Don’t do it: Tour return likely to end in disaster
Don’t do it Cambo. The golfing seniors tour yes, of course. The full European Tour though — it will be a disaster.
Michael Campbell’s golfing comeback is just about under way, giving us another chance to pay homage to one of the great Kiwi sports achievements.
The Wellingtonian not only won the 2005 US Open but he held off Tiger Woods, The Man at the time.
Watching him win that, experiencing the Cambo Fever afterwards — there’s been little to compare in New Zealand sport. A victory parade for an individual sportsman is rare, probably unique.
What came next was rarely pretty to watch or read about though. Campbell’s golfing prowess took a long hike into the deep rough. Ranked as high as 12, he flirted with the 800s, a once booming career nose-diving soon after that US Open victory.
Cruelly, CBS ranked him the fifth worst major winner.
It’s a matter of perspective. You can look at Campbell as a fairy tale or cautionary one.
We’d all take that major victory and all the !@#$ which came next, no problem. They can’t take that trophy off his mantelpiece. Yet there should have been so much more.
Campbell can’t remember the euphoric hours just after he won the US Open trophy, “a complete blank”. A lot of us wish we could do the same with the remainder of his career. That may sound tough, but it was sad to watch the plummet.
The trappings of being a major winner quickly snared him. At one point he missed 32 cuts in 41 events, with 11 rounds over 80. It’s not going to get any better I’m afraid Michael, just because you’ve had four enjoyable years off.
Campbell said he’s nervous about playing up to 10 events on the European Tour this year, as he prepares to become a senior player when he turns 50 early next year.
It will get ugly, you can be assured of that. It’s his life, game, reputation, frustration. But you can hear the doubt in Campbell’s voice already. I’m not so sure he will even go through with the European Tour idea, once the reality hits him.
He’s nervous, and admits he might not like being on the road again, after four years in retirement. Cambo you won’t like it, not one bit, when the drives go wide and the putts won’t drop. When will the penny drop?