WHEN Michael Campbell stood sobbing on the 18th green at Pinehurst last year, the New Zealand Maori had completed a remarkable journey that started on fairways strewn with sheep dung and ended with him seeing off Tiger Woods to win the US Open, his first major championship.
It was at the nine-hole Titahi Bay Golf Club, near Wellington, that the young Michael Shane Campbell learnt his trade with his trousers tucked into his socks to stop the sheep muck staining his threads and aiming at greens surrounded by electric fences to keep the greedy grazers off the short stuff.
“You can actually tee it up on the sheep s***. It’s a local rule. Also, before you play you’d tuck your pants inside your socks or get sheep s*** all over your pants — and it stains. If you hit the electric fences around the green you got a free replay,” Campbell said.
It has been far from a smooth ride for the man who burst on to the scene in his first season on the European Tour in 1995 when he led the Open at St Andrews by two shots after three rounds before fading with a 76 at the event won by John Daly.
The former telephone repairman struggled to recover from a severe wrist injury later that year that kept him out of the game for six months and, with his confidence in tatters, it took Julie, his wife, to stop him from taking an axe to his clubs. He lost his tour card in 1996 at a time when he says he played like a three-handicapper and regularly struggled to break 80.
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Nine years later — and with a wealth of experience in the bank — Campbell was having the time of his life. His annus mirabilis began in disastrous fashion with five successive missed cuts and ended with victory in the richest prize in golf — the HSBC World Match Play title — after a 2 and 1 victory over Paul McGinley.
The start of New Zealand’s Parliament was delayed while ministers watched Campbell close out victory at Pinehurst, while Tom Campbell, his single-handicap father watched proudly at Titahi Bay. On his return to Wellington, 120,000 people turned out for Campbell’s open-top bus parade and postmen were greeted every morning by his face on a commemorative stamp.
This season has not been so successful for the 37-year-old who bases himself in Brighton during the English summer and chases the sunshine to Sydney during the winter months. He arrives at Wentworth without a victory this year. Retaining the World Match Play title would be a superb way to end a disappointing season for the first New Zealander to win a major since Bob Charles in 1963.
FACT FILE
Age: 37
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Nationality: New Zealander
Wins: 15, including the Nissan Irish Open in 2003 and the Smufit European Open in 2002
Major wins: 1 (US Open, 2005)
Major record in 2006: Masters: missed cut; US Open: missed cut; Open: tied 35th; US PGA: missed cut
World ranking: 26
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How he qualified for World Match Play: Defending champion
Previous WMP experience: Two appearances in 2002, when he reached the semi-finals, and last year, which he won