You could have forgiven Duval for scratching his head over Woods's first missed cut in a major championship as a professional, but there were plenty of people at Winged Foot wondering why Duval wasn't climbing into the SUV alongside the world number one.

Because this just happens to be the first time that Duval has survived a major guillotine since the 2002 USPGA Championship. The first time that he had produced form on the big stage worthy of the reputation he had forged in another golfing life. The first time for years that his play has attracted attention for the right reasons.

It had started unsurprisingly. A 77 was by no means the worst opening round on this brutally difficult course, but if his recent track record was anything to go by, it would inevitably be followed by a similar score, and Duval, along with Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia and Woods himself, would be beating yet another Friday retreat.

However, the next instalment on Friday produced an astonishing 68, only matched by the emerging Californian, Aaron Oberholser. For someone who had hit rock bottom, this was tantamount to a successful assault on a 6,000metre peak . . . without oxygen.

However, the subsequent question, roughly translated as, "Where the hell did that round come from?" didn't go down too well with a sternfaced Duval.

"I guess you haven't been listening, " he responded edgily, "I've been saying that I'm playing well for I don't know how long and nobody wants to seem to listen. So, I'll say it again, I'm playing very well.

The little things just added up a bit better than they have over the past six months."

When you are ranked 402nd in the world, playing well is relative. Duval's best finish this season is a tie for 22nd place at the Wachovia Championship, and in his 14 tournaments before Winged Foot, he had missed eight cuts. At least his results are better than last season when he played in 20 events and made just one cut, earning the princely sum of $7,500. A bit of a change from the glory days of 1999, when he supplanted Woods as the world number one, and when his prize money totalled $3.5m.

That was then, and after winning the British Open at Lytham in 2001, Duval suffered a meltdown perhaps only comparable in the modern era with Ian BakerFinch's monumental slump during the mid-1990s. BakerFinch never recovered, but it seems now as if the omens are better for Duval.

There were injuries, a swing overhaul, but most of all a massive confidence deficit which caused him to opt out of the game for the best part of a season in 2003.

With Nike keeping to their promise of a $20m deal over seven years, putting food on the table for his young son, and the three kids he inherited from his wife's first marriage hasn't exactly been a problem, but such was the extent of his fall, there were doubts if he would ever return. Now, it appears that self-belief has brought him close once again to the game's golden circle.

But it's not as if the Iceman has suddenly melted.

Asking what his thoughts were on his four-year wait to survive a cut in a major, Duval became increasingly tetchy. "I guess that's the difference between you and me, I don't think that way. I'm not thinking along the lines of whether I've done it recently or not. But you know what, it feels wonderful to be in contention again. It's a matter of confidence now, and I'm just looking forward to a really good second half of the year."

With his rehabilitation still very much a work in progress, it is hard to see Duval as a factor in the destiny of this championship, but no one flukes a 68 at Winged Foot.

He might not be back, but David Duval is coming back.