Campbell recalls US Open duel with Tiger

When the US Open returns to Pinehurst next week, a few crucial elements will be missing from the last time it was staged there, back in 2005.

Firstly, the narrow fairways and heavy rough usually associated with the year’s second major will be absent following the restoration of the course to how it was after Donald Ross altered his original design in 1935.

Secondly, Tiger Woods will also be absent as the 14-time major winner sits out his second consecutive major as he recovers from back surgery.

But most significantly of all, the man who held off the challenge of Woods nine years ago, New Zealand’s Michael Campbell, will also be watching from home after revealing recently he was “not mentally ready” to return to action following an ankle injury and the break-up of his marriage.

Campbell has not played since missing the cut on his seasonal debut in January in the Abu Dhabi Championship, where he spoke about the maiden major triumph which almost never happened.

The 45-year-old was one of only 53 players at Walton Heath for the inaugural international qualifying event, which eventually came down to the 36th and final hole of the day.

“Luckily enough, it was only a 45-minute drive from my house and my wife convinced me to go,” Campbell said. “I had played four weeks in a row, I was tired and it was the Monday after the Wales Open.

“I played together with Steve Webster in the final round and we were talking about whether to play or not, but we decided to turn up and give it a go. Webster and I were both three under playing the last and both hit good tee shots. Then he hit his approach to about 10 feet, I had about eight feet and I had to move my marker because it was right in his line.

“I moved it and obviously watched what he did. He aimed right edge and it stayed there. I aimed inside right and it lipped in and every time I see him I say ‘Thanks for the read’, otherwise I would have missed the putt, missed qualifying and not gone to Pinehurst.”

Campbell had never played Pinehurst before and was struggling so badly on the greens he tried a belly putter for the first time ever in practice, an experiment quickly abandoned when his appalled coach arrived. Instead the pair went to a different course spending three hours on the putting green.

Campbell trailed two-time US Open winner Retief Goosen by four shots going into the final round, although the good friends still had a “pretty quiet” lunch together before teeing off.

Goosen got off to a nightmare start and covered the front nine in 41, while Campbell birdied the first and crucially picked up more at the 10th and 12th as Woods mounted his charge.

“The thing I was very proud of was that for the last nine holes, it was just Tiger and I really,” Campbell recalled. “I was always just slightly ahead. Every time he made birdie, I made birdie. He was a group or two ahead of me so I knew what was happening through the crowd reaction.

“I walked away from that very proud because I had the best player that’s ever played this game breathing down my neck, and managed to fight him off and win my first major.

“I said in my mind this is my time to shine, my time to win. I decided that on the 10th tee. I had ownership already of the US Open trophy and the title already in my mind.”

New Zealand’s parliament was suspended as Campbell, ranked 80th in the world at the time, held off Woods to become first Kiwi major champion since Bob Charles in 1963, while a ticker-tape parade greeted his return to Wellington two months later.

Victory in the World Match Play Championship at Wentworth then crowned an amazing season, but Campbell has not won since as his game gradually fell apart. By 2010, he made just one halfway cut in 19 European Tour events and was ranked outside the world’s top 1,300.

“The first thing which I did which was wrong was change everything,” added Campbell, who recorded his first top 10s for four years in 2012 and is currently ranked 576th. “I don’t know why. I’d just won one of the hardest tournaments in the world and I wanted to change everything.

“I said to myself it was to get to the next level, but I’d actually reached it already. That was the biggest mistake.

“I found the pressure and expectation too much to handle. No-one prepares you mentally for the effects of winning a major. I didn’t reset my goals either. When Pádraig [Harrington] won his first Open, I said ‘one thing you have to do my friend is make sure you reset your goals straight away’, and he won the next year. I have no regrets. I wouldn’t change a thing — except changing everything!”