Michael Campbell: How beating Tiger Woods to win US Open changed everything

It was the underdog story that sparked the biggest party since The Beatles.

When Michael Campbell flew back home to New Zealand after his US Open win twenty years ago, he was welcomed with a parade matched in scale only by The Fab Four’s historic arrival on those shores way back in 1964. Only then did Campbell quite realise the magnitude of what he had achieved.

The 36-year-old had missed out on his one and only chance to win a major a decade earlier at the 1995 Open in St Andrews, finishing one shot shy of a playoff between Costantino Rocca and John Daly.

But a decade later, Campbell realised his unlikely dream of becoming the first Maori major champion.

After securing the last spot in the field in sectional qualifying at Walton Heath, the 150/1 shot somehow managed to go all the way, taming a charging Tiger Woods and a treacherous Pinehurst to lift the title. And, as Campbell recalls in this emotional conversation with bunkered, it was a victory that would change his life forever…

Growing up in New Zealand, what was it like being ‘the golf guy’?

I always wanted to be an All Black. Rugby is a religion there. Being a Maori back in the ‘70s and ‘80s was difficult. Golf is stereotyped. It’s a rich white man’s sport. My dad used to drag me to the golf course at the age of six or seven to caddie for him. I didn’t really like it. I played other sports instead. Golf wasn’t a sport I enjoyed until I was 12 or 13 years old. But then I watched Jack Nicklaus play in The Masters. In those days they only showed the last nine holes of Augusta because of the time difference. I saw these beautiful fairways and said ‘I would love to play there one day.’ I was a 33-handicapper, I wasn’t that good, but it really changed my mindset. I said ‘I want to be there one day.’

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I started playing golf on a sheep farm. They had fences around the greens to keep the sheep out, they were everywhere. I couldn’t afford tees so I used to collect dried up sheep s*** to tee the ball up. I had one golf club, a cut-down six iron and one ball that I used for a year or so. All of a sudden I improved very quickly. At the age of 14, I got a half set. I said to my dad if I break 100, I want a full set of golf clubs. Within three or four months, I did it. Then I broke 80 and got a new driver. I’ve always been a goal setter and that’s how I developed. Everyone saw I was a natural swinger of the club and golf came easy to me. I wanted to break the mould and prove to the world that Maoris can play golf.

It’s now been 20 years since the win at Pinehurst. What was it like returning there for the first time last year?

It was the first time I’d been back in 19 years and it was wonderful journey. The USGA invited me and treated me well. They gave me a locker even though I wasn’t playing in the champion’s locker room.The biggest buzz for me was all the players coming up to me. Guys I’d never met before. Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, saying well done Michael for winning. To have the newfound respect was the biggest thing for me. I definitely felt there how much winning a major has changed my life. My name will always be mentioned in the same sentence as the other champions.

Some people forget you only got into the field that week through Final Qualifying…

At the start of the year I’d missed four cuts in a row on the European Tour. I flew over to America and spent five weeks with my coach and we found this golden nugget with my swing. I came back in May and had these great results and then I was the last person to qualify at Walton Heath. I had to hole an eight-footer on the last hole for birdie to make it. Steve Webster was on the same score. He hit it to ten feet and I hit it to eight feet. He missed it right edge and mine lipped in. If I didn’t see Webby’s line, I wouldn’t have made it. It’s crazy how those things pan out.

Nobody was expecting you to contend at Pinehurst, though. What were your own expectations?

Pinehurst is very different now with all that wasteland. It was thick rough back then and the ball would go down to the bottom. You couldn’t go for the green. That’s why the scoring was better in 2024. It wasn’t a long golf course, though, and I was playing great. From the very beginning I’ve always been a goal setter. I remember flying from London Gatwick to Raleigh, North Carolina near Pinehurst and I wrote down: ‘Top-ten means a second hand Porsche 911’. As a reminder, I marked ‘911’ on my golf ball. After two rounds on Friday I was in third place, so I crossed that goal out on my notes and put down top five: Brand new Porsche. It went from there…

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After the third round you were only four shots behind the leader, Retief Goosen. Did those goals change again?

Retief was defending champion, he’d won twice before and he was playing great golf so I already conceded he’s going to win. Jason Gore was one shot behind him. Retief and I are very good friends. We had lunch together that morning. He seemed cool and calm so I thought I’ve got no chance here. But I remember after six holes I looked at the leaderboard and I was on top and Tiger was second. Retief and Jason Gore had imploded and then there were just two left. It was a battle between me and him. That’s when I filled my mind up with other things like picturing the colour of my Porsche, changing the wheels, the interior. Distraction is a very good thing under pressure when you’re about to win a major against one of the best golfers to have ever played.

So then, what’s it actually like going up against Tiger with a major on the line?

I was one shot ahead of him with nine holes to play. I remember waiting on the 10th tee when his playing partner in the group ahead hit it left into the trees. He got a ruling and ten minutes felt like ten hours. Tiger had bombed a driver so I knew he was going to make birdie. There’s a normal roar and a Tiger roar. You can feel it. I felt that energy. Did it bother me? Not really. It became a mental battle and there was one sentence that came to my mind: “I see this as an opportunity, not a threat.” Fight or flight. You run away from trouble or towards it. That mental mindset really set me up for the last nine holes.

I played a lot with Tiger over the years. Every time you saw his name creep up, you saw other guys fall down. But I just said, you know what, I’m the underdog so all the pressure’s on him. I remember 40,000 following him and about 5,000 following me. I just embraced the opportunity to be the first Maouri to win the US Open, but also trying not to think about it but I knew it would be massive for the people back home in New Zealand. I was in control of my emotions the whole time. When I held my birdie putt on 17 and I had a three-shot lead on Tiger, that’s when I got nervous. I didn’t think about winning until then. I just wanted to put one foot in front of the other, one shot at a time but that’s when I thought: hey, I’ve got a good chance here and that’s when the nerves kicked. You’ve got to put those things aside and I was still pretty much in control, but that’s when I jumped out of my bubble mentally.

Can you describe the emotions after the winning putt on 18?

I remember looking towards the heavens and thanking my ancestors who had passed on before me and who gave me strength and courage in those last nine holes. I couldn’t have done it by myself. The Maori people are very spiritual people and that’s what we believe. Everyone’s different. I felt the people who I was close to who passed away before me. That was the first thing I thought about. I can still feel it right now.

It must have been cool to have Tiger’s caddie Steve Williams there to congratulate you at the end?

Steve is very professional, and he wanted his man to win so must have been messed up a little bit emotionally, but he was great. He was the second person I hugged. The first was my caddie Michael Waite. Steve was there waiting for me and said “You’ve just made the whole country very proud.”

And the reaction back in New Zealand?

I didn’t realise the impact I made until I went home. They stopped parliament and the Prime Minister rang me up. They gave me a ticker tape parade in Wellington. The organiser said, do you realise this is the second biggest ticker tape parade we’ve ever had. I said who was the first? He said The Beatles. I’ll take that! We went to different parts of New Zealand and visited disadvantaged kids in schools with the trophy. I came from the same background as them. My parents worked two jobs and couldn’t afford electricity. We used candles and lived in council housing. Then I went to be one of the best players in the world at that stage. I wanted to say hey, if Michael Campbell can do it, you can do it.

Once you do that kind of thing you’re exposed to a lot of people, politicians, sports stars, rockstars. The All Blacks invited me to their training camp. To meet my idols was pretty cool. At the start of 2006, six months after the US Open at the Grand Slam of Golf, I teed off after the first round, someone said ‘Hey Michael.’ I recognised the voice. It was Samuel L Jackson. He came running over and gave me a hug and said well done. Now we’re best of buddies. You just get pushed to a different stratosphere.

It all sounds like it could all be quite overwhelming?

I can’t remember the next six months after I won. Nobody prepares you for winning a major tournament. It’s wild. I had a conversation with my manager every day for probably an hour and a half going through requests. I thought ‘are you serious?’ I had to start saying no. The expectations were massive. I was still on a high, though. In July I had a reasonable chance to win The Open and I was sixth at the PGA Championship. I was still on a run riding the wave of confidence and momentum. And then I just said ‘enough’. Get me out of here, I took six weeks off, finished second on the order of merit that year and then I just decided to go on vacation mentally and physically. I was so exhausted. I’m a very shy person. I don’t like attention. I only played golf for the trophies, that’s it. I didn’t think about fame and fortune. It was the responsibility. All of a sudden, what I said mattered, which I wasn’t used to. But it was a powerful tool.

Without that defining moment, would your career have been missing something?

Definitely. I always wanted to win a major. Ever since I remember seeing Jack Nicklaus walking the fairways of Augusta National on TV when I was 13, I always wanted to win a major. People just see the Pinehurst result, but don’t see what goes on behind the scenes. I worked my butt off. We all do. Some more than others, but we all want to be the best we can be. And I always wanted to be a major winner.

Ben Parsons is the Senior Writer at bunkered and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.