Kiwi wins with shot of his life

MICHAEL CAMPBELL may be a New Zealand Maori of Scottish extraction but he will always have a warm place in his heart for this country.

The 34-year-old from Hawera yesterday captured his first title since winning the Smurfit European Open at The K-Club thirteen months ago when a magnificent birdie at the first tie hole, Portmarnock’s 18th, enabled him to claim the first prize of €300,000 in the Nissan Irish Open from the Dane, Thomas Bjorn, and Sweden’s Peter Hedblom.

It was Campbell’s sixth European Tour triumph in 177 starts and his fourteenth worldwide as a professional. He is the first Kiwi to win the Irish Open and it is the fourth consecutive year on which he has been successful in Europe where he now intends to ply his trade for the most part after an indifferent spell on the US circuit.

It was, of course, a desperately disappointing outcome for Bjorn, who only eight days previously had dropped four shots in the last five holes to throw away a great chance of landing the British Open Championship. At least on this occasion he had nothing with which to reproach himself.

This time, he could only stand by and watch admiringly as Campbell hit the most exquisite eight iron from 145 yards at the tie hole to within a foot of the hole for a birdie that Bjorn and Hedblom were unable to match. Bjorn’s putt from 25 feet left of the pin shaved the hole and Hedblom was well wide of the mark from a similar distance.

The little-known Englishmen David Lynn and Greg Owen shared 4th place and the German Sven Struver came through a long and barren spell by finishing 6th.

The Irish challenge, such as it was, failed to materialise. 30 year-old Gary Murphy from Kilkenny got to within three strokes of the lead after seven holes but faltered on the way home although a share of 11th maintained his remarkable improvement of recent times.

Meanwhile, Nissan executive chairman Gerard O’Toole confirmed that his company would continue as title sponsors for the next two years. He stated: “The Irish Open is one of Ireland’s premier sporting events and I am particularly proud of my company’s contribution to this year’s tournament. It has been a resounding success.”

It could hardly have been a sweeter victory for the New Zealander whose parents were present to see him triumph for the first time overseas. He agreed that his eight iron to the tie hole was one of the two best shots he had ever played in his life. “I was very comfortable out there. I was totally in control of my emotions and was calm and focused. I knew I needed nothing less than a birdie to win the Irish Open and left myself with the perfect distance for an eight, 145 yards into a slight breeze.”

And he then related how it might never happened at all!

“The week before the British Open, I changed my schedule and decided not to play here or in Scandinavia,” he revealed. “However, my manager and caddy convinced me that I should concentrate on Europe and I had a change of heart and only just beat the deadline. I am more comfortable in Europe and it showed out there. I certainly prefer a course like Portmarnock to those we play in the States. Winning the Irish Open means a huge amount to me. I have travelled a hard road over the past thirteen months between a shoulder injury that kept me out for two to three weeks at the start of the year and playing in America. I had no real focus.

“A few weeks ago, I set a place on the President’s Cup team as a goal along with getting back into the top 50 in the world and into the WGC NEC. We had a President’s Cup meeting recently and that got the competitive juices going. This has turned my whole career around although I wasn’t panicking nor were the people around me like my wife Julie or my sports psychologist Bob Rotella. Ireland has certainly been good to me. The way I won against Padraig Harrington wasn’t very good but it didn’t bother me. There certainly was a big contrast between the way I won the two tournaments.”

Asked if he had any sympathy for Thomas Bjorn, Campbell cracked: “Not this week, none. I needed this badly for myself. Last week was different. To see a friend get into a winning position in a major and then lose it left me feeling sick inside.”

Although Lynn, Robert Karlsson, Owen and Peter Lonard figured at or close to the top of the leaderboard throughout an afternoon that produced a mixture of fierce rain showers and some bright sunshine, it slowly but surely developed into a three horse race.

Hedblom played by far the best golf of the play-off trio and entered the equation in a serious manner with a hat-trick of birdies through the 14th to the 16th. He hit two splendid shots to the heart of the 17th for a safe par at a difficult hole only to find sand off the tee at the 18th. He could only splash out and knocked his third to 25 feet.

To his undying credit, he then holed for par to set the clubhouse lead at eleven under par.

Bjorn and Campbell were also eleven under at that point but as Hedblom noted at that point, they still had the troublesome final two holes to complete. They were equal to the task even though the Dane had to chip and putt for his four at the last from left of the green. That set up an eagerly awaited play-off up the 18th but as the galleries settled to enjoy the climax, a thunderstorm burst over the course and deferred the proceedings for a half hour.

It didn’t deter Campbell, a fine golfer and pleasant individual who now joins the many great players to have won the Irish Open since it was first contested back in 1927.