By DAN BICKLEY
The Arizona Republic

SANDWICH, England - Here comes the British Open, coughing and wheezing and sputtering to the 19th hole.

Here goes the new champion, Ben Curtis, straight into the arms of his stunned fiancee.

"Oh, my God, baby!" she said. "Oh, my God!"

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Just when you thought this zany tournament had run out of larks, the biggest surprise occurred on Sunday. Golf's oldest trophy ended up in the arms of a rookie playing in his first major, a rookie who needed his best finish ever - a tie for 13th place at the recent Western Open - just to qualify.

A rookie from Ostrander, Ohio, who bogeyed four of his last seven holes, then watched in amazement as some of the biggest names in golf fell down an incredible ladder of opportunity.

So here is Tiger Woods, looking like he swallowed his golf ball. The great one is not in a slump, but clearly, he is no longer impenetrable, no longer the cold-blooded assassin. He couldn't stay in the red. He couldn't grasp his reprieve. And then he did something completely out of character. He complained that he did not have enough time to adequately prepare for putts, saying he was placed on the clock at the 12th hole.

"When you're on the clock, you're not in your normal rhythm, that's for sure," Woods said. "They're trying to get us to play in three hours, 23 minutes. That's pretty quick on a Sunday afternoon."

Vijay Singh played with Woods on Sunday, but said nothing of the sort. Vilified in America after his comments regarding Annika Sorenstam, Singh showed a great deal of class in defeat, as well some open-soul honesty.

"I had my chances and I blew it," Singh said. "There's no excuse for that."

Woods, on the other hand, never wants to show a glimmer of weakness. But the jig is up. His presence no longer scares a field senseless, and his vaunted charges up a leaderboard no longer force those in his vicinity to bow in deference.

Nick Faldo put it a little more simply.

"After the first couple of majors this year, you would feel that the players are closing on Tiger, wouldn't you?" he said. "Yeah, they have caught up."

Woods tried to smile off this loss, but his face was long and hard. He is now winless in his last five majors, having lost his aura of invincibility once in contention.

In the last four majors, an array of new champions has appeared. Before Curtis, there was Rich Beem, Mike Weir and Jim Furyk. It is the first time four consecutive first-time major winners have emerged since Woods won his first Masters in 1997.

He is now paying the price for raising the bar absurdly high, forcing the rest of the golfing elite to get in the gym, get on the range, pay the price and compete like real athletes.

He has a lifted an entire sport from the soft confines of a country club mindset to a cutthroat endeavor where second place is no longer reason to break out the cognac and cigars. Not that such a feat offers any solace these days.

"It's hard to right now kind of reflect on it," he said. "Too close to the situation."

As Woods spoke, the official announcement of Curtis as the new "champion of golf" rang in the background. It was a surreal moment, and with a world ranking of 396, it's hard to imagine a more improbable major champion.

Oh, there was Paul Lawrie at Carnoustie, but that was at a tricked up course that begged for goofy results. There was Long John Daly at Crooked Stick, but Curtis is even more improbable. In fact, no one took him the least bit seriously, even after three previous rounds of 72-72-70.

"I told my wife (on Saturday), 'This guy can play,' " Singh said. "He's no pushover."

That said, Curtis doesn't have a coach. His agency had to find him a caddie in England. He admits that if he hadn't qualified for the Open, he would be planning his August wedding to Candace Beatty, a golfer he met attending Kent State University.

He stayed at a remote bed and breakfast. He even spent a day sightseeing in London.

"Favorite thing in England? Big Ben, probably," Curtis said. "I look up to Big Ben."

Incredibly, the golf world is now looking up to Big Ben Curtis. And the hourglass that once represented Woods' unconquerable facade may have finally run out of sand.