ROCHESTER, N.Y. ? Shaun Micheel stood staring through the early evening shadows as the ball headed toward the 18th green. His caddie watched, too, with an idea something special was happening.

From 175 yards away it landed on the elevated green, bounced three times and started rolling toward the hole. By the time the ball came to a stop, it was two inches away.

“Kick-in distance,” they call it on the PGA Tour.

“PGA Championship distance” is how Micheel will always remember it.

Golf fans will have something to remember, too — a 7-iron that was one of the greatest pressure shots in major championship history by a guy who went 163 tournaments without winning before he cashed in big Sunday.

“I was just trying to get it on the green,” Micheel said. “I hit that just normal. It was an absolutely perfect, perfect number.”

If any tournament seemed destined to be won by someone backing in with a few crucial pars, it was a PGA Championship being played on a U.S. Open kind of golf course.

Instead, it was grabbed in dramatic and spectacular fashion — even if it took Micheel and playing partner Chad Campbell some time to walk up the hill to the final green and see just how close it was.

“I knew it was pretty close,” Micheel said. “I asked somebody how close it was, and they either weren’t paying attention or didn’t care to tell me. When I saw it was two inches, I knew I could make that one.”

Shaun Micheel looks at his ball, which landed within two inches of the hole on his second-to-last shot of the PGA Championship. After chipping on from the rough on 18, he tapped in for a birdie and the title Sunday in Rochester, N.Y

Campbell, a shot behind, knew it was close, too. The roar of the crowd told him that.

“I didn’t know it was an inch,” Campbell said. “I was thinking 4-5 feet, at least he’d have to make a putt.”

Campbell still had to play his shot from the other side of the fairway. He didn’t know he had to make it to tie, but he figured he had to get it at least within birdie distance.

When the ball skipped 15 feet by the hole, the tournament was over.

“His shot on 18 was just phenomenal,” Campbell said. “That’s probably the best shot I’ve seen under pressure.”

Micheel had a one-shot lead as he played the 485-yard 18th, a dogleg right with an elevated green that statistically is the third toughest hole on what Tiger Woods called the toughest, fairest course he had ever played.

His tee shot seemed headed toward the left rough — where he wouldn’t be able to reach the green. But it got a nice bounce to the right and ended up sitting up nicely in the first cut on the left side of the fairway.

From there, Micheel had 162 yards to the front of the green, and another 13 to the hole. He aimed right of the hole and just tried to concentrate on making a solid swing.

“I figured anything to the right or a little long would give me an opportunity to try a shot and make par,” Micheel said. “I was thinking par. When that ball was in the air, all I was begging for was to carry the front of the green.”

The ball landed on the front of the green and quickly settled down, then began bending toward the hole. The huge crowd around the 18th green stood cheering it on.