AS IT TURNED OUT, Chad Campbell’s lie in the rough was so poor that he had to punch out to the fairway and still had 118 yards left to the flag for his third shot. He hit a nice wedge shot in to about 10 feet. Shaun Micheel hit an eight-iron for his second but came up a good 30 feet short.
Micheel wasn’t thrilled with the shot but realized he was still off to a reasonably good start. When his birdie putt dove into the middle of the hole, he was off to a great start. Campbell missed his par putt, and in one hole Micheel had grabbed a two-shot lead. Up ahead, Tim Clark had made a second birdie at number two to get to two under, but no one else in the field was in red numbers.
In fact, the experienced players all seemed to be going the wrong way. Most surprising was Mike Weir, who had become a popular overnight pick given who was ahead of him and his Sunday play at the Masters. He began the day with five straight bogeys. By the time he finally righted himself and made a couple of birdies, it was too little, too late to make any kind of serious run.
“I hit a bad tee shot at number one and couldn’t seem to get things turned around for the next hour,” Weir said later. “It was a day you had to be patient, because it was a very tough golf course in the wind, and I just didn’t get it done. It was disappointing because I thought I had a real opportunity.”
So did Ernie Els, who made two early bogeys but then bounced back to birdie eight and nine and get to even par. But he bogeyed 10 and 12—both times from the middle of the fairway—and that about ended his chances.
As it turned out, none of the stars ever got close. The only name player to shoot the kind of subpar round the CBS announcers were practically pleading for was Jay Haas, who shot 69. But Haas had started the day seven shots back, and his sterling round simply moved him into a tie for fifth with Els, who managed a 71.
By the midway point of the round, CBS had pretty much given up on any Tiger 61s or Phil 65s or Ernie or Vijay 67s and was pumping the fact that one of four players was going to win his first major: Micheel, Campbell, Clark, or Czechoslovakian Alex Cejka, a veteran of the European Tour who the year before had decided to try his luck on the PGA Tour and had made it through Q-School at age thirty-two.
Given that the previous four majors, starting with the 2002 PGA, had been won by first-time major winners—Rich Beem, Weir, Jim Furyk, and Ben Curtis—that wasn’t a unique situation. What made the story unusual was the combined number of PGA Tour wins for the four contenders: zero. Not one of them had ever won on the tour. Clark was the youngest at twenty-seven; Micheel the oldest at thirty-four.
The hot players early on remained Clark and Micheel. Clark birdied three of the first four holes to draw even with Campbell at three under. Micheel gave back his birdie at number two when he found the right rough and had to punch out, even though he hit an iron off the tee. That led to a bogey. He settled down to par the third and fourth and the difficult fifth. All players in contention on a Sunday at Oak Hill breathe a sigh of relief when the fifth hole is behind them.
The fifth may be the golf course’s most famous hole. It has a creek running down the right side of the fairway, and in 1989, seemingly in control of the U.S. Open on Sunday, Tom Kite had found that creek, which led to a triple-bogey seven that knocked him out of the lead and allowed Curtis Strange to win his second straight Open.
Micheel was thrilled to make a par there and run to the sixth tee, where he promptly hit a near-perfect six-iron to within four feet to set up his second birdie. Campbell also hit six-iron but missed the green left, chipped to 12 feet, and missed the par putt. Micheel was now back to five under and was leading Clark by two and Campbell by three. A few holes ahead, Cejka had made the turn in one-under-par 34 to get to even par for the championship.
Once again, Micheel’s two-shot lead was short-lived. His next two drives were ugly. He found the deep rough on the right at the seventh, leading to a bogey and the trees on the left at the eighth, which also led to a bogey.
CBS’s Lanny Wadkins observed that the two quick swings on the tee had “come out of nowhere,” but Micheel hadn’t driven the ball all that well on Saturday, finding five of fourteen fairways. On seven and eight, though, he had no play except to pitch out and make certain he didn’t turn a bogey into a big number. Campbell also bogeyed the seventh and appeared to be heading south. As the two men walked to the ninth tee, Micheel and Clark were tied at three under, with Campbell—three over on the day—two shots back.
Clark shot 32 on the front nine and was playing the best golf of the day. He was a South African who had gone to college at North Carolina State and had made it to the tour in 2001 after finishing third on the Nationwide Tour money list in 2000. His rookie season had lasted three tournaments because of a wrist injury, but he had come back in 2002 to make more than $632,000 and finish 107th on the money list. He was a little guy—5 foot 7 and 150 pounds—who was known for consistently hitting fairways and greens, although he was not a big hitter. When he was putting well, he was extremely dangerous, because he did not miss many greens.
If you were going to place a bet on the four players in contention at that moment, Clark would have looked awfully good. On a tough windy golf course, he had made four birdies and one bogey on the front nine and was consistently finding the fairway off the tee. But as he prepared to hit his tee shot on the 10th, Wadkins—a past PGA champion himself—noticed something.
“He’s changed his preshot routine,” Wadkins said. “I think this is the first sign we’ve seen all day of nerves from Tim Clark.”
Almost on cue, Clark’s drive sailed right and found a fairway bunker. It was better off there than in the rough, and Clark managed to get his second shot just on the green, although it was a good 100 feet from the flagstick. His putt from there went eight feet past the hole.
“This putt will tell us a lot about his nerves,” Wadkins said, as Clark lined up the par putt. Clark had used a long putter from his college days with mixed success, and this putt never touched the hole. Bogey.
Meanwhile, Micheel had caught the kind of break a player needs to win a major championship. His drive at the ninth started left and was trying to fade back to the fairway. It hit in the high rough and, instead of burying, took a big hop and scooted onto the fairway. Even from there, making par wasn’t easy. From 136 yards, Micheel hit a dead pull way left of the flag with a nine-iron, and his 60-foot birdie putt rolled 12 feet below the hole. Just when it looked like he was going to make a third straight bogey, he drilled the putt for par.
Clark then made another mistake. After a brilliant five-wood to 15 feet on the 237-yard par-three 12th, he three-putted. Once again a CBS announcer was prescient. As Clark stood, seemingly forever, over his three-foot par putt, Peter Oosterhuis said, “He almost stands over these too long.”
Yup. Clark yipped the putt left, and Micheel’s lead was two again. When Clark made a third straight bogey, and Micheel parred 11 and 12, Micheel seemed to be in control once again, now leading Campbell by two and Clark and Cejka by three.
There is, however, no such thing as a safe lead on the back nine at a major on Sunday, unless you are Tiger Woods and are up by five. Or ten. Clark and Campbell both birdied the par-five 13th, and Micheel did not. Now, with five holes to go, they were lined up this way—Micheel: three under; Campbell: two under; Clark: one under; Cejka: even par.
The CBS guys wondered if Cejka could post even par if that might not be good enough to win. Micheel changed that thinking with perhaps his best shot of the week at the 14th. The hole is one of those Donald Ross masterpieces, a tiny 323-yard par-four that may tempt players into trying to drive the green but is fraught with danger if a mistake is made off the tee.
Campbell, up first after his first birdie of the day, took a driver and pushed it just enough to find a bunker right of the green. Not a bad spot to be in, especially compared with some others. Micheel, refusing to try to run out the clock (impossible in golf, obviously), also took a driver. He hit a gorgeous fade that stopped on the right corner of the green, 45 feet from the hole. Nonetheless, he had a crack at an eagle or a two-putt birdie.
“That shot pumped me up a lot,” Micheel said later. “I hadn’t been driving the ball that well for a while, and I knew I was taking a chance when I pulled the driver, but I thought it was the time to take a chance.”
Campbell actually left his bunker shot in the rough, trying to punch the ball out rather than playing a standard bunker shot. He then hit a good shot out of the high grass to six feet but missed the putt for par.
Micheel, wanting to be sure he didn’t let his downhill putt wander too far past the hole, left it 10 feet short. A three-putt par would definitely be a downer. But, as he had done all week when he had to, he came up with a great putt, the ball diving straight into the hole. He was back to four under for the tournament and suddenly led Campbell and Clark by three, with four holes to go.
Prosperity, however, was not Micheel’s friend on this particular Sunday. After taking so long to choose a club on the 189-yard 15th hole that he actually apologized to Campbell for the delay, he hit a seven-iron. The ball found the left corner of the green, leaving him a tricky, hard-breaking 45-foot putt. Campbell hit six-iron and was 35 feet below the hole.
Once again, Micheel left himself with some work to do when his birdie putt slid 10 feet below the hole. Given the way he had been putting, that didn’t seem too daunting. Plus, even if he missed, he would still lead by two with three to play.
Except that Campbell proceeded to drill his birdie putt—the first long putt he had made all day—and Micheel’s putt got a good deal longer. He put his first truly bad stroke of the day on the ball, leaving it short and left. Bogey. Two-shot swing. In golf vernacular the score was now Micheel 3, Campbell 2, Clark 1. Cejka was about to finish at even-par 280. Chances were that would not be good enough. But the ballgame was back on.
The 16th was the last real birdie hole on the golf course. It was 439 yards but was a straightforward hole that was playing straight downwind. Statistically it was the second easiest hole on the course, playing at 3.96 strokes per player on the day. Clark had just birdied it to get back to one under.
Campbell’s drive found the left rough, and Micheel’s the right rough. They both drew decent lies, but Micheel had a much better angle with the pin back left. Campbell found the front of the green with a pitching wedge but was 60 feet short. Micheel also hit a hard pitching wedge, and his ball skidded to a halt 20 feet below the flag. Campbell cozied his birdie putt close to the hole and tapped in safely for a par. Micheel stalked his putt for a good long while before settling over it. His putting stroke, missing a hole earlier, came back. The ball went straight into the hole. Now the score was 4–2–1.
Micheel understood the situation clearly. A CBS graphic showed that Ben Curtis’s win a month earlier at Royal St. George’s had made him the seventh man in history to make his first tournament victory a major championship. The first player to accomplish that feat had been Jack Nicklaus at the 1962 U.S. Open. Of course Curtis had taken it a step further, becoming the first man since Francis Ouimet to win the first major he had ever played in. Micheel, playing in his third, wasn’t that far from Curtis.
On the 17th tee, Micheel took a deep breath, much as he had done on the first tee, to calm himself. This time, though, it didn’t help. His drive sailed left into the deep rough. Seeing an opening, Campbell hit his best drive of the day, crushing it way down the fairway. Length was key on the 17th since the hole was 495 yards long. That was one reason why Billy Andrade had said that Micheel’s closing bogeys on 17 and 18 on Saturday were almost like pars.
Micheel had little chance to make a par after his drive. He was forced to punch out of the rough and wedged safely to 30 feet. From there he two-putted for bogey. Campbell had a birdie chance, hitting a seven-iron to 25 feet, but his putt went wide and he tapped in for par.
One hole to go. Clark had missed a 15-foot birdie putt at 18 to finish at 279—one under par. Micheel had a one-shot lead on Campbell, and he knew he had to stay out of the deep rough off the 18th tee, especially after Campbell’s tee shot found the right side of the fairway, bouncing from the first cut into the short grass.
Micheel had been thinking that the golf tournament was going to come down to himself and Campbell since the 15th green. “I knew Tim was close and that Cejka was in at even, but I just thought it was going to be Chad or me,” he said. “I didn’t feel like it was match play until those last three holes. Then I did.”
The 18th was the hardest hole on the golf course. For the day the field had averaged 4.50 strokes per man on the hole. There had been only five birdies among the 68 players who had completed the hole. Micheel just wanted to make par and force Campbell to make a birdie to tie him.
He liked the way his drive felt coming off the club, but his heart almost stopped when he saw the ball heading in the direction of the left rough. The ball hit the ground in the first cut, about a foot from the deep rough, and bounced right, stopping in the first cut with a good lie.
“I could see the ball from the tee after it stopped,” Micheel said. “That was all I wanted. I knew if I could see it, I had to have a reasonable lie. That was a huge relief.”
By now Stephanie Micheel was walking inside the ropes because it had become impossible to see from outside, and PGA officials had invited her and Pam Campbell inside so they could see and for safety’s sake, especially given Stephanie’s pregnancy. Seeing Shaun’s ball in a safe spot, Stephanie walked with Pam to an area behind the green so they could watch their husbands hit their second shots.
“I was a mess by then,” Stephanie said. “It had been such an up-and-down day, and all I could do was watch. Sometimes it’s just very hard to do that.”
Micheel and Campbell walked to their balls, which were identical distances from the green—each man had 174 yards to the flag according to their caddies. When his caddy, Bob Szczesny gave him the yardage, Micheel smiled. “I had 174 yards to the flag from the other side of the fairway in almost the same wind on Friday,” he said. “I had no doubt that seven-iron was the right club.”
There was some question about who should hit first. Micheel, knowing what he wanted to hit, had his seven-iron out of the bag and was ready to play, so—almost by default—he hit first. Campbell didn’t seem to mind. Wadkins thought Micheel had made a smart move being ready to hit first.
“It wasn’t smart,” Micheel said. “I wish I could make that claim. I was just ready to hit my shot. I felt very good about it. The lie was good, the club was comfortable.”
Almost as soon as the ball was in the air, Micheel heard Szczesny’s voice. “Be right!” he yelled.
When a player or caddy says that, it isn’t a reference to direction but to distance. Szczesny could see that Micheel had hit the ball perfectly, and it was headed right at the pin. The question was the distance.
“I was really surprised when I heard Bob’s voice,” Micheel said. “In all the time [three years] we had worked together, I don’t think he had ever once put his mouth on my ball.”
That’s player-speak for a caddy “talking” to a ball when it is in the air.
The ball landed short and right of the flag and began rolling directly at the hole as the crowd’s roar got louder and louder. “This might go in!” Nantz screamed as the ball kept rolling.
It finally stopped two inches—that’s two inches—from the hole.
The 18th green at Oak Hill is 45 feet above the fairway. From where Micheel was standing, he could see only the top of the flag, and when the ball landed there was no way of knowing how close it might be to the hole. Standing there, Micheel could hear the roar building, and he knew he had hit a good shot, perhaps a very good one. He shook his fist, figuring at that moment that he was close enough to guarantee a par but having no idea that he had just won the championship—barring a Campbell hole out from the other side of the fairway.
“I knew from the crowd reaction that it was good, but I had no idea how good,” he said. “I turned to the CBS cameraman standing there and said to him, ‘How close is it?’ but he didn’t answer me.”
Up ahead in the fairway, CBS’s David Feherty, who had walked all 18 holes with Micheel and Campbell, was frantically trying to get Micheel’s attention to tell him where the ball had ended up. “He told me later he was standing there holding his fingers two inches apart,” Micheel said. “I didn’t see him.”
Campbell couldn’t see the ball either, but he knew it had to be close judging by the crowd reaction. “I figured he had stuffed it from what we were hearing,” he said. “I didn’t know it was literally a kick in, but I knew he’d probably hit the shot of his life.”
Campbell’s second shot was an excellent one. It bounced right and stopped 15 feet away. It was one of the best second shots of the day at 18. It just wasn’t close to being the best shot in his twosome.
When the ball was in the air, Stephanie Micheel was standing in a spot where she didn’t have a clear look at the flag. As the crowd’s roar grew louder, she walked forward and shrieked in joy and shock when she saw where the ball had stopped. She turned around and saw Pam Campbell standing there.
“I was so happy, but then I saw Pam, and I had no idea what to say at that moment,” she said. “She was great. She put out her hand and said, ‘Congratulations.’ Then other people came up to me, and I didn’t see her again after that.”
Inside the clubhouse, Billy Andrade, who had been paired with Els on Sunday and had shot 74 to finish in a tie for 10th, had joined his family after signing his scorecard and cleaning out his locker. Jody, his wife, their two children, and Jody’s sister Betsy had flown in from Atlanta to watch him play the final round.
“Because we had such a big group, we didn’t go into the player-family dining area,” Andrade said. “I think they may have been breaking it down by then anyway. So we went into the members dining area to get something to eat. I had seen Shaun and Chad walking off the 18th tee, and I knew the situation.
“I wanted to watch the end. By then I was pulling for Shaun, in part because I’d played with him Saturday but also because I’d been so impressed by him. He was one of those guys you could tell right away ‘got it.’ He was just a consummate pro and a gentleman. I really liked him right away. It wasn’t anything against Chad; I just wanted to see him win.
“I had just put some food on my plate and was about to go sit down near a TV set when the place just exploded. I mean exploded. I turned around, and I saw the ball rolling right next to the hole. I just couldn’t believe it. The moment of his life, he hit the shot of his life. It was the kind of moment we all dream about.”
Halfway up the hill, hearing the ovation building but still not knowing where the ball was, Micheel began running. When he got to the top of the hill and the front of the green, he was stunned. “I had thought it might be three, four feet,” he said. “But then I looked and I saw where it was and it hit me that I’d won. I had actually won. The place was going crazy, people cheering and shouting. I’d never heard anything like that—not for me anyway—in my life.
“Then I saw Steph on the other side of the green, and I can honestly say it was the happiest, most perfect moment of my life. I simply couldn’t believe it had all happened that way.
“I turned to Bob and said, ‘Think I should just go up there and knock it in left-handed?’ I was joking, but he looked at me and said, ‘No.’ I realized how big a moment it was for him too.”
Instead of tapping in left-handed, Micheel marked his ball so Campbell could putt before bedlam broke out when he tapped in. Campbell two-putted for par, giving him second place alone, a shot ahead of Clark and two ahead of Cejka.
Micheel tapped in, took one more deep breath to take in all that had happened, and found Campbell to shake his hand. After the handshakes on the green, Stephanie came out to hug her husband. Micheel gave her a hug and a kiss and then realized there was another member of the family he wanted to kiss too. So, he bent down and kissed Stephanie’s stomach, thus including Dade—who would be born on November 20—in the celebration.
It was just about as sweet a moment as anyone had witnessed in golf in a long, long time.