Not too sure if she's an Australian who spends part of her year in Ireland, or the daughter of an Irish father who sought his fortune down under. With no glare and no media spotlight, Coakley could be Ireland's best kept secret.

The fact that Hazel Kavanagh lost her Ladies European Tour (LET) card last season, and that Suzanne O'Brien has only been able to compete sporadically because of family commitments, has left Coakley carrying a torch. Except that not too many people have noticed the flame.

It's hardly her fault that she's an understated, low-key sort of person, and hardly her fault that the LET has recently come through an administrative crisis which generated a few headlines for all the wrong reasons. If Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane or Gary Murphy finish in the top-10 of a European Tour event at this time of year, they still grab a share of the column inches. Much the same for Colm Moriarty on the Challenge Tour.

But because the ladies are playing for less prize money, and because the television coverage is virtually non-existent, players like Coakley do what they do beneath the radar. In 2005, her first season on the LET, she played in 15 tournaments and earned money in 14, eventually taking home close to 60,000. She also had four top-10 finishes and broke into the top 30 of the Order of Merit.

And here comes the traditional could-have, shouldhave, hard-luck story. Only that her eventual demise at last year's English Open offers more than a glimpse of her promise. Going into the final round at Chart Hills in Kent, Coakley was tied for the lead with a group of three other players which included Laura Davies. When she birdied the third hole, her name was in splendid isolation at the top of the leaderboard.

She had planned to hit a three wood off the next tee, but the wind had got up and she wondered if it would be better to take the driver.

"After a bit more thought, I reckoned it was better to stick to the plan and go with the three wood, " she says. "But when I reached the ball I was way back, and I was looking at hitting three more clubs for my second shot than in the previous rounds. For some reason, it had to be the pressure of the moment, I got so hung up on the fact that I had to hit three clubs more than I had expected, I completely forgot about just hitting the shot as best I could."

After a visit to the water and then a three-putt, she had lost the lead and her momentum. All she could come up with was a bitterly disappointing 78 and a share of 27th place as Sweden's Maria Hjorth swept past to take the title. "I know it sounds obvious, but it doesn't matter what club you have in your hand, you can still play the hole well.

It was really stupid carry-on and I let it get to me for the rest of the round, but I've learned from it."

For the record, she was born in Adelaide but when she was only a few months old, her dad John Joe decided to move the family back to his home town of Carlow. Five years later, armed with a job offer from Coca-Cola, John Joe upped sticks again and returned to Australia. A two handicap in his day, he introduced Rebecca and her sister, Emily, to the game, and it was soon obvious that the elder girl had something a bit special.

She kept her ties with Ireland, travelling back to Carlow every couple of years, and won the Irish amateur strokeplay title twice, as well as the Irish Close championship in 2002. She has the Aussie lilt, but is clearly more Irish than Alistair Cragg who had barely set foot in the country before he competed at the Athens Olympics, and clearly more Irish than Mark McNulty who gave up on Zimbabwe and hitched his wagon to this county.

"I've always seen myself as Irish, and when I turned pro at the end of 2002, I was determined that I was going to play under the Irish flag, but at a couple of tournaments in Australia, they'd introduce me on the first tee as 'Rebecca Coakley, representing Australia'. I think they've got the message now."

So have Team Ireland Golf Trust and the Irish Sports Council who, for the second year in row, have awarded her a grant of 20,000.

In early 2003, she was an impressive sixth in the Australian Open before spending some time in Japan where she played in mini-tour events but failed to secure her tour card. She later switched her focus to the LET, came through the qualifying school at the first attempt, and in the meantime had begun to seek the advice of the Rosslare club professional Johnny Young.

"I think when she came to me first, she had tried to change too much, she was a bit confused, " says Young.

"She had this card-wrecker of a shot going left, and she spent the guts of a year getting rid of that. Right-to-left is not really a money shot, so we worked on that and now she hits it straight or a little leftto-right.

"She's a little machine, a very tidy player with an excellent temperament. You come in after a game with her, not that much has happened, and you look at the card, and she's had a 68 or a 69. It's an important year for her, she must protect her card initially, look for top 10s and try to consolidate.

Not necessarily win, wins just happen when you play well."

Apart from playing fulltime on the LET from her base in Carlow, Coakley, who will be 25 next month, also plans to travel to America on occasions to try to qualify for several LPGA Tour events.

In Ireland's Ryder Cup year, she might just steal one or two headlines.

Watch this space.