Campbell - two-shot winner. (Getty Images)

Ten years on from nearly winning the Open at St Andrews, and after some incredible highs and lows since then, Michael Campbell pulled off a quite stunning first Major victory - by two strokes - in the US Open at Pinehurst today.

The 36-year-old qualifier became the first New Zealander since Bob Charles in 1963 to win one of golf's top four prizes - and in the process ended Tiger Woods' hopes of a first-ever Grand Slam in the same season.

The Masters champion was eight adrift of overnight leader Retief Goosen with just 16 holes to play, but as the defending champion opened the door with a nightmare outward 41 it was not only Woods who accepted the invitation.

Campbell, resuming four behind, had birdied the first from 12 feet and by the time he parred the next six he found himself two ahead.

A three-putt bogey on the eighth meant an outward 35, but as Woods made his move with birdies at the 10th, 11th and short 15th, Campbell responded by sinking birdie putts of 30 feet at the 10th and 12th.

It then looked as if Woods might close the gap again when Campbell found sand at the 15th. But as he splashed out to six feet and made the par putt, Woods, just short of the green in two on the 492-yard par four next, played a weak chip to 12 feet and missed.

Campbell was three clear again and that became four when Woods three-putted the 190-yard 17th - the hole he bogeyed to lose his chance of catching Payne Stewart in 1999.

Woods, whose nine major victories have all come when he was in the lead with a round to play, was not quite done as he curled in an eight-foot closing putt for a 69.

Seconds later, though, there was a roar from the 17th green and he must have sensed what it was. Campbell had found the target from 18 feet and the difference between them was back to three.

A double bogey was all he needed on the last as a result, but with tears welling up he bogeyed it for a 69 that matched the low round of the day. He finished on the level par mark of 280 - one more than Stewart took.

Two weeks ago Campbell was in the qualifying tournament for the event at Walton Heath - the first ever to be held in Europe - and avoided a play-off only by pitching to four feet for a closing birdie.

He thus becomes the first qualifier since Steve Jones in 1996 to take the title, but it is the story of what has happened to him in the decade since St Andrews which is the most remarkable part of the tale.

Three clear with a round to play on the Old Course, he finished a stroke behind John Daly and Costantino Rocca, missing an eagle putt on the final green which would have put him in the play-off.

But from that high - it was his arrival on the world stage - he then suffered a career-threatening wrist injury and lost his European tour card. He feared he would have to return to work in his home country as a telephone engineer.

Campbell, whose great-great-great-grandfather Sir Logan Campbell emigrated from Edinburgh to New Zealand and became Mayor of Auckland, even confessed later that he became so disenchanted with the game that he deliberately missed a putt so he would miss a halfway cut in a tournament.

But his love for golf eventually returned and so did his form. He climbed into the world's top 20, only to then crash again.

Campbell joined the US Tour, but he, his wife and two children never really settled into the lifestyle and things became so bad that when he struggled to break 90 in the Players Championship two years ago he said it felt as though ``aliens have taken over my body.''

Eventually the family returned to their base in Brighton and just months later he won the Irish Open at Portmarnock.

Still the rollercoaster ride continued, however. Last winter he missed a string of halfway cuts as he worked on changes to his swing, but in Qatar in March former Ryder Cup player Barry Lane asked him the simple question: ``What on earth do you think you are doing?''

It woke Campbell up to go back to the swing that had served him well in the past. Now look what he has done.

With Goosen crashing to an 81 nobody would have thought possible - and Americans Olin Browne and Jason Gore, joint second with a round to go, scoring 80 and 84 respectively - Sergio Garcia finished joint third alongside Tim Clark of South Africa and Australian Mark Hensby.

Even with the top three fading so dramatically, however, a closing 70 was never likely to be good enough to make the 25-year-old Spaniard Europe's first winner of the title since Tony Jacklin in 1970 and the first winner of any major since Paul Lawrie at the 1999 Open.

Garcia was only one shot off the low round of the day, but said: "I was thinking I would have to shoot 65 or 66 and I really could have got it too.

"I feel like I shot the highest I could have done, but you've got to get breaks and make a couple of putts here or there."

He had a 12-foot chance on the 17th and a 20-footer at the last, but both missed.

While the 25-year-old, a winner on the US Tour last week, was speaking, Luke Donald, in contention at halfway, was reflecting on a closing 80 that dropped him to 16 over.

And Lee Westwood was only one better than that after going into the day still in with a chance at three over. There were tales of woe all over the place, but one very happy man in Campbell.

He knew he could play as well as he did, but he could not have anticipated Goosen's round.

The world number five double-bogeyed the second after chipping over a green and then bogeyed four of the next seven. And five more bogeys came in the last seven.

Alongside him Gore, 818th in the world, had the worst round of the day by three. He said: "There was nothing I could do - I just couldn't stop the bleeding."

The 31-year-old has still to gain a US Tour place. Goosen still has two US Opens to his name and stated: "I just got off to a terrible start, but I'll be back to try again."

Collated final-round totals (US unless stated):

280 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 71 69 71 69 (£645,410)

282 Tiger Woods 70 71 72 69 (£386,142)

285 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 71 69 75 70, Tim Clark (Rsa) 76 69 70 70, Mark Hensby (Aus) 71 68 72 74 (£176,543 each)

286 Davis Love 77 70 70 69, Rocco Mediate 67 74 74 71, Vijay Singh (Fij) 70 70 74 72

287 Nick Price (Zim) 72 71 72 72, Arron Oberholser 76 67 71 73

288 Bob Estes 70 73 75 70, Corey Pavin 73 72 70 73, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 77 66 70 75, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 68 70 69 81

289 Stewart Cink 73 74 73 69, Fred Couples 71 74 74 70, Ernie Els (Rsa) 71 76 72 70, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 77 68 73 71, John Cook 71 76 70 72, Peter Jacobsen 72 73 69 75, KJ Choi (Kor) 69 70 74 76, David Toms 70 72 70 77

290 Fred Funk 73 71 76 70, Justin Leonard 76 71 70 73, Paul Claxton 72 72 72 74, Kenny Perry 75 70 71 74, Olin Browne 67 71 72 80

291 (x) Matt Every 75 73 73 70, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 72 74 71 74, Jim Furyk 71 70 75 75, Adam Scott (Aus) 70 71 74 76, Stephen Allan (Aus) 72 69 73 77

292 Steve Elkington (Aus) 74 69 79 70, Brandt Jobe 68 73 79 72, Phil Mickelson 69 77 72 74, Bernhard Langer (Ger) 74 73 71 74, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 71 73 73 75, Ted Purdy 73 71 73 75, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 71 74 72 75, Tim Herron 74 73 70 75, Lee Westwood (Gbr) 68 72 73 79

293 Mike Weir (Can) 75 72 75 71, Tom Pernice 74 73 73 73, Chad Campbell 77 71 72 73, Peter Lonard (Aus) 71 74 74 74, Rob Rashell 74 72 73 74, Colin Montgomerie (Gbr) 72 75 72 74, Paul McGinley (Irl) 76 72 71 74

294 JL Lewis 75 73 76 70, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 72 71 78 73, Jason Gore 71 67 72 84

295 Richard Green (Aus) 72 72 78 73, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 74 71 77 73, Thomas Levet (Fra) 75 73 73 74, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 74 75 75, Nick Dougherty (Gbr) 72 74 74 75

296 Frank Lickliter 75 73 78 70, (x) Ryan Moore 75 73 75 73, JJ Henry 73 73 76 74, Lee Janzen 74 74 74 74, Tommy Armour 70 72 79 75, Jonathan Lomas (Gbr) 72 74 75 75, Ian Poulter (Gbr) 77 69 74 76, Steve Jones 69 74 74 79, Keiichiro Fukabori (Jpn) 74 67 75 80, Luke Donald (Gbr) 69 73 74 80

297 Michael Allen 73 72 77 75, Steve Flesch 72 71 78 76, John Mallinger 74 72 73 78, Bill Glasson 74 73 71 79

298 Stephen Ames (Can) 71 75 76 76, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 72 74 76 76, DJ Brigman 74 73 75 76, JP Hayes 77 71 74 76

299 John Daly 74 72 77 76, Omar Uresti 75 73 75 76, Charles Howell 77 68 73 81

300 Bob Tway 71 75 79 75, Jeff Maggert 72 75 75 78

301 Chris Nallen 76 72 78 75, Graeme McDowell (Gbr) 74 74 72 81

303 Craig Barlow 76 71 76 80

305 Jerry Kelly 76 71 78 80