One of the greatest sporting moments in New Zealand's history almost didn't happen.
In 2005 - 15 years ago this week - Kiwi Michael Campbell shocked the golfing world, when he emerged to defeat Tiger Woods to claim the US Open and his only Major championship.
But that wouldn't have happened, if his wife didn't force him to go to England's first-ever qualifying tournament at a golf course 45 minutes away from his home.
"I wasn't going to go," he tells Luke Robinson on the Stories from the Locker Room podcast. "I actually wasn't going to go to qualifying, but my wife at the time kicked me out of the house and said 'just go, it's only a 45-minute drive'.
"If I had to fly there, I probably wouldn't have gone, because I'd played four weeks in a row, I was tired... I'd just got home that Sunday night and was first off, 7:30 on Monday morning.
"I was in no mood to play golf. Anyway, I qualified on the number - I was the last person to qualify."
Campbell needed a stroke of good luck to make the field. His playing partner hit to within 10 feet on the final hole, while the Kiwi was a foot inside him.
"When he hit his putt, it went slightly to the right," Campbell recalls. "I would have aimed a right-edge putt - it was actually a straight putt, but when I saw his putt, I aimed left centre and it went in the hole."
The rest is history, with the proud Māori becoming the second Kiwi - after Sir Bob Charles' 1963 British Open triumph - to win a Major, later adding the world match play crown and eventually securing his second supreme Halberg Award, after sharing in the 1993 Eisenhower Trophy triumph.
Listen to the full interview on Stories from the Locker Room.
