No-risk approach works for Campbell

The Guangzhou golf course in China has a hazard on every one of its 18 holes but Masterton's Ben Campbell didn't enter any of them on the way to his stunning 10-stroke win in the Aaron Baddeley junior international tournament there late last week.
Campbell,17, arrived home yesterday and admitted that even now he is still surprised at what he modestly labelled as his "good luck" in an event which attracted many of the world's best players under 18 years of age.
"There were bunkers and water everywhere and I went 72 holes without taking even one penalty ... no way did I ever expect that,"he said.
Campbell said the tightness of the course meant that he gave away any thoughts of playing any more than a three wood off the tees with accuracy every bit as important as distance when it came to carding a good score.
"A lot of the others played their drivers and got themselves into trouble, it wasn't a course to take risks,"he said.
"All I wanted to do was keep the ball in play and it seemed to work."
With scores of 73, 72 and 72 in his first three rounds Campbell went into the final round with a four shot advantage and he gained confidence from recalling his holding off the now world amateur number one player Danny Lee in a home stretch battle for the national under-23 title earlier in the year.
"I thought that if I could keep Danny out there was no reason why I shouldn't hang on this time too,"he said.
As it happened, however, Campbell did a lot better than just hang on, by the midway point of that final round he had increased his lead to eight shots and he added two more to his advantage over the final nine.
Campbell said he was "very surprised"
at the end result as he had not been playing much leading into the trip to China and had gone there pretty much with the attitude of "seeing what happened."
"I was hoping to go OK but I wasn't too sure I would, it was more a case of turning up and giving it my best shot without expecting too much,"he said.
Victory in the Baddeley tournament earned Campbell the right to play against some of the world's top professionals in next year's China PGA and Australian Open tournaments and he is looking forward to that challenge.
"It's going to give me a good gauge of where my game is at, the opposition will be huge,"he said.
Next year will also see Campbell who will represent New Zealand at the Greg Norman Junior Masters in Australia from December 13 return to Wairarapa College for his seventh form year.