Luke Buttigieg at Coolum, Sportal
Greg Chalmers believes his Australian PGA Championship win, a fortnight after he claimed the Australian Open for a second time, can propel him to bigger and better things in America.
Since playing his first full season there in 1999, the Dallas-based 38-year-old has spent 10 of the past 13 years plying his trade on the US PGA Tour but has been unable to break through for a victory, with ties for second at the Kemper Insurance Open (2000) and Buick Open (2009) his best finishes.
Chalmers has claimed titles on the secondary Nationwide Tour, taking out the Boise Open in 2005 and the Henrico County Open three years later, but a month ago clearly the biggest win of his career came at the 1998 Australian Open.
Fast forward to Sunday night though and Chalmers has gone back-to-back, firstly holding firm down the stretch at The Lakes to make it two Stonehaven Cups to his name and then beating Robert Allenby and Marcus Fraser in a playoff to lift the Joe Kirkwood Cup.
And after revealing he isn't yet committed to a crack at trying to add the Australian Masters title next month in Melbourne because of family commitments, Chalmers said he still has plenty of fire in his belly to be a success in America.
"Those sights haven't changed, I haven't won on the PGA Tour (and) I haven't been a prolific winner anywhere," Chalmers said.
"My goal is to win a tournament on the PGA Tour and I start each week working to do that."
Chalmers added that his past two events have given him a massive boost.
"This gives me a lot of confidence moving forward these last two weeks," he said.
"I think winning is winning and you learn a lot when you get in the mix of big tournaments."
"I've done that the last couple of weeks and I've learned a few things the last couple of weeks."
"I'm hopeful that'll help me down the stretch if I get a chance to win over in the States."
"I don't know if I could rate it (where my career is at) but certainly I'm in a good spot at the moment right now."
"These last two wins that I've had, I've seen things in myself that ... I'd hoped were there."
'Extremely proud' to have put his name on a trophy that dates back so far, Chalmers was also delighted to have won in front of his wife who was back home in the US with their eldest son when he won in Sydney.
"Yeah it really does (mean a lot to have my family here), my oldest son, Max, he has Aspergers (Syndrome) ... he has been just a treat and he has done everything possible to improve to what he is now, we are very lucky with him," Chalmers said.
"I had my wife here and she has never seen me win and been here live and that is just a personal moment for me, it doesn't really mean anything to anybody else and I get that, but for me and my family those moments are rare, rare that you get the chance to have those people around you and something happens that is so huge."