Campbell calls up Bay bagman

By JAMIE TROUGHTON
Anthony Knight will soon be living the golfing existence of Superman.
Most days he'll be a mild-mannered Mount Maunganui real estate agent, content to wheel and deal with motivated vendors and busy buyers.
For a select few weeks of the year, however, he'll be strolling the fairways of the globe with the world's best golfers, inhaling rarefied air as he tells Michael Campbell exactly where to hit it.
Campbell's long-time caddie Michael Waite is scaling back his commitments next year, and Knight will effectively job-share the bagman role.
After 14 years as a professional caddie - working with the likes of Frank Nobilo, Sergio Garcia and Aaron Baddeley - the Whangarei-raised Knight settled back in Tauranga where he was born 37 years ago.
But Campbell's offer was too good to refuse.
"I'm looking forward to it," Knight said. "I did it for 14 years full-on, living out of a suitcase all year round and it wore a bit thin in the end.
"But with this kind of scenario, I can actually enjoy a home life and have some normality and still get the caddie thing going with that excitement. It's the best of both worlds."
Although effectively retired for the last two years, Knight has kept his shoulder in over summer, heading across the Tasman for the Australasian tour. His last gig was on rising star Camilo Villegas' bag at the Australian Masters.
He's also had experience carrying Campbell's clubs in the past, filling in when Waite - known widely as 'Sponge' - has been unavailable, including at New Zealand's second-place finish at the 2002 World Cup. Knight realises he probably won't get the plum jobs.
"Cambo and Sponge can probably work it out - I'm not fussed which ones I work and we'll probably do about 14 or 15 between us.
"Because they've been together for a long time and had a lot of success together, I'd assume they'd take the bigger ones like the majors, which is fine with me.
"He may just have a little more confidence in Sponge having done it before but I've had a few good results with Cambo when I've worked with him in the past."
Knight and Campbell first met when the Northlander was playing interprovincial golf against Campbell's Wellington team in the late 1980s.
Knight and Steve Williams - who caddies for world No 1 Tiger Woods - are good friends, meeting when Williams was playing a tournament in Whangarei in 1989 when Knight was an apprentice club pro.
Several months later Williams arranged for Knight to work for visiting US pro Jim Benepe at the New Zealand Open, kicking off a lengthy career.
Waite, originally from New Plymouth but now based on the Gold Coast, wants to scale back his workload after guiding Campbell for six years, to spend more time with his family and three young children. Knight is a member of the Mount Maunganui club and plays off a six handicap.