Golf US Open final round: Destiny calls but the chosen few. As a child, Jim Furyk pretended he was a legendary golfer called Arnold Palmer, making a putt to win a major.

Yesterday, at Olympia Fields Country Club, there was no room for pretence as the American Ryder Cup player successfully took a step - and a series of real putts - towards realising that calling. Rather than being a pretender, he became the genuine article, a major champion.

On a sun-kissed day, with just the hint of a breeze to make players second-guess their club selection, the course finally showed its teeth. The greens firmed up, leading to players like Tiger Woods - on the ninth - and Darren Clarke - on the 12th - incurring the indignity of four-putting. But, through it all, Furyk remained calm and focused and marched to the title with a finishing round of 72 for eight-under-par 272. It gave him a three-shot winning margin over Australia's Stephen Leaney.

Earlier in the week, before the championship started, someone suggested to Furyk that he was now the holder of that unwanted tag of being "the best player in the world not to win a major." The American politely disagreed, and didn't want the label. On Saturday evening, after he completed his record-breaking third round, and he wasn't in a position to dispute belonging to such a category any longer, he showed his focus by walking over to where the USGA had told players the hole would be cut on the 18th green for yesterday's final round. He had a long, hard look; thinking ahead, but refusing to let his thoughts race too far. "I don't like to put the cart before the horse," he admitted.

There was no fear of that, from one of the most methodical players on the US Tour. A player with an unorthodox but repeating swing - once described by David Feherty as "resembling a man in a phone booth trying to kill a snake" - Furyk held firm while, all around him, others were eaten up by the course. One by one, they fell away with only Leaney, who'd never before contended in a major and whose previous best finish was tied-37th in last year's British Open, emerging as the unlikeliest of pursuers.

Among those to falter in the heat of battle was Vijay Singh, a proven major winner who was at the head of the chase at the start of the day. The Fijian slipped down the field with a speedier velocity than that witnessed on some of the severely sloping greens here to shoot a dispiriting 78. In the end, Mike Weir, the US Masters champion, showed his major credentials by finishing in a share of third place with Kenny Perry, who produced the low round of the day - a 67.

When it got down to business yesterday, Furyk more than proved up to the task at hand. On the previous eight times that he had either led outright or shared the lead going into the final round, he had only finished the job on three occasions. But he'd learned from those experiences, and, on the biggest occasion of his golfing life, Furyk played solid golf that reaped the ultimate reward.

As Singh slipped out of contention, and Nick Price faltered only to effect a late fightback and then slip back again to finish in tied-fifth, Furyk really only had to keep an eye on his playing partner Leaney. Early on, Furyk's solid play - five successive pars followed by a birdie on the sixth - was a sharp contrast to the Aussie who went bogey-birdie-bogey-birdie in a rollercoaster start.

Furyk's consistency was to prove the key.

Furyk didn't drop a shot on the outward run, and had moved into a five shot lead over Leaney, by now his one true rival. Furyk dropped his first shot of the round at the 10th, where he drove into a bunker, and then dropped another on the 12th, the toughest hole of the day. On the same green earlier in the day, Clarke - who finished with a disappointing 75 for a six-over-par 286 and tied-42nd position - suffered his four-putt, but Furyk's problem was that his 189 yards approach shot found the front of the green, only to run back 60 yards down the slope. He failed to get up and down.

His response, though, didn't take long and Furyk's eight-iron approach to six feet on the 14th gave him his second birdie, brought him back to 10-under for the championship and re-established a four shot lead over Leaney. Both players bogeyed the 17th, which left Furyk with a four-shot lead playing the last and he could afford a three-putt bogey there.

For much of this championship, the European challenge had been a poor one. In the end, though, it proved not to be a bad one. Justin Rose and Fredrik Jacobson shared the distinction of leading the European last-day charge as they finished in a share of sixth-place, while Padraig Harrington's final round 68 for one-over par 281 left him in tied-10th position. Having departed for the airport shortly after his round, he got the news of his elevation - as later players faltered on the fast greens - just before boarding.

Harrington's round was kick-started on the front nine, where he had three birdies - on the first, third and eighth - and also featured a magnificent par save on the seventh where he putted off the green with his first putt only to hole the 30 footer back up the hill. Having turned in three-under for the day, he dropped a shot at the 12th, cancelled that out with a birdie on the 14th, only to drop a shot on the 18th where he drove into a bunker and then put his recovery into deep greenside rough.