A major surprise

PINEHURST, N.C. -- There had been a week's worth of stifling heat, Pinehurst No. 2 had been baked to a toasty brown, and now, midway through yesterday's fourth round of the 105th US Open, dust was swirling everywhere.

It was difficult to see through the brown clouds that hovered, but that seemed only fitting.

After all, it was difficult to believe what was going on beneath them.

Seemingly safe and sound in the capable hands of defending champion Retief Goosen, he of the three-shot lead at the start of the day, the championship had changed complexion a half-dozen times, changing from a one-man show, to a shootout between mostly unheralded players, to finally a picture that was familiar, yet shocking.

Tiger Woods was stalking what surely was going to be his 10th major championship.

On a day of collapses and comebacks, that appeared to be the only way this story could end, but no . . . it was all dust in the wind. Two groups behind Woods was the real story, improbable and head-shaking that it was.

New Zealander Michael Campbell is your US Open champion, the same Michael Campbell who on a number of occasions over the last few seasons has talked of quitting this most frustrating game.

Four back to start the day, Campbell shot one of the four subpar rounds on the day, a 1-under-par 69, and punctuated his dramatic rally with a birdie at the par-3 17th that made his closing bogey academic. That the 36-year-old Campbell finished at even 280 to edge Woods (69) by two shots was stunning enough; that he barged through a door that had been opened wide by the stumbling and bumbling Goosen and his 81 swings was utterly shocking.

''Oh, man," said Campbell, who became the 23d foreign-born player to win the national championship, ''it's just unbelievable. That's all I can say."

It was about all anyone could say, though Woods -- whose near-victory would have been even more dramatic, considering he started six back and was eight behind with 16 holes to play -- took a different view of things.

''If you feel you had a chance to win and you didn't take that opportunity to win the tournament, then it's disappointing," said Woods, who once again was denied a US Open victory at Pinehurst at the 190-yard, par-3 17th in the final round. In 1999, he bogeyed the hole, only to have Payne Stewart come in minutes later to birdie it and beat him by two. Yesterday, Woods three-putted for bogey, all but ending his hopes of a stirring victory, a reality that was made official minutes later when Campbell slam-dunked his 25-foot birdie putt to punctuate a win that he never fathomed.

''The 17th hole will always be in my mind, forever," said Campbell, the first qualifier to win the US Open since Steve Jones in 1996. ''I just love the 17th."

Of course, he should, and not just because he birdied each it of the last three days. It also was the key hole in a victory that was worth $1,170,000, a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour, and validation for all the times he has stuck with the game, even those times when he felt like quitting.

Then again, even Campbell knows that the 17th only mattered to him because of the wild stuff that took place one group behind him. That is where Goosen was situated, paired with a guy who was trying to imitate 10-year-old art -- Jason Gore. A 31-year-old journeyman, Gore was three shots behind Goosen at the start as he was bidding to script a real-life ''Tin Cup" story, the popular movie made in the mid-1990s about a down-and-out golfer who gets into the hunt of a US Open. Like the movie, the underdog didn't win; unlike the movie, on this day he didn't come close, for Gore shot an ugly 84--294 and plummeted into T-49.

It was bad -- unless you put it up against Goosen's debacle. Together, these gentlemen took 165 shots to complete their fourth rounds.

''I wouldn't have minded shooting maybe 4 over and losing," said Goosen, whose title defense started unraveling quickly. Like the par-4 second hole when he missed the green with his approach, pitched through the green, then needed another pitch and two putts. When he followed that double bogey with a bogey at the par-4 third, Goosen was level par, tied with Campbell, who had birdied the first.

Others were in the mix, too.

As play moved along on the outward holes, there was Aussie Mark Hensby at 1 over, trailing by one, and both Gore and Olin Browne were 3 over. A more formidable group all sat at 4 over -- Woods, David Toms, Vijay Singh, and Rocco Mediate -- but slowly and most painfully, the firm fairways, fast greens, treacherous rough, and swirling dust pushed many of them onto a bogey train they couldn't get off.

By the time play moved to the back nine, it was a two-man race between Campbell, who had gone to the turn in even-par 35, and 1 over for the tournament, and Woods, his bogey-bogey start having been forgotten with birdies at the par-5 fourth and par-4 seventh. Woods trailed Campbell by three, but made a stirring birdie at the par-5 10th, then another at the par-4 11th. He was 2 over and focused on Campbell.

''After that start, I'm sure most people wrote me off," said Woods, whose bogey at the second hole had left him eight behind the leader. ''But this golf course is unbelievable."

Goosen will agree. Gore, too. And Hensby (74--285, tied for third), Browne (80--290, joint 23d), and Toms (77--289, joint 15th) will agree.

Campbell, too, though for other reasons, all of them positive. He came in two groups behind Woods and matched the birdie at the 10th, then he made a crucial one at the 449-yard, par-4 12th. That pushed him to 1 under and he led by three.

Up ahead, Woods made a birdie at the par-3 15th, his scintillating tee shot coming to rest just 5 feet from the hole. He pumped his fist. He was two back.

But Pinehurst No. 2 has some serious bite in it and Woods discovered that when he drove wide right at the par-4 16th and made bogey at about the same time Campbell was getting it up-and-down out of a greenside bunker to save par at the 15th. When Woods followed that bogey at 16 with some sloppy putting at the 17th, Campbell had a brief four-shot lead, though he, too, drove wide at 16 and made bogey.

That ushered him to the 17th. The glorious 17th and he'll smile forever at the tee shot that was on line and the 25-foot putt that was even more on line. The birdie, his fourth and final one of a grueling day, gave him a four-shot lead again, though it became half of that when Woods birdied the 18th and Campbell made bogey.

Normally, it would have been the shots on the 72d hole that would have closed the festivities, but no. Not with Goosen and Gore still to play. At 18, they did what they did for the previous 17 -- they chopped it up. Gore made a double bogey; Goosen completed his round with a missed 5-footer.

The South African's 81 was one of the worst final-round scores by a 54-hole leader, reminiscent of Fred McLeod's 83 in 1911. And if you don't remember McLeod, blame it on the dust of 94 years, not a week's worth of stifling heat.