Michael Campbell after winning the US Open on Sunday

Pinehurst: Michael Campbell, the new US Open champion, had revelled in the way he was able to stay under the radar for most of Sunday’s final round. “I sneaked in there without anyone noticing,” he said. “All the media hype was on Goosen winning back-to-back, on Gore, who had played so well for three rounds and was the Cinderella story, and on Tiger threatening. Then, and only then, was there little old me.”

Campbell talked of his opening birdie and the great saves which went into the six pars that followed. “I was very patient out there.” When he, rather than his ball, disappeared into the trees at the short 17th, word had it that the tension had made him physically ill. Not so. He was merely answering the call of nature ? something he had had to do four or five times over the afternoon.

“I was drinking a lot of water, but it was definitely down to nerves,” he said. The New Zealander holed from 25 feet for his two at the penultimate hole and that was the moment he knew he would win. Even so, Campbell suddenly had a mental picture of Jean Van de Velde standing in the Barry Burn en route to losing the 1999 Open at Carnoustie. He apologised to the absent Frenchman for mentioning him by name before going on to say that the memory had helped to concentrate. The walks from one tee to the next are short at Pinehurst. However, on the brief trip to the 18th tee, Campbell repeated the word ‘focus’ about 30 times.

The championship over and the trophy safely at his side, Campbell looked back over his topsy-turvy career in which there was never a lower year than 1998. He was returning scores in the higher eighties and, after losing his European tour card and its Australasian equivalent, he had nowhere to play. “I remember throwing my golf bag across a hotel room,” he said. “I thought this is it, it’s all over. I wanted to get an axe and chop the clubs up into pieces and throw them away.”

His wife, Julie, to whom he paid tribute on Sunday, did most to get him back on track. Away from the mental anguish, there were physical problems. After he had led the 1995 Open for three rounds before subsiding to a closing 76 and third place, he injured a wrist. When he failed to heed a warning tweak, the tendon came away from the bone. For months, he could not even get a grip on a knife or spoon, let alone a golf club. Then, at the end of 2003, he had an operation on varicose veins.

Talking about where he goes now, Campbell indicated that he would remain based in Brighton, which he loves, but will play a mix of European and American events.