E might have been delayed at Edmonton airport, missed his connection in Toronto and taken the best part of 24 hours to get back to his Boston home, but Michael Sims probably didn't mind all that much.

Jetting around North America is part and parcel of life for the young golf pro but Sunday, even if you get delayed, is definitely the best day to be in the air.

Last week was the first time this season that the 27-year-old had completed all four rounds in an event, a breakthrough result which will give him and his family and supporters confidence for the remainder of the year.

Up until last weekend, the Michael Sims that we all saw romp to a record-breaking victory in the Bermuda Open had not shown up on the Canadian Tour.

Here at Port Royal, Bermuda's only current touring pro ripped apart a field that included a good smattering of former Canadian and Nationwide Tour players to pick up $7,500 and delight the local golfing fraternity.

Although he failed at PGA Tour qualifying again, he did manage to graduate from Canadian Tour school, earning a spot in the second-tier Tour.

A quick glance at the member benefits for the Canadian Tour at the beginning of the year and you can see the obvious role it plays as a stepping stone.

The likes of Mike Weir and Stuart Appleby have gone on to multi-million-dollar superstardom from a Canadian Tour launch pad and the prizes for finishing in the top handful in the Order of Merit are impressive; a place on the Australasian Tour, final qualifying spot on the Asian Tour, a pass through PGA Q-School Opening rounds ? the list goes on.

Despite all those benefits being on the table, they must have seemed a world away to Sims as he ploughed through the opening events of the Tour season.

Weather means the Canadian Tour isn't played in Canada at the outset which meant Sims travelling around Florida and even down to Mexico ? but unfortunately only for two rounds of competitive golf at a time.

Until he arrived at the TELUS Edmonton Open, the best he had managed was a 70, but even that was accompanied by a 75 to ensure the cut was missed by a small handful of strokes.

Two other sub-par rounds (both 71s) were accompanied by an 80 and 74 respectively, keeping him away from that elusive first cut.

He did make a Saturday once, although only on a technicality as the onset of darkness after a slow Friday meant coming back in the morning to finish off his round ? needless to say, despite only being one shot away overnight, he couldn't quite get the score he needed.

Throw in a disqualification for a scorecard-signing technicality and it all adds up to a lot of jetting around North America and little, or more precisely, nothing to show for it.

Sims admits that perhaps it was beginning to creep "into the back of my mind" that he hadn't yet secured a spot for the following year on the Tour ? and then everything changed in Edmonton.

Golf is a sport where one victory or good result can alter a season - even a career ? unrecognisably.

One win can earn you an exemption to get back on tour, into a major tournament or remove some qualifying round obstacles for you.

Now a tie for fourth and a second-biggest-of-his-career cheque for $5,888 isn't quite a career-changing result, but it is certainly a giant step in the right direction.

All of a sudden there is a different perspective on Sims' season.

With prize money as little as $300 for 60th place in these tournaments, the best part of $6,000 is enough for 47th on the money list, and should be enough to keep him in the top 90 by the end of the Tour, even without any more earnings, which means he can return for 2007.

And he now has four tournaments to make up a $2,000 shortfall on the Order of Merit which could get him exempted through to final qualifying for the Bell Canadian Open, a PGA Tour event.

A week off now might have taken away his momentum, but when Sims returns to Winnipeg for the next event on Tuesday, he isn't just going to be a struggling rookie who can't stay within three or four of par.

He is going to be a player that other Tour players recognise from the leaderboard in Edmonton, he is going to be a player expected to make the cut and he is going to be a player with confidence ? in a sport where confidence is everything ? and maybe the next win will be the career-changing one.

And if you doubt that, just take a look at the World Official Golf Rankings ? top six Canadian Tour finishes get points ? and you will see, thanks to a statistical anomaly, this week Sims is sitting pretty above the likes of Arnold Palmer and Greg Norman.

Not bad for a guy whose stroke average before last week was more than 74 and Tour earnings for the year were exactly $6 less than a tuna sandwich at the halfway hut on his father's Southampton Princess course.