Campbell Boring Not if You Listen to His Clubs

So now theres another one. Tiger Woods Vijay Singh Ernie Els Davis Love Mike Weir Chad Campbell?

Yep, Campbell. With all the star power hanging around Houston last week, this guy comes from nowhere and totally upsets the form chart. For those who were hoping the Tour Championship would place closure to the great Player of the Year debate ' forget it. Chad Campbell is your winner, ladies and gents. And maybe youd better get used to it.

Hes absolutely plain vanilla. If you wanted something a little more ' er, flashy, forget it. This 29-year-old plays golf ' period. And he is very good at it.

In a good way, he’s a very boring golfer - which is what you want to be, said Charles Howell III ' who is anything BUT boring.

He’s a good boring. He’s fairway, green, hit his putt up there, it either goes in or it’s right next to the hole - which is great. There’s nothing wrong with his game at all. It’s fairway, green, putt, fairway. And with a guy like that, and when he’s on, when he’s playing well like that, you got to make a bunch of birdies to beat him.

Campbell has been a little inconsistent this year. Hes played very well in many of the big tournaments, not so good in many of the lesser ones. He made the top 30, which is sort of indicative of the way he crept in under cover of darkness.

Then, when everyone was dazzled by all the giants of the game, he just stepped and grabbed the title. Thank you very much!

Campbell, of course, would be quite pleased if he could just maintain his status quo and let the Tour Championship trophy set off by itself on the knick-knack shelf. Unfortunately for him, he knows what is coming.

There are so many more occasions now to smile and say a few words, so many offers he now must consider, so many options he now must think about. A million here, 1.5 mil there? Home ' or Europe? This club deal ' or that clothing offer? You see, once youve become a winner for the first time - especially with a tournament of this magnitude - your status on the respect-o-meter shoots way up.

I think so, Campbell agreed. I think you’re a little bit more respected once you win.

It’s so hard to win out here. There’s obviously so many good players. And especially at this tournament, you’ve got 30 guys that have had the best years. And I think you do earn a little bit more respect once you get into that, get your first win and especially coming at a tournament like this.

Chris Riley was Campbells teammate at the University of Nevada ' Las Vegas. Naturally, anybody would have been amazed to see a teammate reach THIS level back in college. But the telltale signs were definitely there.

His behavior, the way he acts on the golf course is really good, said Riley. He doesn’t get too high, he doesn’t get too low. He’s just a plain guy.

In college, he used to go through the drive-through and get his cheeseburger with nothing on it. He’s just a plain guy, and a great guy. And he’s really going to do great on the tour. It was just a great tournament for him.

Singh himself knew it was coming. You cant hold a guy like this down forever.

He’s been threatening for a while, said Singh. He’s a very aggressive player. When he gets it going, like this week, there’s no stopping him. We will hear a lot more from Chad Campbell - this is not the end of it.

Part John Wayne, part Jim Furyk, Campbell is ready for the next step. His fellow pros knew he would be here. Now he knows it, too.

Email your thoughts to George White