Golf: Miserable weekend for leading New Zealanders

Two of New Zealand's leading golfers endured a miserable run at the Australian Open in Sydney, where Michael Campbell and Phil Tataurangi carded some forgettable performances over the weekend.

New Zealand No 1 Campbell capped a horror run of form by finishing in 60th and last position at 23-over for a total of 307, six shots adrift of the next player.

And for the second occasion in as many tournaments Campbell ran up a 10 on his scorecard en route to a disastrous last day 80 on the Australian Club course.

Campbell put two balls in the water guarding the final green to walk off with a quintuple bogey three weeks after posting a similar 10 at the 71st hole on the final day of the European Tour season-ending Volvo Masters in Spain.

Campbell started the final round in last spot and, despite a second hole birdie, his round disintegrated further with a double bogey at the ninth, a 12th hole bogey and then a double bogey at the 16th before his closing hole demise.

It is the fourth tournament in succession Campbell has ended the final round in the 80s and the third occasion in those four events he has finished last.

He carded a last round 82 at Valderrama to finish in last place with a 22-over score while he ended the AMEX Championship in Ireland with a closing 14-over 86.

Tataurangi, who was coming off a seven-week break from his latest career-interrupting injury fired a first round 14-over 85 and repeated the effort in the second round to miss the cut. He finished last at 28-over before the cut.

The best-placed New Zealand was Mahal Pearce, who finished in a share of 35th place at nine-over after a final round 72 to card 293, while Auckland amateur Kevin Chun ended in 57th spot at 15-over.

Besides Tataurangi, five other New Zealand golfers failed to make the final two rounds.

- NZPA