Golf: The biggest thrill - and not just the cash

Michael Campbell lifts the trophy after beating Ireland's Paul McGinley in the final of the World Match Play Championship. Picture / Reuters

There were a million reasons to doubt him, but Michael Campbell's assertion that this World Matchplay Championship victory was not about the money did at least have some place in the vicinity of reality.

For a start, his triumph over Ireland's Paul McGinley gave the US Open trophy he captured in June some credence that should never really have been needed.

Second, there was the little matter of the European Order of Merit that he now heads after leapfrogging his semifinal victim, South Africa's Retief Goosen.

But more than any of this there was the simple joy of seeing his name alongside past winners such as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and, of course, Ernie Els.

"That's the biggest thrill of all," said Campbell, who started the season with five missed cuts, but who now has the richest first-prize in golf to his name.

"To join that lot is almost hard to imagine. It may not be a major, but to me it sure feels like it."

For McGinley, it was a great disappointment.

After his storming triumph over his PGA conqueror Angel Cabrera in the semifinal, the Dubliner declared that he was not interested in coming second.

Even £400,000 could not cushion the misery.

"It hurts like you can't imagine," he said, looking as choked as his game.

"Sure, when I look back at the Ryder Cup points I won, then maybe there'll be some consolation. But at the moment there isn't any."

Sad really, because this was always going to be the day of the greens, but not necessarily the scarf-clad Blarney Army that were to give the proceedings a distinctly Ryder Cup feel.

Those greens bearing the flags played up with far greater effect. If only their cups had been as big as those of the streaker who ran across the 11th green in the afternoon then the competitors would not have had such a torrid time.

And neither would the spectators, for that matter. Top-drawer golf this was not. In fact, this was right down there with the forgotten socks.

The huge, and quite frankly daft, leap from first prize to second unarguably played a large part in making the atmosphere so cagey and the swings so twitchy. The difference was £600,000 and boy did it show.

If the morning was bad enough, as both did a valiant job of ensuring that par was indeed the norm, then if anything the afternoon was actually worse.

It said something of McGinley's form, and the standard of the match as a whole, that he could stand on the 12th tee on level terms. The big names that have been absent here would have applied the golf spikes to a jugular that would have been beyond repair.

Campbell, however, was still alive and all he had to do was to ride the huge slice of luck he received on that par four - when his approach flew the green and was half a metre from being out of bounds - to chip up for a birdie and play the next six holes in one-under to steal the crown?

Simple.

There was plenty else for him to remember and not just that bare-chested figure who momentarily enlivened the afternoon.

Yes, this tournament has had its knockers, but after yesterday Campbell will never be one of them.

- INDEPENDENT