KEY POINTS:
The portents for Michael Campbell at Augusta this week could hardly be worse. He's playing in the Masters for the seventh time but has never made the cut.
His form in the last two weeks has been terrible. He's tinkering with his swing on the practice range, trying
to get his tee shots to go straight. He's getting his equipment supplier to make him a new driver.
Hardly the signs of a man who's going to be prominent on the leaderboard this week.
Yet New Zealand's only player in the first major of the year remains upbeat. "I've been working very, very hard, putting the hours in and hopefully by Thursday [Friday morning NZT] everything will come together. I know my results have been pretty average - but it's not far away."
Campbell's biggest problem has been with his driver. He hasn't had a score below 75 in either of his two most recent tournaments, in Miami and Houston, and has hit only about a third of the fairways. The impact on the rest of his game has been huge - and he knows he has to get the ball in play more often.
Augusta National offers more room than most championship courses off the tee but Campbell is trying to get a different shape to his shots, hitting the ball from right to left. His equipment supplier has a mobile workshop across the road from the course and has made Campbell a new driver with more weight in the heel which helps shots move in his desired direction.
In 12 previous rounds at Augusta, Campbell has never scored better than 73. The 2005 US Open champion has had at least a top 10 finish in every other major. At Augusta he's never even made it to the third round.
But he says he's not thinking about the past. "The first couple of times, it was about the learning the course, and I suppose I'm still learning the course. But now I have to trust myself and hope that my talent and my patience will bear fruit.
"My form always fluctuates. I could go out in the first round and shoot six-under. I've always had these patches where I've performed poorly and then all of a sudden won. I don't know why it's like that. I know it shouldn't happen at my level but it does."
The New Zealand TAB odds of Campbell donning the winner's green jacket - 125 to 1 - are, frankly, generous. Four-time winner Tiger Woods and defending champion Phil Mickelson are the favourites.
Woods attracted huge crowds for his first practice round and had them hollering for more when he floated a high, fading three-wood to within three metres of the hole with his second shot on the par-five 15th. With the hole playing into the wind, many players were laying up short of the water in front of the green.
Woods is determined to celebrate the tenth anniversary of his 1997 record breaking win (youngest champion, lowest ever score, biggest ever margin of victory) in style.
Mickelson was absent yesterday but had worked overtime on the course last week - 12-hour days, accompanied by two coaches - one for his long shots, one for the chips and putts.
Whether Mickelson will use two drivers, as he did for his win last year, has apparantly not been decided.
* Campbell is reunited this week with his regular caddy of recent years, Michael Waite. Originally from Taranaki, Waite now shares Campbell's bag with Tauranga's Anthony Knight.
Waite, who was with Campbell at Pinehurst for the US Open win in 2005, has worked just one tournament this year and that was over quickly - Campbell lost to Justin Rose on the 13th hole in the first round of the World Golf Championship matchplay event in Arizona in February.
