Bob Torrance had two reasons to celebrate on Sunday. It wasn't just his star pupil Padraig Harrington's first major championship in America, the US PGA Championship, but also the emergence at Oakland Hills of Scotland's Alastair Forsyth as a player on the world stage.

While television attention was focused more on the faltering English trio of Ryder Cup hopefuls Ian Poulter, Paul Casey and Justin Rose, Forsyth slipped in quietly with level-par 70s in the third and fourth rounds to take the honour of joint-top Briton with Rose in ninth place, and he had chances on the back nine to finish even higher.

"Brilliant," said Torrance, who worked with him at Largs before he left for the US. "There's one thing about Alastair, and it is that he's not frightened to win. He's a confident young man and, if he gets a sniff, he'll follow through. He won't back off. This is his best performance in a major without a doubt and I can see him doing more of this, but he has to stop getting down on himself when he hits a bad shot."

The performance lifted Forsyth 15 places in the world rankings to No.83, regaining his place as top Scot, four places ahead of the out-of-sorts Colin Montgomerie.

Forsyth also won £92,000 that takes him up to No.41 on the European Tour order of merit and his finish at Oakland Hills among the top 15 and ties puts him in the field for next year's US PGA Championship at Hazeltine, by which time the 32-year-old could be stronger still.

"There is still work to be done on his changeover, the start of his downswing," said Torrance. "The changeover is where your tempo comes from. It's the backswing flowing into the downswing. He's getting there and he's getting closer every time he comes down here."

Forsyth missed his connection in Detroit on Sunday and won't be back in Scotland until today, but that won't affect his schedule as the 110sport player, who won the Madeira Islands Open earlier this year, was due to miss this week's SAS Masters in Stockholm anyway before resuming in the KLM Open in Holland next week followed by the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

After Harrington had retained his Open Championship crown at Royal Birkdale, Torrance correctly predicted that the 36-year-old Dubliner was ready to win in the US. "To be honest, it didn't surprise me," he said after seeing his prophecy come true. "Padraig is so dedicated. He just works non-stop and that is the answer to everything. It doesn't matter what walk of life you're in, whether it's the sporting or business world, if you work at the right things, you'll improve.

"This latest success won't slow down his work-rate and I now believe he will win all four majors in his career."

While the question of who would step into the breach in the absence of the recuperating Tiger Woods has been answered emphatically, Harrington's success has raised another. Given the Irishman's soaring confidence, how would he fare in a head-to-head down the stretch with a fully fit world No.1?

"He would love to do that," assured Torrance, who reminded that Harrington had done that before and won in Woods' own tournament, the Target World Challenge at Thousand Oaks, California, six years ago.

"Padraig is thinking more positively. He always used to be waiting on bad shots, but he doesn't do that now. When he hits a bad shot, it doesn't bother him. Some of the shots he hit on the back nine at Oakland Hills were brilliant and the one that stood out for me was similar to Carnoustie, his up-and- down at the last. I thought that was superb.

"His eyes looked like a boxer's about to deliver a knockout blow."