Campbell fails to rise to occasion in big final

Crack Masterton golfer Ben Campbell couldn't conceal his disappointment after losing 8 and 7 to hotshot Victorian Matt Jager in the final of the Australian amateur golf match play championships at the Lake Karrinyap Country Club in Perth yesterday.
Campbell had been hoping to replicate the form which saw him finish nine under the card in winning his semifinal against another highly-rated Victorian in Bryden MacPherson but it was not to be.
Speaking to the Times-Age by telephone just minutes after conceding defeat with seven of the scheduled 36 holes still to be played Campbell bemoaned the lack of rhythm in his iron play and some ''pretty shitty'' pitching and putting.
''I was average, very average,'' he said. ''There were some good holes but too many ordinary ones, that's all there was to it.''.
Campbell was under no illusions at the magnitude of the task facing him against Jager who had won the Australian stroke play title just a few days earlier. He had actually partnered him in two rounds then and was impressed with his powerful striking of the ball and the accuracy of his short game. ''He's a very solid player, you know he's not going to make a lot of mistakes,'' Campbell said of Jager.
What frustrated Campbell yesterday was his inability to test Jager's resilience under pressure in a one-on-one confrontation.
''I knew my best chance was to start well and perhaps get a hole or two up but it didn't happen, he was always in control and I was playing catch up,'' Campbell said. ''It's disappointing when you know you should have done better, much better.''
Campbell was three down at the end of 18 holes and grabbed the 20th to reduce the margin to two but then Jager won four holes in a row, three of them with birdies, to put the result beyond doubt.
The Kiwi had five birdies in all but his four bogeys were costly, Jager claiming the hole on each occasion.
Reflecting on his semifinal success against MacPherson the previous day, Campbell labelled it probably the best golf he had played in his career. The two players made 12 birdies between them in the opening 11 holes and amazingly were still all square. MacPherson, who won the New Zealand stroke play title last year, then missed three more birdie chances in a row and Campbell capitalised with some superb putting to move to three up after 15 holes.
MacPherson reduced the margin to two by winning the 16th with yet another birdie before Campbell made a spectacular recovery up-and-down from a seemingly impossible position at the 17th to secure the victory 2 and 1.
''It was quite unbelievable play, it was incredible to watch,'' New Zealand manager Greg Thorpe said of the Campbell v MacPherson battle.
Had Campbell won yesterday's final he would have become only the third New Zealander to have won the match play championship, the last being his namesake Michael Campbell 18 years ago.
The final of the Australian women's match play championship was also played at Lake Karrinyip yesterday with 15-year-old New Zealander Cecilia Cho losing to Victorian Stacey Keating 10 and 8.
Cho had earlier won the women's stroke play title.