Day dreaming his moment comes at Royal St George's

Sandwich: Perhaps Jason Day was built for the peculiar rigours of golf's toughest events. Perhaps he was steeled to be a star.

Savouring his first taste of Royal St George's and even able to summon a time-honoured raucous Antipodean salute to our weather, he could pass as your typical laid back Queensland surfer dude, if not for one quietly intense observation.

"I enjoy the major championships because it shows what type of person you are, it shows what you've got inside," says the man who may end up being to Australian golf what Rory McIlroy currently is to the sport in Britain.

What the 23-year-old appears to have inside is a strength, fire and drive which could yet see him challenge our ‘Rors' as golf's next superstar.

Day ought to have precious little chance, having swanned in at the start of the week with no experience of links play except for his sole visit to St Andrews, when he finished 60th, last year. But then didn't everyone say the same when he breezed into Augusta for the first time in April and finished runner up? He was second at the US Open at Congressional too, considerable back-to-back achievements which would have catapulted him right into the spotlight if all the outbreaks of Rorymania had not blinded everyone.

So even if he laughs "all this stuff is totally new to me" while trying out a weird and wonderful assortment of shots to cope with the swirling gusts around this Kent moonscape, he still has the confidence to believe he could go one better this week by becoming the first Australian to win the Open since his fellow Queenslander Greg Norman in 1993.

Having finished in the top 10 seven times in 14 starts this year, he wants a piece of McIlroy's action and is not shy to admit it. There is a determination about his work and such a methodical slowness that one nickname thrown his way is "All", because it seemingly takes him all day to get around.

Amazing journey

Few back home would put anything past him, such has been a journey from troubled beginnings that Day describes as "amazing".

Born in impoverished circumstances in the little town of Beaudesert to an Australian father and Filipino mother, the trip started with him being given a three wood which his dad found when chucking away some rubbish. Golf obsessed him, but after his father died of cancer, splits developed in the family and Day ended up, by his own admission, going off the rails, getting into fights and under-age drinking.

"I had a pretty hard time growing up through my teenage years. I did a lot of stupid things," he said. "But I guess it reflects on the person I am today. I never had many things growing up, so I take everything seriously, work pretty hard and don't take things for granted. It's made me into a better person."

Day's life changed when his mother remortgaged their house to be able to afford to send him to boarding school. There he met his coach Colin Swatton, who became a disciplined father figure, and a schoolmate lent him a book about Tiger Woods, which convinced the 14-year-old that he would have to work with similar manic intensity if he wanted to beat the world.

Youngest winner

From being a tearaway, he had become practically monastic. Then he gambled courageously on launching a pro career in the United States and became the youngest to win on the developmental Nationwide tour, before causing some controversy with his pronouncement as a 19-year-old that "I'm sure I can take Tiger down". And this, remember, when Woods was in his pomp.

It was not arrogance even if it was ill-advised. No, it was simply the self-belief of a boy who knew how good he was. And now everyone else is learning to appreciate it too.