Campbell races up Ryder Cup rankings

Chad Campbell is up from 31st to fourth in the American Ryder Cup race after he finished second and first in his opening two events of the season.

Campbell beat compatriot Scott Verplank and Swede Jesper Parnevik by three for his first victory in 22 months.

Parnevik, who will need to rejoin the European Tour to become eligible for selection at the K Club near Dublin, came from 16 shots behind to only one back with three holes to play.

But while he bogeyed the 16th Campbell birdied the 14th and 15th and the 31-year-old Texan, having looked as if he might blow the event, kept the lead he had held for the best part of four days.

“It wasn’t the prettiest day out there for me today, but I grinded it out,” he said after a rollercoaster closing 71.

“Hopefully I can keep up the good play and be on that [Ryder Cup] team. It means a lot to me.”

He made his debut in the crushing defeat in Detroit two years ago, winning only one of his three games.

Four clear with nine holes remaining, Campbell double-bogeyed the 10th and was in danger of another after hitting his drive down the 13th into the lake and then putting his next attempt in a fairway bunker.

But he salvaged a bogey with a brilliant recovery to seven feet and then went away from the field again.

“The six iron I hit out of the bunker was what saved the whole day,” he added.

Parnevik was chasing his first US Tour success since 2001, but after slumping from 40th to 109th on last season’s money list he was happy enough to have put up such a good fight.

“This pretty much says it all about golf here. I was four under par with three holes to go in my third round and thinking about where I was going to spend Sunday,” he said after being met by his four children on the final green.

“Then I finished with three birdies and shoot 10 under (a 62) after that, so it was amazing to actually have a chance to win.

“It was just fun to be back. I’ve been working very hard the last couple of years, but in golf you never know.

“I think it’s the only sport where you can work 10 times harder than you ever have and you get 10 times worse than you ever did. In most other sports, when you put the time in you get better.

“Everybody expects me to wear colourful clothes and be a certain way, but I think it’s time to change a little bit. So this year it’s going to be more of a back to the basic, rock and roll kind of style again.

“The Johnny Cash movie ’Walk the Line’ was a big inspiration for me. I’m pretty much doing black pants all the West Coast now.”

As for trying for a fourth Ryder Cup cap the 40-year-old Parnevik merely commented: “We’ll see how it goes.”

Much more play like this weekend and captain Ian Woosnam could well be speaking to him and asking him to rejoin the European circuit.

Rose has done that this season and would have made a huge leap if he had been able to follow up rounds of 64 and 66.

But a drive into water on the eighth took the wind out of his sails and he was never able to get back in the hunt after that double bogey.