When Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy announced he would be playing a serious schedule in America this year there were some who thought the move premature.

Those who thought more play on the European Tour would have further rounded the 21-year-old's game could point to disappointing results - a couple of missed cuts including at Augusta, a second-round loss at the WGC match-play event and a best result of a tie for 40th in Tampa - as evidence there was some validity in their ‘take your time' suggestions.

This week in Charlotte, North Carolina, McIlroy's early play was little cause for celebration and it looked as if he might endure another somewhat disappointing week. With a trio of holes to play on Friday, he was three over par for the week and with the cut almost certainly set at 145 he needed something spectacular to avoid the Tiger Woods fate of a weekend off.

McIlroy made an eagle at the seventh, finished up with a couple of pars and at least he could look forward to a weekend that offered him a chance to find some confidence.

Seventeen birdies and an eagle later he walked from the 72nd green on Sunday a four-shot winner over Phil Mickelson and he left a field stunned at his finishing run of six straight threes.

The tournament was effectively over after he struck a brilliant middle-iron to three feet at the par-five 15th hole and just to make sure he played another extraordinary stroke at the 16th - a seven iron from the fairway bunker to five feet.

It is no secret that McIlroy was going to be a huge star in the game and some thought him a potential rival for Woods. Tiger had staggered every player with his 12-shot win at Augusta in 1997 but for the eight-year-old McIlroy back in Ulster, and his contemporaries, here was the new standard that showed what was possible. The ever-evolving equipment revolution made driving the ball much easier - not that you would know it if Tiger's driving over the opening 36 holes is the measure - and sentenced forever the game to an era of unbridled power.

McIlroy is not a big man but he has the speed to easily drive the ball far enough and he has that beautiful free-wheeling motion that makes him really fun to watch.

Half-way across the world, the Japanese teenage phenomenon Ryo Ishikawa was playing an equally stunning round at The Crowns tournament. On a much shorter, an infinitely trickier, course than Quail Hollow, Ishikawa shot an amazing final 58 to sentence Australian Paul Sheehan and Hiroyuki Fujita to second place.

Ishikawa is arguably the biggest sports star in Japan and he is the one a whole nation hopes will finally win a major championship. Isao Aoki was second to Jack Nicklaus in the 1980 US Open but the Japanese players - Aoki aside - have never played as well outside of their own country in the biggest championships.

There have been a number of reasons forwarded as to why they have never won the biggest events including the food, the hotels, the travel, the courses and the weather but there can be no doubt the biggest issue has been that they while are treated like Hollywood gods at home, no-one cares one dot about them when they turn up in New York, Los Angeles, London or St Andrews.

Ishikawa is a terrific player at home - he won the money list last season as an 18-year-old - and his next challenge is the one McIlroy just overcame: winning on the US PGA Tour.

And, this week another kid makes his debut as a pro in his home Open in Turin. Sixteen year-old Italian Matteo Manassero was the leading amateur at Augusta and at Tom Watson's Open last summer at Turnberry his finishing three fives left him only four shots out of the playoff.

The weight of expectation on Ishikawa is to win the Major Championship for his country and for Manassero it is that he is the ‘next Seve.'

America never really found the ‘next Palmer' or the ‘next Nicklaus' but it did find Tiger Woods. Europe will never find another Ballesteros and we are dreaming if we think there is another one just like Greg Norman lurking. Sergio Garcia was burdened with the ‘next Seve' tag and Manassero would do well to be his own man and take his own time to develop his game.

These three young players are seemingly destined to play some brilliant golf over and they are the first of a generation who have learned what is possible from Tiger Woods.

The Woods game is in a complete mess right now which is hardly surprising. It will be more than interesting to observe the next few months and rarely will there be a more scrutinised performance than the one he puts in at The Players Championship this coming week. To play well he needs to better organize the shots he is hitting with the driver and it will be fun watching just how he goes about it.