Those who prognosticate about such things have expected big things from Jason Scrivener for a while now.
At age 30, those tips seem about to bear fruit.
Scrivener, the amenable but publicity-bereft West Australian, returns to Sydney this week among the legitimate title contenders at the star-studded Emirates Australian Open.
That's on the back of arguably his best season as a now well-travelled professional. But there's no argument that his past month has been his most productive since he took the pro plunge as a top 30-ranked amateur in 2010.
Scrivener, the 2007 Australian Junior champion who learnt his trade primarily at Mandurah, was pondering a premature end to his European Tour campaign before he poured in five final-round birdies to move sufficiently up the Turkish Open leaderboard to earn a start at the limited-field Nedbank Challenge in South Africa.
A solid run in Sun City was capped by an early final-round charge that momentarily had him pondering the big breakthrough before Tommy Fleetwood's closing surge relegated him to third.
But that was more than enough to reach the lucrative Dubai World Championship finale and, now full of running, Scrivener charged home with a day's equal best 65 to finish in the top 10 at the Euro season-ender.
The net result of that magical month – a small matter of almost 500,000 Euros and a world ranking that will be his best ever at year's end.
"It's been good, a lot has changed for me this year," Scrivener said as he tuned up at The Australian.
"I started with a new coach at the back end of last year in the (United Kingdom), Liam James, so that's been a big difference and added a lot of structure to my whole team, along with a new mental guy this year, Warren Kennaugh, who's based in Sydney.
"We put in a lot of hard work compared to other years and it's finally started to pay off the last month or so, which has bee nice."
Given his relative anonymity compared to many other Aussie stars, it's easy to have overlooked his earlier efforts in favour of the glitzy past month.
But these successes have been built off a strong base.
"Early in the year it was just a lot of change but I could sort of sense it working and I was starting to play quite nicely," he said.
"In the middle of the year, I struggled a bit with a few missed cuts by a shot or two, but it wasn't terrible golf, just that i sort of lost momentum.
"But when that happened, it almost reinforced what we've been doing … that I had the structures in place to deal with that and … make things easier.
"I'm sure it's going to make the next few years easier and continue that rise up a bit."
For those lucky enough to have seen him play, it appears as though nothing ruffles Scrivener.
But the proud West Aussie admits that his mind if often surging faster than his outward appearance would indicate.
"It definitely races, it's just a mtter of learning to deal with it. It's been a slower progression than I'd like, but I feel a lot better, especially in contention and under pressure.
"That's just a part of (being a good pro), I think, and I'm getting better at handling that."
Scrivener still isn't comfortable with being rated as a "favourite" this week, among many of golf's biggest names.
"I wouldn't say that, but if I can play the way I have been then I feel like I can contend," he said, almost a tacit acknowledgement of his rise in the game.
"It's not that I didn't know that before, but it's just confirmation that everything is headed in the right direction and it's really nice to be back playing in Australia and giving myself a chance."