By Dave Tindall

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I speculated last night that Thomas Bjorn would lose this tournament by a shot and be left rueing the two-shot penalty he incurred after angrily swishing his club in a bunker in his opening round.

But the way it actually came true today almost defies belief. Bjorn was cruising to victory when he stood on the 15th tee but a disastrous double bogey on the 16th proved a crushing blow from which he could not recover.

And so thrust dramatically into the limelight was the unheard of 500/1 outsider Ben Curtis.

Curtis was the first player to arrive at Sandwich this week but nobody in their right mind would have believed that a man playing his first major and just second tournament on a links golf course would go away with the claret jug.

“The Champion golfer of the year… Ben Curtis,” has a very strange ring to it but the young American's victory should not be dismissed as pure fluke. You do not beat the best players in the world on a course this difficult by relying on luck.

Several of his countrymen choose to steer clear of the slings and arrows of links golf but Curtis isn't one of them. “I have always dreamed of coming over here and playing and I hope to make many more trips as well over the next few years,” he said after his opening round on Friday. There is no doubt about that now.

Tiger Woods, Davis Love and Vijay Singh will join Bjorn in thinking that this was one that got away. And many more in this field will believe that they could have beaten Curtis' winning total of one-under-par.

But one of the thrills of sport is its unpredictability. And there have been few bigger fairytales than this.

Curtis will wake up tomorrow as the Open champion and understandably may be pinching himself for months to come.

This week in Sandwich will be remembered as a reminder that David can still sling Goliath.