Day's reputation in Australia--he won the 2004 Queensland amateur and, as a 17-year-old, was runner-up in the 2005 Queensland PGA Championship--initially helped him receive five sponsors' exemptions on the PGA Tour. Day made the cut in four of those tour events, tying for 13th at the U.s. Bank Championship in July and tying for 11th at the Reno-Tahoe Open in august.

Simmons, Jannace & Stagg

"I think his skill set is as good as I've seen," says Col Swatton, a respected golf instructor in Australia and Day's mentor and current caddie.

"I thought about going to college, but I just wanted to get out here and be a professional," Day says. "Obviously, if I play against the best I can see what they're doing, and I can put my game up against theirs and see where I stand."

ON THE TEE

day before playing in my club championship, I read Rick Smith's article on avoiding the banana ball off the tee. Considering my play this year, which has been lackluster at best, and that I've always played a heavy fade (and sometimes a lot more, especially under pressure), I changed my swing based on two minor adjustments advised by Mr. Smith: I strengthened my grip slightly and dropped my right foot back. The result was unbelievable. I hit a number of extremely tight fairways to win three matches and my very competitive flight.

If I could split up the hardware, Mr. Smith would get a third for his sage advice and Golf Digest a third.