Lucas Glover savoured his first few minutes as a US Open champion alongside Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods and said he hoped he wouldn't "downgrade" the title.
Glover held his nerve at Bethpage Black on Monday to hold off the challenge, of major winners Phil Mickelson, David Duval and defending champion Woods and win the 2009 championship by two strokes after a three-over-par round of 73.
When his rivals crumbled over the closing holes, Glover produced his only birdie of the round at the 16th to pull clear and par his way home for the win.
It was just the 29-year-old's second tournament victory in eight years as a professional, his only other win coming in 2005 at the Funai Classic, a low-key event at the end of the PGA Tour season and held at a Disney resort.
Yet while most children dream of a trip to Walt Disney World, Glover said he always wanted to be a US Open champion, joining the likes of Ben Hogan, Nicklaus and Palmer.
"I dreamed about it as a kid and now I've pulled it off. Here I stand," Glover said.
"I get to be beside them. I don't know. It's an honour to be on the trophy with names such as these.
"I hope I don't downgrade it or anything with my name on there.
"It's an honour, and I'm just excited and happy as I can be to be on here."
Glover said he had been expecting a final-round charge from Mickelson, who tied for second with Duval and Ricky Barnes, his overnight co-leader, and world number one Woods, who finished tied for sixth, four shots back.
"We were waiting on it," he said. "You knew Tiger and Phil were going to make a move, and they did. And Ricky and I started coming back. That probably motivated them more.
"But, yeah, I was watching (them). You have to. I do...just like to know where I sit and what I need to do."
Not that Glover wasn't anxious as he approached the closing holes.
"I'd be lying to say I wasn't nervous," he said. "I had the knees knocking pretty good on 16, 17 and 18. But I pulled it off and executed some pretty good golf shots."
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