SYDNEY - Former US Open champion Michael Campbell has credited Australian coach Gary Edwin for dramatically reviving his flagging golf career.
Campbell finally emerged from the darkest period of his life with his confidence and sanity restored after finishing a solid 12th at the Australian Open on Sunday.
The resultwas a mighty breakthrough, marking the first time in more than two years the New Zealander had made successive halfway cuts, and has Campbell believing anything is possible heading into this week's Australian PGA Championship at Coolum.
Incredibly, the 2005 major winner and European Tour player of the year had missed 43 of 45 cuts - struggling to even break 80 - before tying for 28th at last month's Australian Masters after a chance encounter with Edwin on the Victoria Club's practice range.
"It was the first time ever I'd spoken to Gary," said Campbell.
"He was just walking past me and he was working with Peter Senior and I said to Gary: 'What do you think?'
"He gave me his view and it made sense to me.
"I've been working on the same sort of stuff for the last 10 years with my old coach - Jonathan Yarwood - so it was nothing new to me at all. He said to me, just do that. It wasn't foreign at all. I felt very comfortable with the changes.
"People say to me you should work on your psyche or your psychology, but I actually think it's more, for me personally, the swing that leads to confidence."
After the Masters, Campbell dashed to the Gold Coast to further fine-tune his swing with Edwin and their union has led to a stunning turnaround.
"It's paid off greatly," Campbell said. "I've turned the corner, I think. If you average between 15 and 16 greens per round, like I did [at the Australian Open], and between 12 and 14 fairways, you're obviously striking the ball pretty well.
"My ball-striking has definitely improved 10-fold, so I'm pretty excited now and just looking to the future and to this week."
Campbell has slipped to No 805 in the world rankings and admitted at times he wondered whether he should go on in the sport. "For three or four years, I was pretty close to giving up and throwing out my golf clubs a few times there.
"But I never gave up. I just knew it was there somewhere, somehow, and it just had to be uncovered."
