Golf: Up-and-down ride for Campbell's fans

Michael Campbell took his supporters on a radical ride yesterday at the New Zealand Golf Open.

He teased himself as well. With nine holes left Campbell was at lengthy odds to qualify for work at the weekend, then a scoring blitz gave him a sniff of making the cut before he dunked his tee shot in the water three holes from the Gulf Harbour clubhouse.

"There were glimpses of a bit of golf out there," a subdued Campbell said after his round. "That was all though, and that is a realistic assessment."

After a patchy opening round, Campbell improved yesterday by three shots to card a 70 for a one-under total of 143. Had his metal woods behaved he would have been teeing it up this weekend.

"My driving has improved but it has not been great in the last six months," Campbell conceded.

"It is all to do with a bit of confidence but I have to make sure I think of the big picture and that is that I have eight years of golf left."

The 34-year-old did not lack any support yesterday, with a decent gallery out early to follow his group of Peter O'Malley and former British Open winner Paul Lawrie who began on the 10th.

Campbell started with two birdies, missed decent chances on the next few holes before bogeys at the 15th and 16th saw him at the turn in even par and still one over for the tournament.

"The wind had got a bit stronger and I was sure you had to finish at four under or at worst three under to make the cut," Campbell said.

He began the salvage work immediately with a birdie at the first. There was even better to come when a strong fairway wood to the par-five second and an unerring 4.5m putt added an eagle.

"Then I got too complacent on the short third hole," he said. "I tried to fade an iron in there and pulled it. That has been the story of my golf, though, striving for any consistency."

Just to validate that statement Campbell had successive birdies until the tee shot which sealed his fate on the short, into-the-wind 306m par-four seventh.

"I have no idea about that drive," Campbell said of the shot, which speared into the lagoon. "I tried to draw it hard off the right and I had a double-cross and hit a fade."

You could hear the sigh from the gallery, almost in disbelief at the calamity.

To compound the problems, the ball crossed the hazard line only 70m from the tee, leaving Campbell all sorts of difficulties trying to get at the tightly bunkered green.

"I really needed to hole my bunker shot from there but even that was messed up," he said.

A check of Campbell's card underlined the uncertainty about his current form. He had eight pars, three bogeys, a double bogey, five birdies and an eagle yesterday.

Campbell was reserved after the round, his normal ebullience replaced by the disappointment of missing his second straight cut for the year, while both his playing partners made the final 36 holes.

Campbell had arrived at Gulf Harbour speaking about how his hunger for the game had returned and how he had rededicated himself to his profession. He left after a shortened visit, heading for the Malaysian Open.

Campbell was frustrated but not downcast.

"I do feel a lot more comfortable about my game than last week," he said.