Reborn Campbell Overjoyed To End Up Nine Over

Jul 20 2008 By Euan Mclean

IT might be cold this week but the number of red faces leaving Birkdale on Friday evening could have generated enough heat to melt the polar ice cap.

Yet while big names like Vijay Singh, Angel Cabrera and John Dalywere humbled by the merciless conditions there was one Major winner delighted to be nine over par.

Because for Michael Campbell that's the result of his year after a wretched run of terrible form.

One look at his results this season says it all - 12 events, 10 missed cuts and a 70th and 35th-place finish.

It's an astonishing fall from grace for the New Zealander who courageously held off Tiger Woods at the 2005 US Open to clinch his first Major.

But Campbell remains remarkably untroubled, perhaps because he has been over this rocky ground before.

The 39-year-old went from the brink of winning The 1995 Open at St Andrews to his lowest point in '97 when he threw his clubs across a hotel room in fury and sat crying his eyes out after missing yet another cut.

He almost chucked more than his clubs that day but eight years later was the toast of world golf after taming Tiger at Pinehurst.

Now another breathless dip has made Campbell a wiser character who accepts the extremes of his game.

And the Kiwi feels the rollercoaster has cleared the dip and is climbing back to the top fast.

He said: "This is just the way it has always been through my career.

"So I'm not surprised by how I've struggled.

"I don't know why my game rises and dips the way it does but that's just the way it is and I accept that.

"When it's bad I know I just have to soldier on. I don't get too downbeat now because it's just a game.

"My health, children and wife are more important than this stupid game.

"But it's all positive now and I feel the pendulum is swinging in the right direction again.

"My game feels very close and I've felt that way for the last couple of weeks.

"My caddy, Peter Coleman, would tell you that he has seen my game transform completely over the last two months so it's all good.

"So I hope in the next few months it will turn into something really big."