Golf: Campbell criticised for missing tournament

New Zealand's Michael Campbell has been criticised for staying away from this week's ANZ Championship in Sydney.

Tournament chairman Steve Frazer said: "We are very disappointed in Michael's non-attendance. I think he is taking the wrong advice in relation to this.

"We really needed the players to step up and support us. What I find difficult is when we have a senior player on the Australasian Tour who has made a decision not to play for financial reasons.

"A number of years ago Michael had some difficulties with his wrist and he required a lot of support from the tour.

"He got a lot of starts from promoters and he is not here. We don't pay players to play in tournaments - it is against the rules to do that.

"We had an opportunity to contract Michael and pay him a tremendous amount of money to attend our cocktail parties and do our clinics for us and we chose not to do that."

Without Campbell, currently ranked 26th, only two of the world's top 50 - Pierre Fulke and Niclas Fasth - are playing at The Lakes.

Campbell, having played in Perth and Melbourne the last two weeks, is taking time off before flying to America, first to test out some new clubs and then to prepare for the Accenture world match play in California on February 20-24.

His manager, Andrew Ramsey, said: "I think this is unreasonable criticism. He can't play every week and he needs a break.

"Michael has been a tremendous supporter of this tour and has been an asset to it."