Campbell banks on putting improvement

Ace Masterton golfer Ben Campbell says his putter will very probably decide how he fares in the Australian Junior Masters stroke play championship in Perth next week.
Campbell, 16, the national under-23 stroke play title holder, has hit the headlines over the past fortnight with an unbeaten run in singles play for the New Zealand junior men's team against Australia followed by a first-ever win in the Wairarapa open stroke play event but he has been anything but happy with his putting.
"I just haven't made as many putts as I should have, that part of the game has been pretty disappointing, " Campbell said yesterday.
Noone is more mystified than Campbell himself over why that should be but he admits it is probably more a "confidence thing" than anything else.
"I haven't made any changes to the way I putt, I think it's just a case of being down in confidence because the ball doesn't want to drop," he said.
Making that situation even more frustrating for Campbell is that he has been striking the ball better than ever from tee to green. "I couldn't be happier with the accuracy or length, everything seems to be in order there," he said.
Providing his putter behaves itself Campbell is optimistic of bettering his 12 th placing in last year's Australian Junior Masters, an event which attracts the best golfers 18yrs and under not only from Australia and New Zaealand but from other countries like South Africa, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Japan and the United Arab Emirates as well.
" Consistency is the big thing, I'd like to think I could make top five if everything went according to plan," he said.