Tour Championship victory signals Campbell's arrival

FOR much of the past two years, great things have been predicted for 29-year-old Chad Campbell.

On Sunday at Champions Golf Club, Campbell finally achieved the first great thing of his career, winning the Tour Championship by a wider margin than the three strokes over Charles Howell III would indicate.

Campbell, playing the event for the first time, stunned an elite field with a 10-under-par 61 in Saturday's third round.

"I didn't see a 10-under out there," said Chris Riley, reflecting on his college roommate's remarkable nine birdies, one eagle and one bogey.

Campbell was the only one who saw anything nearly that low. Tiger Woods, who finished 17 shots back, failed to break 70 in any of his four rounds.

Over the last 10 holes on Saturday, Campbell was eight under.

When he eagled the ninth again on Sunday, after already making three birdies, the tournament was effectively his.

From the ninth on Saturday through the ninth on Sunday, Campbell was 13 under. For the other 53 holes, he was three under.

"The key to this, and any golf course, really, but especially out here, is you've got to hit the ball in the fairway," Campbell said.

Get it in the fairway, then attack.

Campbell has been attacking courses all season, hitting lots of fairways and greens.

If anything has held him back, it has been his putting. But at the Tour Championship, he said, "I was doing everything well".

His third round, considering the situation and the difficulty of the course, "was probably the best round of golf I ever played.

"And then I came out on the front nine (on Sunday) and kept going with it."

Success has been predicted for Campbell since he won three times on the second-tier Nationwide Tour during 2001.

He also won 13 times on the Hooters Tour, one of the top developmental tours.

But he struggled to step up to the PGA Tour.

Five times at the qualifying school he failed to reach the finals.

"It wasn't like I had no money and just playing on my last dollar or anything like that," he said.

"I just wasn't able to get through tour school, wasn't able to get through second stage.

"It's a weird thing. I think that there's a lot of luck involved in it. You've got to be playing good for basically two months and you're only playing three competitive tournaments during that time.

"It's kind of tough to keep your game sharp during that time."

With a first win under his belt and in an event reserved for the top money winners on the PGA Tour Campbell says he feels a bit more at home now.

"I think you're a little bit more respected once you win," he said. "And especially at this.