KEY POINTS:
Walk slowly and carry a big stick - that will be the mantra for Michael Campbell as he tries to regain his best form at the NZPGA championship at the Clearwater course in Christchurch today.
Campbell, playing this tournament for the first time, had a forgettable 2007, missing
a string of cuts, including at the New Zealand Open in December. His world ranking has slipped from near the top 10 to 208.
But yesterday he revealed how hard he had been working on his game over what is usually a five-week break. "I've been working very hard on my fitness. I've gone back to the basics. Hopefully this week will catapult me to bigger things again.
"I come this week prepared and all I can do is the best I can. I'm really excited about playing in front of my home crowd again, twice in two months doesn't happen very often."
Campbell looks trim. But he's after rhythm rather than speed and he believes his walking pace is a vital part of the puzzle that made him a player capable of winning the US Open in 2005. "I've been working with this guy John Crampton in Australia and we've being going through the things that worked before. For some reason I kinda forgot about those things.
"My routine for the US Open and the world matchplay was precise. He showed me on a split-screen the difference between now and then when I was playing well.
"I was very slow, very methodical whereas in December he taped me playing the Australian Masters and my routine was quicker and I walked quicker.
"So I've been working on my walk and my rhythm. My walking routine during the US Open was basically the same pace from the first tee to the last green. At the Australian Masters it was very quick. So I'm trying to slow down my walk, tempo and rhythm." Campbell acknowledged that in his most recent tournaments in the Gulf he had troubles off the tee. Straight and long driving has been the cornerstone of his career and played a key role in his US Open victory.
This week he has a new driver and he expects it may be an important tool over the testing back nine at Clearwater, particularly if the wind blows. His fate in the next four days may well be decided by the quality of his first tee-shot - long and straight and his confidence may be restored.
Campbell's career even in his amateur days was marked by peaks and troughs and he accepts that it has been frustrating for his fans, who often offering advice. "My whole career's been like this, hot and cold. It's like I'm in a five-year cycle now. That's too long for me. I'll be 39 soon and I want more success, more majors."
Grant Waite, doyen of US-based Kiwis, is facing a dilemma caused by a run of good form. He lies 12th on the money list for the Nationwide Tour, of which the NZPGA is the third event. As a former winner on the USPGA tour, he gets occasional starts there, including last week when he made the cut at Pebble Beach. By May he will have to decide whether to play a full schedule on the Nationwide, and the chance of automatically returning to the big tour as one of the top 25 earners, or taking his chance of a big reward from a USPGA start. For fifth at the Nationwide event in Panama he earned US$21,000. He was last of the earners at Pebble Beach but still got a cheque for US$12,000.
Waite, for all his American accent, is a proud product of the Manawatu Golf Club, the home club of two others who have played on the big US tour, Craig Perks and Tim Wilkinson. A win at Clearwater would go a long way to getting him back in the big time.