Campbell ready to rock

Sweet revenge will be in the mind of Masterton's Ben Campbell at the national amateur golf championships in Hawke's Bay this week.
Hot favourite for both the men's stroke play and match play titles will be Australian Matt Jager, who beat Campbell in the final of the Australian amateur match play event in Perth late last month.
On that occasion Jager was, by Campbell's own admission, simply too consistent, grabbing a three-hole lead at the halfway mark before prevailing by a handsome 8 and 7.
It was a typically clinical performance by Jager who had earlier taken out the Australian stroke play title as well but Campbell has every reason to feel optimistic about his chances of turning the tables if they get to lock horns again.
Even Jager would have struggled to cope with Campbell's brilliance in his semifinal win over another Aussie hot-shot Bryden MacPherson at the Perth event.
In fact, Campbell labelled his effort there as his best ever in match play with the two players firing birdie after birdie _ 15 of in all _ before Campbell edged ahead to win 2 and 1.
Hard on the heels of his Perth success Campbell wore the New Zealand colours in their annual Trans Tasman Trophy clash with the Australians in Wellington. Jager wasn't part of the opposition then but Campbell was one of the Kiwi stars in the senior men's section, finishing five under the card in beating Aussie No1 Keiran Pratt in one of his singles matches and being all square against Jordan Sherratt in the other.
Campbell is not the only New Zealander, of course, capable of taking the battle to Jager over the next few days. Andrew Stewart (Tauranga) and Nick Gillespie (Wellington) won the South Island and North Island amateur titles respectively recently while Ryan Fox made a strong showing in the stroke play event at the Australian amateur. James Hamilton (Tauranga), Ben Wallace (Auckland), Gary-John Hill (Auckland), Matthew Perry (Hamilton) and Thomas Spearman-Burn (Wellington) are others likely to be in the reckoning.
There is plenty at stake for the Kiwis including selection for the world team's championships in Argentina in late October.
The men's stroke play began at the Hawke's Bay Golf Club's Hastings course today with the leading 72 scorers after two rounds going into the final two rounds with the champion crowned late on Saturday. From there, the top 32 players will move on to the match play at the Bridge Pa course.