Golf: Cambo cut, Tiger lurks

Using a club aptly called a heavenwood, Michael Campbell started a godlike sequence of golf around Augusta National's notorious Amen Corner in the second round of the 70th Masters - after being bedevilled by the wind.

However, despite scoring three on each of the famed 11th, 12th and 13th holes, Campbell again had the heartbreak of missing the cut for the final two rounds by just one shot.

His two-round total of 149, five-over par, was 11 behind the tournament's halfway leader, namesake Chad Campbell. All those within 10 shots of the lead play the final two days.

Campbell tried to put on a brave face. "That's just the way golf is, sometimes it goes like that."

Inwardly, and out of public view, he'll surely be fuming at again suffering such heartbreak. It's the third time in six missed Masters cuts that Campbell has failed to make weekend play by just a single shot.

Fate, manifested in swirling winds, conspired against him in the first six holes of the second day. On four occasions, well-struck iron shots were hit by a gust at the wrong time. The shots either flew the green or came up short. Each time he dropped a shot. By the time he chipped and two-putted from the side of the 10th green, he was five over for the day, eight over for the tournament and preparing to hand back the keys to the Cadillac courtesy car.

But then he sparked into life. A brilliant second shot on the 11th with the heavenwood, a fairway wood with a shorter shaft, finished three metres away. He holed the putt for his first birdie of the day, and on Augusta National's hardest hole too.

After scrambling a three on the short 12th hole, he powered a drive and seven iron over Rae's Creek on the par-five 13th. It finished two metres away. When he poured in that putt for eagle, making the cut was right back in the frame.

Campbell reckoned he wasn't leaderboard-watching but somehow he had to extract one more birdie from the final five holes. Every one offered a chance with putts from inside six metres. None would drop and Chad Campbell's birdie on the 18th three hours earlier, which had taken him to six-under par, was the death knell for the US Open champ.

Michael's self-appraisal was honest. "There were glimpses of greatness there, I know it's there, but I have to put two nines together."

For his first eight holes in round one, Campbell was two under par. For his last eight in round two he was three under. But for the 20 holes in-between, he dropped 10 shots with no birdies. Both streaks are frustratingly characteristic of Michael Campbell's career.

Life is much better for the other Campbell in the field. Chad, a 31-year-old Texan who was runner-up in the 2003 PGA Championship, took advantage of calmer conditions earlier in the day to shoot 67.

First-round leader Vijay Singh made three double bogeys, but still recovered to shoot 74 and be only three shots behind the leader, tied for second with 1992 Masters champion Fred Couples and another veteran, Rocco Mediate.

But the spectre of Tiger Woods still looms large. After a second round 71, the defending champion is lurking at one under par and in a tie for 10th place.

But he can vouch for the difficulty faced by those, like Michael Campbell, who played in the afternoon wind. "You make a good swing and the wind can switch in a heartbeat," he said.

-HERALD ON SUNDAY