Golf: Cambo's big night at the 19th

Golf champion Michael Campbell and 50 friends kept the bar open until sunrise, celebrating his win over Tiger Woods at the US Open.

The group, apparently including former NZ cricket captain Martin Crowe, toasted the success long into the night at the Pine Needles resort.

Afterwards, Campbell was whisked by private jet to New York to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman - marking the level of his new-found fame in the US.

Campbell spoke of NZ, repeating the often-recited fact of sheep outnumbering humans, and of his desire earlier in his career to give up the game after a huge slump in form.

Letterman asked Campbell what it was like to beat Woods. "What did you do to him?" he asked. Campbell said he had "just played my own game".

He described a chance encounter with Woods in the bathroom after the competition. "I said, 'Mate, how do you do this? I've only done this once. You've done it nine times'." Woods answered: "Luck".

Campbell said the stiff competition with Woods over the last nine holes was "fun". It was good to win a major, he said.

He also listened good-naturedly to the comic's advice, "you drive for show but putt for dough".

The Letterman interview will screen at 10.45 tonight on Prime.

Campbell's victory at Pinehurst, North Carolina, could hardly have been better timed. He is on the verge of signing for top agents International Management Group, and yesterday's victory should give him more bargaining power.

But his triumph, huge news in his native New Zealand, was greeted by sections of the American press with all the excitement of a tax audit. Campbell was, they seemed to suggest, akin to a no-hoper who somehow fluked his way to glory.

Never mind that he had already won 13 times around the world, including a win over Woods at the 1999 Johnnie Walker Classic.

"Campbell's win was great for his career, his bank account and his family but it wasn't great for golf," wrote Ned Barnett in the Raleigh News & Observer. "It could be a feel-good story, but this was a no-feeling story ... " .

The win may have shocked the US media but those in the know were not surprised. "Cambo could win this thing," Peter Lonard said shortly after the leaders started the final round. "When he's on his game, he can nut anyone, but when he's bad he's terrible."


- STAFF REPORTER, AAP