On form Campbell claims third

Masterton's Ben Campbell was a stunning 16 under par in placing third at the Asian amateur stroke play championships which finished in Singapore on Sunday.

The 20-year-old gave himself an outstanding chance to earn automatic qualification to one of the world's most prestigious tournaments, the US Masters, by opening up a three-shot lead at the end of the second round and was still one shot in front going into the fourth and final round.

However, despite returning a two under 70 he was outfinished by defending champion Hideki Matsuyama of Japan and Soo-min Lee of South Korea, Matsuyama shooting a final round 67 for a total of 270 and Lee a record 64 for a 271. Campbell was third on 272.

It only takes a cursory glance at tournament stats to understand the excellence of Campbell's effort. Over the 72 holes he had 47 pars, 19 birdies and one eagle, he had the best average on the par fives of 4.31 and with 68 was second only to Matsuyama for the most pars or better.

He also did consistently well on the par threes and par fours, averaging 2.88 for the former and 3.93 on the latter.

Making Campbell's performance even more noteworthy was that it came so soon after a month-long injury break to repair an abnormal bone growth in his foot and he finished 13 shots ahead of Ryan Fox, who is now rated as the country's top amateur player. The two other Kiwis in the field, Vaughn McCall and Matthew Perry, were both on seven under.

Campbell started strongly at the Singapore tournament, shooting a five under par 67 to be in a share of second place at the end of round one. It was a bogey free effort with five birdies and 13 pars and left him two shots back of Soo-min Lee.

Nothing impressed more about the Campbell performance than his solidness in the closing stages with three of his birdies coming on the last three holes.

A feature of the first day's play - if you could call it that - was a one-hour delay because of rain and lightning.

Round two saw Campbell surge to a three shot advantage on the leader board. He fired a superb six-under 66, which included four birdies and one eagle.

Teeing off at the 10th Campbell picked up his first birdie at the 14th and that was quickly followed by an eagle. He then went on to birdie holes two and seven before finishing with another at the ninth.

"I managed to make a few putts that I needed and secured a couple of birdies at the right time," Campbell said.

"Overall I was pleased with my performance. I've got a little more work to do on the range, a few shots here and there I can improve on, but I did have a good run with the putting."

Campbell's lead was reduced to just the one shot by the end of round three after Matsuyama fired a record equalling 65 including seven birdies.

For his part Campbell had what could be described as mixed fortunes in his round of 69 especially on the 12th hole where he hit a poor approach into the water and registered a double bogey six. However, he stayed composed and came up with a birdie on his last hole to keep his nose in front.

Asked whether he was watching the leader board Campbell said he saw one at the 16th but did his best to ignore it.

"I don't like to look at the leader board while I am playing. I just like to play my own game and focus on that. I don't want to pay attention to what anyone else is doing on the course. I try to shoot the best that I can, if it is good enough it is good enough, and if it's not then it's not."

In what turned out to be an excellent piece of crystal ball gazing Campbell predicted he would need to get to 20 under to win the tournament - 19 would have been enough - and nobody knew better than him that a good start was vital to the cause.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen, as a double bogey came on his second hole. A birdie on the third did help ease the pain but then came a bogey on the fourth.

Overall though Campbell did register five birdies, two of them coming on his last two holes for a round of 70 but with Matsuyama shooting a 67 and Lee a record 64 he was relegated to third place.

"I didn't find it easy, I couldn't seem to putt it in a line, where I wanted it to go. I made a bit of a run coming in and had a good putt on 16 ... I suppose it wasn't too bad," Campbell said.

Campbell not only missed an invitation to the Masters but also the prize for runner-up which was entry into the final stage of international qualifying for the US Open in 2012.