Michael Campbell, whose golf was so bad two years ago he thought aliens had invaded his body, now has a £1million cheque to go with his first major title.

The 36-year-old New Zealander, who in June held off Tiger Woods to capture the US Open, was handed the sport's biggest first prize after beating Ireland's Paul McGinley in the final of the HSBC World Match Play championship at Wentworth.

An event lacking the world's top four players - defending champion Ernie Els was injured, but Woods, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson all turned it down - ended with Campbell a 2&1 winner.

And it also ended in huge disappointment once again for McGinley, even if he did walk away with £400,000.

Four months ago he bogeyed two of the last three holes on the course to lose the BMW Championship by two.

This time he was all square with four holes to play and bogeyed the next two. First he pushed his approach to the 33rd and then, after Campbell had driven into sand, he hooked his three-wood tee shot deep into the trees.

The 38-year-old needed something special after that, but his opponent was the one to produce it. Both were short of the green in two at the 571-yard penultimate hole and Campbell chipped dead to clinch the title.

McGinley has been part of Europe's success in the last two Ryder Cups, holing the winning putt at The Belfry and being unbeaten in Detroit, but he has not had an individual trophy for four years.

"Fortunately enough I managed to stumble over the finishing line," said Campbell, who could hardly believe that playing the last 11 holes in two over par was good enough.

The fatigue of the week - mental and physical - appeared to have taken its toll. The Kiwi had to play 138 holes in four days, McGinley 127.

"I played all my good golf on the first three days," said the Dubliner. "My game was not quite good enough and I short-sided myself too many times.

"You can't miss it right on the 15th and you can't hit it left on 16." He did both.

He has now had 14 runners-up finishes in his career - and just three victories in more than 350 European tour events going back to 1989.

Campbell's career has been one of incredible highs and lows.

Eight years ago he had a run of 14 tournaments in which he missed the halfway cut 12 times.

"I was shooting 80s all the time, close to 90s - I just could not play the game," he recalled. "I remember throwing my golf bag across the hotel room. I thought 'this is it, it's all over'.

"I was about to get an axe and chop them up in two pieces and throw them away."

Even when he recovered from that nightmare time his troubles were not all behind him. He tried the US Tour two years ago, but missed nine cuts out of nine and after an 89 in the Players Championship he commented: "It's like an alien has taken over my body."

By missing another string of cuts at the start of this season he lost his US Open exemption and but for the United States Golf Association deciding for the first time to have a US Open qualifying tournament in Europe, Campbell would not have entered.

He nearly did not bother in any case, but was persuaded to play at Walton Heath, birdied the last hole to avoid a play-off, then travelled to Pinehurst and from 80th in the world stunned everybody.

A last-hole mistake left McGinley one down at lunch. He strayed into the bushes with his second shot to the par five and could only chop the ball forward a few yards.

Campbell, who had himself been forced to take a penalty drop two holes earlier, was just off the green in two and chipped dead for a three under par 69 against his opponent's 70.

The gap became two for the first time straight after the break, Campbell holing from 20 feet and McGinley missing from 14, and then swelled to three at the 21st, McGinley seeing his chip from left of the green rolling down two tiers and off the front.

But, with plenty of Irish support in the crowd, back came McGinley to all square. He birdied the 24th from five feet, then Campbell bogeyed two of the next three.

He missed a five-foot chance to take the lead on the short 28th, but was let off at the next when Campbell failed from 10 feet - after a streaker had raced onto the green before being escorted away.

A birdie four did take him ahead again on the 30th - but it was hardly conventional.

He pulled his second almost out of bounds and in chipping back clipped the wire with his club. But the ball made it to six feet and holed after McGinley had failed to get up and down from sand.

Only just getting out of a bunker cost Campbell the next, though, and they were all square once more.

But he was the one to prevail in the end and, having beaten top seed Retief Goosen in the semi-finals, he now leads the European Order of Merit again.

McGinley has the consolation of the money, victories over Thomas Bjorn, Luke Donald and Angel Cabrera - and the fact that he leads the European Ryder Cup table.