Chris Rattue: Campbell leaves one great list for another

Michael Campbell's place in the fairways of fame may be measured as much by the players unable to win the US Open as those who have.

The US Open, played on courses set up to the toughest standards, is the tournament most top golfers want to win most. Last week, Jack Nicklaus reckoned "half the guys are so scared to death they can't play".

The winners include Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Harry Vardon, Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Tom Watson, Ernie Els and Tiger Woods.

Campbell might have tipped his hat to another famous former champion when he played a terrific sand save on the 15th hole to get Tiger off his tail.

Gene Sarazen was a publicity-conscious character who had insured his hands for $150,000, golf trail-blazed in places like Asia, and wanted the hole made bigger.

After winning the 1922 Open, Sarazen made a party entrance inside a papier mache golf ball, bursting out of it holding the trophy aloft as the American anthem played.

A famed competitor, Sarazen invented the modern-day sand wedge in the early 1930s, adding a flange so the club bounced instead of jamming in the sand. It was one of the most significant score and frustration reducing events in golf history.

Sarazen was inspired in this by aerodynamics, studied while learning to fly with the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes; he had also noted how ducks skimmed across water.

Sarazen reckoned the sand wedge was his major contribution to golf, even though he was the first player to win the grand slam. After winning the 1922 event, Sarazen claimed: "All men are created equal - I'm just one stroke better than the rest."

This was a line that Sam Snead was never able to utter after a US Open.

Snead was the most famous player not to win the tournament and his endless heartaches made him as much a part of its history as the great players who won.

Snead had the sweetest of swings and a contrasting humour well suited to getting him out of this Open rough.

When asked what he needed to shoot to win the 1956 Open, Snead replied: "I'll take 280, sit in the clubhouse, eat hot dogs, drink Cokes and fart."

After a final-round blowout in 1953, Snead was asked if he had been too tight in his duel with Ben Hogan.

"Tight ... I was so tight you couldn't a drove flax seed up my ass with a knot maul," he allegedly replied, although other, possibly sanitised, versions nominate the throat.

Had Snead shot final rounds under 70 he might have satisfied his craving to win the US Open on up to nine occasions. Yet the man rated among the top half-dozen players ever, with a record 81 tournament victories, including seven majors, ended up winless from 31 attempts and 117 rounds of US Open golf.

From the very beginning, Snead was doomed.

At his first Open in 1937 he was being congratulated as the winner when another golfer roared around with an Open record score to take the trophy.

Two years later, in Philadelphia, Snead needed just a par-five on the last, but miscalculated the leaderboard situation, shot aggressively, and triple-bogeyed his way to more pain.

Snead, Bobby Locke, Peter Thomson, Nick Faldo, Greg Norman, Nick Price, Vijay Singh, Seve Ballesteros, three-times runner up Phil Mickelson and more ... all great players who have not snared golf's ultimate prize.

The US PGA sets up its Open course to test the nerve of the best, especially with long rough. But Woods' post-tournament comments on Monday also brought to mind the phrase that golf is half fun and half putting.

The final pairing of Retief Goosen and Jason Gore were so beaten up that Goosen suggested a $5 wager on the final three holes so they had something to play for.

No one really expected Campbell to come through all of this, even when he was well positioned going into the final round. With double-winners Woods and Goosen in the hunt, Campbell's fluctuating career, rather than his class leapt to mind.

The American television commentators and producers were also amiss in the final stages as Campbell shared air time with players long out of contention. It was as if all were simply waiting for Woods to impose himself.

Campbell has his place in history, but won't hold the trophy that Sarazen raised from the paper golf ball.

The 1946 winner, a Lloyd Mangrum, gave it to the Chicago golf club where he worked. The clubhouse burned down and the trophy melted. It was replaced by a replica and another in 1986, which Campbell now holds.

So Campbell sits among our finest sports achievers - numerous All Black teams and players, including the 1987 world rugby champions, a clutch of Olympians, tennis ace Anthony Wilding, Sir Bob Charles, of course, the winning America's Cup team, world motor racing champion Denny Hulme, cricket's Sir Richard Hadlee . . .

Who knows what this victory will do for Campbell's career? And maybe his unlikely triumph will inspire a budding Kiwi golfer or two to the golfing greatness Campbell has reached.

Yet greatness alone is not enough to ensure success at the US Open. Just ask Greg Norman and Co.