Where did he come from?

In the ultimate feel-good finish, Michael Campbell, an unheralded New Zealander, picked off Tiger Woods in the US Open.

I know almost nothing about golf, and the little I do know has come to me mainly in the last 24 hours from reading reports about Michael Campbell’s win at the US Open this week. I am still not clear on the difference between a birdie and bogey, or whether a putt to par is different from a par putt. But one thing is pretty clear, and it is that my countryman has done something world class and made New Zealanders enormously proud of him.

It’s not just the win that has swept people away, of course. It’s the come-back, the fact that, after a brilliant start, Campbell’s golfing career slumped and he has had to fight his way back from near oblivion to carry off one of the most prized sporting cups in the world. And this is the first thing I like about Michael Campbell: He persevered.

It is 13 years since he starred in New Zealand’s victory in the international amateur showpiece, the Eisenhower Trophy, and was instantly proclaimed ready to take on the world. His successes since then include a third-equal placing in the 1995 British Open and beating Tiger Woods in Johnnie Walker Classic in Taiwan back in 1999. But his failures — “I’ve been injured, missing cuts, I’ve missed my European Tour card and my Australian tour card back in 1998” — saw him despondently considering a career change.

He said at a news conference this week that he may have been a little greedy at the beginning, seeking to expose himself too much, and this backfired on him — an admission that shows an attractive sort of humility. In a similar spirit he has given his wife, Julie, a lot of the credit for his staying in the game: “I’ve worked very, very hard but my wife has been very supportive. She believed in me and got me going again.”

Which leads me to the second thing I like about Cambo — his family. I like the fact that he has a wife and not just a cohabiting partner; that they have kids, Thomas and Jordan; that he was on the phone to his mum, Maria, and dad, Tom, the night before the big game; that in his hour of triumph he keeps talking about them all — and the uncle who taught him to play golf, and the late, revered grandmother who gave him the confidence to dream and aim high.

I’m a family man,” he told reporters, emphasising that’s the way it would stay. “You ask anybody who is close to me — all I care about is my family. Golf is always second in my life.” Fantastic, Michael. You scored a hole in one for values there.

Yet Campbell’s loves don’t stop with his family and profession but extend, importantly, to his Maori community. And this is the reason for my third, and last, cheer for our new Kiwi legend.

He is very aware that if he has boosted the confidence of all Kiwis — who, being a small nation hanging off the edge of the Pacific, tend to need that sort of thing — that effect will be doubled or trebled for Maori, who often have to struggle harder than most for the sort of confidence Cambo’s grandmother gave him. His victory, as he has said, “sends a message back home that if a little Maori boy from Titahi Bay can do it, then I’m sure many kids from back home can do the same.”

Realistically, few New Zealand kids are going to become international golfing stars. But what they can all learn from their latest hero are the virtues that make him such a likeable winner: his perseverance, hard work, humility, love of family and concern for the wider community he belongs to. Thanks, Michael, for reminding us of the things that can make us all winners in the game of life.

Carolyn Moynihan is deputy editor of MercatorNet