Golf: Campbell puts embarassing score behind him

1.00pm

KILKENNY, Ireland - New Zealand's leading golfer Michael Campbell has had a change of heart and will contest the AMEX World World Championship starting in Ireland tonight (NZ time).

Campbell also considered withdrawing from the $US7 million ($NZ10.6 million) tournament at the Mt Juliet course near here after signing off for a closing round 86 in last week's Heritage event in England.

The 14-over par effort was Campbell's highest ever score in more than 10 years competing on the European Tour.

But after putting in some time with Belgian mental coach Jos Vanstiphout, Campbell has put last Sunday's embarrassment behind.

"It all started on Sunday when I took an incorrect drop from behind an advertising sign and that didn't help and got me spiralling down the board," he said.

"Everything I seemed to do just turned horrible so it was just one of those rounds that I will just quickly forget about.

"The whole thing was frustrating and it's often said the harder you practise the luckier you get and even though I have been practising very hard, I got no luck at all last week.

"I don't care about it too much. It's gone. It's a thing of the past and I am just looking forward to this week."

Campbell, the only New Zealand golfer in the field, has a good record of success in Ireland having claimed last year's Irish Open and the 2002 European Open.

"Plus I played well in this event last year as well so I am looking forward to the next four days to get things going again," he said.

Campbell will be also hoping to boost his flagging world ranking, currently 67th and 17 spots outside of qualifying for all four majors next year.

"I want to rectify a few things and I can do that by getting myself back into the top 50," Campbell said.

"I'm 19th on the European Order of Merit and if I get myself back among the top-15 by the end of the year, that also assures me a place in three majors, so there is all to play for in my final four events."

- NZPA