What's happening? A kind of madness has descended on the golfing world. In the majors, for sure, the world has been turned upside down and, on Sunday evening, Shaun Micheel's win in the US PGA Championship at Oak Hill was, in many ways, an appropriate conclusion to golf's summer of surprises as first-timers took all four majors for the first time since 1969.

But, hey, who's complaining? If the failure of Tiger Woods to win a major for the first year since 1998 was maybe as surprising as the streak of unlikely champions, that first kicked-off with Rich Beem's win in last year's US PGA, Micheel's success - the fifth consecutive player to become a first-time winner of a major championship - adequately demonstrated the sheer quality that exists in the professional game these days.

"It's kind of scary really, even up to a month or so ago I was just trying to keep my card," remarked Micheel - who has Irish-Polish ancestry. But, in truth, the fact is that a combination of conditions has contributed to the seismic shift in the golfing world of the past year: the players are better; they're using better technology, and the increasingly tougher course set-ups have allowed anybody who's eligible to have a chance of winning.

When Ben Curtis won last month's British Open at Sandwich, he was ranked 396th in the world and playing in his first major. Micheel, at least, had some history, but not much more. The 34-year-old journeyman professional, playing in his first US PGA, was ranked 169th in the world. However, when he fired in a seven-iron approach to the 72nd hole in his showdown with Chad Campbell, it was a shot that would change his life.

To be sure, the shot will also earn a place in the all-time list of great shots in major championship history.

"I was thinking par. When that ball was in the air, all I was begging for was to carry the front of the green," Micheel explained of the 175-yard approach that finished no more than two inches from the hole.

As he got to the top of the hill, he saw just how good the shot was and he also knew he would be the US PGA champion.

"When I saw where it was, it was a whole range of emotions," admitted Micheel, who tapped-in the birdie putt for a closing 70 for four-under-par 276, which gave him a two-stroke winning margin over Campbell.

That the final round became a slugging match between players without US Tour wins to their credit, never mind a major to their names, summed up the whole crazy summer of 2003. The expectation that someone like Mike Weir or Ernie Els or Phil Mickelson or Vijay Singh would come out firing at the pins and post a score that would melt the nerves of the Micheel or Campbell or third-placed Tim Clark never happened. Weir shot 75, Els 71, Mickelson 75, Singh 79.

Instead, it was Micheel who became the latest unlikely winner of a major. "It just shows how many good players there are on tour," insisted Campbell, who has 16 wins on minor tours to his name, but none on the main tour. Earlier this season, though, other tour players voted him the "next big thing in golf" and he featured on the cover of a Sports Illustrated special golf edition.

Campbell added: "There is a lot of depth, these days. When there's 156 players in a tournament, pretty much any of us could win."

Micheel proved it was possible. This is a man who back in 1993 went into a river in North Carolina to rescue a 76-year-old woman and 68-year-old man trapped inside a car that had crashed. Micheel was preparing to play in a mini-tour event called the Croatan National Classic at the time when the speeding car hopped over bushes and dove into river.

"I thought maybe they were making a TV commercial," recalled Micheel. Only there were no cameras.

So Micheel stripped down to his boxers and swam into action, pulling out the bloodied couple and, as the car began taking him down, searching the back seat in case a grandchild was about to be left behind.

"What I did in that water seemed a lot easier than what I have to go through out here," remarked Micheel, who endured a frustrating time on mini-tours and missing out on cards. But his faith was hardened by winning the Singapore Open in 1998 and then the Greensboro Open on the buy.com tour, now the Nationwide Tour, the secondary tour in the US.

The days of worrying about hard times have now gone. His win earned him a cheque for $1,080,000, a lifetime exemption into the US PGA Championship, a five-year exemption into the US Masters, US Open and British Open and a place in the starting field for this week's NEC Invitational and the American Express Championship in September.

One thing that has disappeared in majors is the intimidation factor Woods once held over the field, and maybe expectations on the world number one are unrealistic.

Woods has now gone six majors without a win, but, in the previous 11, he won seven. Jack Nicklaus, who has won the most major championships, with 18, had a period of 12 majors from the 1967 US Open to the 1970 British Open when he didn't win.

"Nobody has ever played the game at the level Tiger has played," said Hal Sutton, the US Ryder Cup captain.

"His slumps are something everyone else dreams about . . . he is the leading money winner (on the US Tour), he has the most victories, the lowest scoring average and he has done it in fewer tournaments. I don't think that's a slump."