Curtis wants to prove the doubters wrong

BEN CURTIS, the most unexpected British Open champion in history, is back in Britain this week hoping to show that it was not the fluke many people believe.

Without a top-10 finish on the US Tour either before or since his astonishing victory at Sandwich in July, Curtis is back to chase the £1million first prize at the HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth, starting tomorrow.

As one of the four seeds defending champion Ernie Els, Masters champion Mike Weir and US PGA winner Shaun Micheel are the others the 26-year-old does not enter the fray until Friday's quarter-finals. He will play either Swede Fredrik Jacobson or fellow American Chad Campbell.

The extra day off has given Curtis the chance to show his family wife Candace, both sets of parents and her brother not just the London sights, but also the Royal St George's course in Kent where he pulled off the win which changed his life.

"I'm not sure yet when we're going there, but it feels really good to be back in England," he said. "Ever since the Open I've been looking forward to it. It's a great thrill."

Travelling around London at the weekend "six or seven hours" of it on the Tube Curtis was not once asked for an autograph.

"I'm just a humble guy and it helped that we were a big group," he stated. "If I get recognised it does not bother me and if I don't it does not bother me.

"I wasn't thinking about it then, but it's going to mean a lot to be announced as the Open champion on Friday.

"I didn't know much about this championship before the Open, but I know now that a lot of great players have won it."

Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus were among the early winners and on the 40th staging of the event Els will be trying to match the record five victories of Gary Player and Seve Ballesteros, both of whom are present to see whether he can.

Els opens against either fellow South African Tim Clark or Australian Stephen Leaney, while Weir will play either Dane Thomas Bjorn or American Len Mattiace and first up for Micheel is Fiji's Vijay Singh or German Alex Cejka.

The three Europeans are in the field only because of the withdrawals of others. World number one Tiger Woods was first to declare his unavailability and was followed by US Open champion Jim Furyk and their compatriots Kenny Perry, Phil Mickelson, David Toms and Davis Love.

Curtis, only 40th on the US Tour money list despite his million-dollar win at Sandwich, needs to climb 10 places to qualify for their season-ending Tour Championship.

But he says that he was never in two minds about whether to compete at Wentworth.

As for his form since the Open he adds: "It's not been as great as I wanted it to be, but things have been busy and they are settling down now.

"Obviously expectations are high, but I'm not going to worry about that. I'm just going to play the best I can."

Ranked 1,269th in the world at the start of the year and 396th at Royal St George's it was the very first major of his career Curtis is now 35th.

"To be honest with you, I was shaking in my boots (over the closing holes), but it wasn't too much of a shock to me that I won. Going into Saturday and Sunday I knew I could.

"When I turned pro (in 2000 after helping the US win the world amateur team title) I thought I had a realistic chance of winning majors."

Micheel was an out-of-the-blue major winner as well. The 34-year-old, a professional for 11 years, was ranked 245th at the turn of the year and 169th when he hit his seven-iron to three inches on the final hole at Oak Hill in August.