Emerging from relative obscurity, New Zealander Michael Campbell has asserted himself as one of the finest players of 2005. His solid performance at the U.S. Open certainly put him on the map for many who didn’t know he existed. Time will tell if he can secure a long stay as one of golf’s elite.
Campbell has had an up and down career, which seems consistent with everyone who’s ever played the game. He turned pro in 1993 and won a variety of secondary events in his early years. Before Campbell showed up on the scene in America he played in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe.
During his last event in 1995, the New Zealand Open, Cambo suffered a serious wrist injury that sidelined him until March of 1996. Campbell’s game suffered greatly from his wrist injury and he lost his exemption on the European Tour after his return in 1996. But he was back at it again the following season and enjoyed improvement each year until he was ranked 14th in the world by 2000. This was a breakout year for him as he won the New Zealand Open, the Heineken Classic, Australian Masters and Linde German Masters.
His game slowed a bit in 2001 and 2002 and he decided to play full-time on the U.S. PGA Tour in 2003. Things didn’t go as Campbell would have planned. In fact, it would be a year he might like to forget. Of the 14 events he entered, he was cut from 9, DQ’d at another after a first round 89, and could manage only a T15 at the WGC-World Cup.
Despite mediocre results on the PGA Tour Campbell’s 2005 U.S. Open victory was no fluke. He has been among the top gofers in the world golf rankings before and is currently 14th in the World Golf Rankings.
Credit his solid one-plane swing sculpted with swing coach David Leadbetter and further refined with current coach Jonathan Yarwood for his success. His swing is very compact and efficient. “Michael is blessed with a great physique for golf–a stocky, muscular frame–and his movements are fluid and athletic,” said Yarwood in Golf Digest earlier this year. “He’s the perfect model to swing the club in a very simple way–something he had gotten away from after a wrist injury in the mid-1990s.” His swing is one I’d like to emulate.
Cambo was an unexpected winner at the 2005 U.S. Open. His win was unexpected, but not undeserved. After starting the final round four strokes behind Retief Goosen Campbell shot a one-under 69 to claim his first major victory. “Things went my way,” said Campbell. “I holed some long putts and some par-saving putts. I was telling myself 20 times a hole, ‘keep your focus’.” And thats what he did. After he made the putt for the win the tears started to flow.
He was the only player in the field to play four steady rounds of golf and that is what it takes to win at the U.S. Open. The U.S. Open is not a venue that players are going to go well below par. Competitors must stand on the brink of disaster without falling off to win the Open and that is exactly what Campbell did. His game was strong everywhere he needed it. He kept the ball in the fairway and putted well on the plate-glass greens and just survived the thing when everyone else crumbled. That lone U.S. Open victory should tell us enough about his ability and continued potential as a golfer.
Another important win came at the HSBC World Match Play as he beat Geoff Ogilvy, Steve Elkington, Retief Goosen, and Paul McGinley to claim the title. Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, and Phil Mickelson had all declined to play in the World Match Play event and Campbell capitalized on the opportunity.
His 2-1-2 showing at the Presidents Cup contributed positively to his team despite their losing to the United states 18½-15½. Campbell didn’t back down.
Of the four events Campbell has played on the PGA Tour this year placed outside the top-10 in only one. He won the U.S. Open, placed T5 at the British Open, T6 at the PGA Championship, and 68 at the WGC-NEC Invitational. This year has been much better than any previous showing on the PGA Tour.
Statistically, Campbell has not been a stand-out in any category on the European Tour, yet has been very competitive. He managed T3 at the Johnnie Walker Classic and 4th place at the Daily Telegraph Dunlop Masters. He had a total of seven top-ten finishes on the European Tour and currently is ranked first on the Tour across the Atlantic.
Some have claimed that Campbell is not being given his due for a very successful. Keeping things firmly in perspective, Campbell deserves being the 14th ranked player in the world but is certainly not the best. There have been others who have far exceeded his performance. What is exciting is that we have seen the dramatic improvement of a player in such a short time. Despite his ups and downs, Campbell has kept at his game both mentally and physically and it is paying off.
The best thing going for Campbell is that he has proved to himself that he can get the job done in the clutch. He held of a surging, then faltering Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open, lapped a collapsing Retief Goosen and Jason Gore and just got the job done for a well deserved major victory. Confidence had been the missing ingredient in his game and now that he has refined technique and added confidence he has become a much better player. Lots of things fell together at the right time for Campbell in recent months.
I believe that Campbell will continue to excel and that he’s likely to hover around the top 25 of the World Golf Rankings for at least a few years. The greater question is whether we’ll see him continue to improve and contend at the big ones. At age 36 he still got time. There have been plenty of others who have played their best golf into their forties.
He must avoid injury, maintain confidence, stay relaxed, and continue to improve because while he has gotten better, so have many others. It would be exciting to see Campbell contend again in a major and it is not unlikely for him to continue to find success on the European Tour. Time will tell if he chooses to redeem himself on the PGA Tour. Should he play in the United States and grab a couple of wins against a strong field he will have proven conclusively that he has become one of the greatest in the game. I’m looking foreword to seeing if Campbell can ratchet it up one more notch.
Photo Credit: © AP.
Quite amazing how successfull Cambo has been, I wonder how close he is to his family because there might be a slightly stressfull reaction from his, quite religious, family when they get the news that his cousin Viv Campbell is a lesbian, I can see the fireworks and i’m wondering if the resulting family dramas will have any affect on Cambo.