Lost in the hype of three weeks ago - when Rory McIlroy won in Charlotte, Ryo Ishikawa finished with a 58 at The Crowns event in Japan and Matteo Manassero debuted as a 16 year old in the Italian Open - was the story of a player not so much older but with no less talent.

Jason Day, a 22-year-old Queenslander, went to America whilst still a teenager and began to hone a prodigiously talented game away from the eyes of his countrymen and the local press. He has hardly played any professional golf in Australia because he seems to have always been injured at the end of the year and he has essentially been a case of out of sight, out of mind.

The other three players have been the subjects of huge publicity in their home countries and, to be fair, McIlroy and Ishikawa have had a better time of it than Jason so early in their respective careers.

Day, however, took a massive and significant step forward this morning when he won his first US PGA Tour event in Dallas. In a tournament honouring the late and great Byron Nelson, Day began brilliantly with two rounds in the mid-sixties and he finished optimistically on Saturday when, after driving left into the water, he hit a seven iron third shot to fifteen feet and holed for a saving par.

One assumes he nervously contemplated the prospect of retaining his two-shot lead overnight but with no Mickelson or Woods stalking from behind he must have taken high hopes to the first tee on Sunday. He partnered Blake Adams who is a dozen years older but no more experienced at that level and with four or five holes to play it was between the final pair.

It was an hour of nervous golf as they stumbled toward to 72nd hole. Both missed the green at the 15th - Day short-sided in the thick rough to the right of the green and Adams long in the back bunker - but it was the Australian who came up with the brilliant pitch to hold a two-shot lead.

That nerveless pitch was followed by a low snap-hook off the par five tee and, with Adams in the right trees, Day then hit a long and dangerous three wood up close to the front of the green. The American pitched close from 80 paces to set up a birdie and Day, who only made a par, went to the 17th hole, a dangerous water-guarded par three, with the slenderest of leads. Both hit terrific shots and made pars and it was then that the final drama played itself out.

Day had twice driven left into the water and had predetermined to play a three wood from the tee but Adams flew a fairway wood miles to the right and Day reached for the long iron. He played an equally ugly shot - a chunked iron 20 or 30 yards short of where he was planning - and left himself with just over 200 yards to the flag. Now he had brought the prospect of the water back into play and an over-drawn long iron duly, and barely, hit land left of the green and splashed into the hazard.

Extraordinarily, Adams' punch out of the trees hit a branch that flicked his ball left and into the same hazard. From there, six was the most likely score and there was no magic from the American which left Day to drop out, pitch to fifteen feet and hole out with one putt for bogey, when two would have been good enough.

Day had almost won last year in Puerto Rico and this win continues a fantastic run for the Australian pros in America. When it comes to our local events at the end of the year, we tend to take them for granted and ask which foreign superstars will be gracing us with their presence. Tiger Woods was fantastic at Kingston Heath last year but, Woods and Phil Mickelson aside, there are precious few overseas 'stars' worth the many hundreds of thousands of dollars their managers ask for as appearance money.

Day's performance last week again proved that our local players are capable of world-class golf and this year has the potential to be one of real significance, not only on the regular tour, but in the major championships. With Woods completely out of sorts, there has rarely been a more likely time for an Australian to lift a really significant trophy.