By Mark Garrod, PA Sport Golf Correspondent

Ben Curtis stunned the sporting world on Sunday night when he became Open champion at Sandwich - and he stunned himself too.

The 26-year-old American stayed in a local bed-and-breakfast for the first major of his life - but after collecting the £700,000 first prize as well as the claret jug his life will be all five-star luxury from now on.

"I want to keep as normal as possible. I'm a normal guy with a lot of talent," said Curtis, ranked only 396th in the world going into the event.

"My life is going to change, but I'm looking forward to it. A lot of great challenges lie ahead of me."

His first words as the one-stroke victory over Vijay Singh and Thomas Bjorn started to sink in - Bjorn led by three with four holes to play and dropped four strokes - said it all really.

"Oh, man!" commented Curtis, in his first full season on the US tour and without a top-10 finish on it until now.

"I came here just trying to play the best I could and compete at the weekend. I was in a zone and didn't think winning until afterwards.

"I can't describe how I feel. It's unbelievable."

Curtis had himself run up four bogeys in six holes after leading by two on the 12th tee, but he made a 10-foot par putt on the last to be two behind at that point and then as he prepared for a possible play-off he was level, then one ahead and did not have to hit another shot.

Meanwhile the caddie who helped Curtis to glory revealed he had never heard of his boss before this week.

Andy Sutton, who normally works for midlander John Bickerton and also caddied for Joakim Haeggman in the Ryder Cup in 1993, only got the job after Bickerton missed the cut in last week's Scottish Open and did not try to qualify for Royal St George's.

The 39-year-old from nearby Maidstone, who celebrated his birthday on Tuesday, then phoned management company IMG and told them he was available to work at Sandwich.

And just 10 minutes later came the call that got him on Curtis' bag and a potential £70,000 windfall.

"I'm still pretty numb, I can't quite believe it's happening, it's fantastic," said Sutton. "When he holed his putt for par on the 18th (Thomas) Bjorn was still three under and then someone told me he had double-bogeyed 16th and I thought 'good lad'!

"I couldn't see anyone making birdie on 17 and 18 so I thought it was at least a play-off.

"Ben just took it all in his own pace, he is ice cold, he just deals with everything. I honestly thought he was just glad to be here.

"He was just lapping up the whole tournament, he was in the merchandise tent on Friday afternoon buying t-shirts. He is a great guy to work for, the nicest guy you will ever meet.

"When I phoned IMG on my way back from Scotland they phoned me back 10 minutes later and said they had a player named Ben Curtis. I'd never heard of him.

"I was just happy I had a week's work. I was out for nine months with a broken leg when I fell off my off-road motorbike in an endurance race."

Sutton said his percentage of the £700,000 prize money had not yet been discussed, but it is usual practice for a caddie to get a weekly wage plus 10% for a win.

Curtis praised Sutton's role saying: "He helped me a lot. I was using a nine-iron around the greens but he handed me an eight iron and once I started using it I said 'I'm chipping with this all week'.

"He also kept me patient."

Sutton, who is due to work for Bickerton in the Irish Open next week, also used to work for Andrew Coltart, who had been hoping to complete an amazing treble with a victory of his own this week.

Coltart was born on May 12, 1970, exactly the same day as the other major winners this year - Masters champion Mike Weir and US Open winner Jim Furyk - but the Scot failed to qualify via the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond last week.