Healthy Campbell eyes serious shot at the big time

Ben Campbell is packing his golf bag and heading for the United States, looking for a decent shot at a professional career after unexplained illness pushed his pause button.

After playing in the Fiji Open starting today, Campbell will head for Texas aiming to work his way through the Web.com tour qualifying school.

If he gets there, it’s a one more leap to the PGA Tour, where many a golfing fortune has been made, some of it by players Campbell played alongside until illness dropped him into the rough.

A chest inflammation kept Masterton-born Campbell, 25, out of the game on and off for more than a year, while his age-group peers flourished.

Unable to play, Campbell watched from distance as players he knew such as Britons Tommy Fleetwood, Andy Sullivan, and Argentine Emiliano Grillo won tournaments to climb into the world top 100.

Campbell sat outside the top 1000, until his illness relented. Seconds this year at the NZ PGA Championship and New Zealand Open, beaten on the first playoff hole, lifted him to 463rd - his best results on tour, in consecutive weeks.

Injury free for the first time since turning professional eight seasons ago, Campbell now wants a real crack at reaching the PGA Tour.

‘‘Since I turned pro, I haven’t had a solid year without injuries. I really haven’t had a really good run, and spent any time out on tour,’’ he said.

In October he will play in the first stage of Web.com qualifying, at Lantana GC in Dallas, Texas.

Ideally, his plan goes: Fiji Open; second stage of Q-school in November; finals in December; Australian Open and PGA.