Win worth the long wait

Us Kiwis love our champions don't we?
The win of Michael Campbell at the US Open had the sporting fraternity fair gushing over must rank as one of the greatest individual successes ever achieved by a Kiwi.
Every man and his dog wanted to tell the world how they never doubted that Cambo had the skill and the temperament to claim possibly the most sought after title on the golfing calendar.
It wasn't, they said, a case of whether it would happen, but just a case of when.
I dare say Campbell himself will have a wry smile when he reads comments of that kind.
You can bet he will be thinking about the many occasions over the past decade or more when the media, in particular, have taken him to task for below-par (no pun intended) performances.
How often have you read, for instance, that while Campbell clearly had the game to reach the dizzy heights he just didn't have the mental capacity to handle the big occasion.
Forever we kept hearing about the time he led the British Open after 54 holes and then "bombed out" in the run down the home straight.
That was typical Campbell we were told, good enough to be at the top of the leaderboard when competing amongst the world's best but not brave enough to go the long haul.
For me then the real beauty about Campbell's US Open success is that once and for all it should silence his detractors.
Sure, he might never win another golfing title of any magnitude again but, hey, this was the US Open so who cares Succeed even once there and you have a special niche in golfing history, don't you?
Making his latest victory even more notable though was the man who was leading the chasing bunch over those memorable last nine holes.
When Tiger Woods is in sight of a major title the idea of coming second just doesn't rank, not only with Woods himself but with the fans who have become so used of him intimidating his rivals into submission.
If ever Campbell's so-called mental deficiencies were ever going to prove his undoing it was when Woods birdied the 15 th and looked to be in the midst of one of his famous late charges.
But Campbell held his nerve, saving par from a greenside bunker to hold a three-sot lead with two to play and then sinking an 18ft putt for a birdie on the 17 th to vitually guarantee that the winner's cheque of $1.63 million was his for the taking.
It was spine-tingling stuff and even more so when Campbell so proudly talked about his Kiwi connections in his acceptable speech
There wouldn't have been a dry face in the house then.