ben Hogan, if you will, wrapped in a likeable package.

A guy, more importantly, who has everything he needs to win at Augusta.

Nothing against Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Justin Leonard or even Couples, who proved last week that, despite crotchety back, he can still play some damned impressive golf under the toughest of conditions, but this is looking an awful lot like Duval's Masters.

He came this close last year, missing a couple of putts down the stretch that could have given him the jacket or, at the least, put him into a playoff with eventual champ Mark O'Meara. Instead, he settled for a tie for second with Couples. But, perhaps, settle isn't the word.

Duval proved something to himself last year and now he's poised to become the next player to win a major.

Couples on the way to his '92 win at Augusta.(Allsport)

He's as comfortable with his position atop the ranking as he is with his game. And, just in case he had any questions about the changes to Augusta's layout, he took a side trip there to play 36 holes during his 24-day pre- Players Championship layoff.

"It was nice," he said. "I liked it."

Although you can't compare Augusta's greens to those at the Players, you can agree that Duval putted lights-out on those asphalt tabletops they called greens last week. He took only 22 putts in the final round. He is, after all, the best putter on tour right now.

OK. So it's not a given. Things seldom are at Augusta. Even in 1997 when Tiger's game looked to be the perfect foil for the course, no one was quite sure what to think after his first nine holes. Sixty-three holes later, Tiger had worked the kind of magic there that was once reserved only for Jack Nicklaus.

Yet Augusta is a place where special -- almost magical -- things happen.

Why not a Duval win? So what if no one has ever won the Players and the Masters in one year? So what if only two players -- Nicklaus and Hal Sutton -- have gone on to win majors in the same year they won the Players?

Duval has broken every rule. He's made us think and rethink every time he steps onto a course. He was an arrogant kid who had to play his way onto the tour; a player who had to learn to get out of his own way; a guy who couldn't finish what he started. Now he's a guy after our own hearts.

It's hard to find a bad story at Augusta. How good would it be for Tiger to win another jacket? For O'Meara to repeat? For Tom Lehman to step up? For Norman to snatch a green jacket away from a course that's cut out his heart?

Yet somehow this seems like Duval's year. Duval's major.

Just when we wondered if he could ever beat the world rankings system and make it to the top he did -- with a huge win. And now, as we wonder if this is his major. Like we said, don't wonder if he can win the Masters. Just celebrate with him when he does.

Editor's note: The award-winning Melanie Hauser is a regular contributor to GolfWeb.