Golf: Teed off with himself

The challenge for Michael Campbell in 2005 is to drive as straight as he talks. New Zealand's top golfer has placed the blame for a hugely disappointing 2004 season squarely on his own shoulders, admitting he was guilty of focusing on his business interests rather than golf and allowing his coaching team to bloat to 12 members.

The 35-year-old also lists a failure to set goals and his Achilles heel of lacking motivation when out of contention as factors responsible for him not winning on tour for the first time since 2000. He slipped from 45th to 84th in the world rankings and finished his last three tournaments with rounds of 86, 80 and 82 .

"I'm a Maori boy from Titahi Bay and have a very simple lifestyle," says Campbell. "I tried to get too complicated. Instead of thinking about the simple things in life, I involved too many people, I tried to change things. If you peel back all the layers, and we are all onions, I'm a simple guy - target the ball and hit it - but I was thinking too much about the consequences and not reverting back to the basics.

"I had my eye off the ball. I was thinking about Michael Campbell Inc, rather than Michael Campbell the golfer. It was as simple as that."

Back home in Sydney and having had time to reflect, Campbell now feels he has a clear understanding of where he was going wrong. But life was anything but simple for him midway through the year when he missed the cut at the Volvo PGA Championship, the US Open and the European Open.

Paradoxically, the enormous entourage of professionals he had collected on his pay-roll to help him play better golf were proving to be detrimental to not only his game, but his mental wellbeing.

"You name it, I had everything. At one stage I had 12 people. I had two fitness guys, my physiotherapist, Jos Vanstiphout, my coach, my manager and my family as well. It was just too many people so I decided to cut back on a few things and think about playing golf.

"I didn't have enough time in the day to fit everybody in. I was too pressured. I forgot about playing golf and that is the most important thing I realised in the last six months or so."

Campbell's decision to reunite with Vanstiphout, the Belgian mind guru who works with Ernie Els, was the catalyst in helping him realise his broth was being spoiled by too many cooks.

Debate rages on the European Tour about the merits of Vanstiphout. Some players view him as nothing more than a snake oil salesman. But Campbell is a believer and a week after resuming his relationship with Vanstiphout - US sports psychologist Bob Rotella had been working with Campbell previously - he came second in the Scottish Open.

His success in Scotland persuaded him to ditch most of the hangers-on, with his manager Andrew Ramsey, Vanstiphout and coach Jonathan Yarwood the only people to make the cut. It also persuaded him to abondon his efforts to crack the US Tour and focus exclusively on Europe.

By ridding his mind of some of the clutter and affording himself more time to practice, Campbell grew in confidence but the Holy Grail of consistency continued to elude him. Rather than push on from his performance at Loch Lomond, the rest of his season reflected his efforts at Royal Troon in the Open where, after an encouraging start, he faded alarmingly in the closing rounds. At The Heritage last month he closed out with a career-worst 86 while last week in Andalucia, a 10 on the par 5 17th saw him card a fourth round 82. His recent post-mortem has fingered a lack of motivation and direction as the problem - even though he has still earned about $1.4 million this season.

"The fire in my belly was a little bit dormant due to the fact I had no direction, no goals set. I was going through my diary, looking at the goals I had set myself over the years. I had goals set for every year since 1996 but I couldn't find any for 2004. I was dumbfounded.

"If I'm far back from winning - and I know it's probably very unprofessional - I don't have a good attitude going into that last round. I lose interest. I think it's high expectations. It is something I want to rectify. One thing I wanted to achieve this year is to be more consistent. At the US Open I shot 78 in the first round and then in the second round I shot 68 and was the only guy to break 70 that day."

Such frank admissions will pave the way for the doom and gloom mongers to speculate Campbell is a spent force. But as Campbell's former coach, Mal Tongue, stressed: "The nature of Michael Campbell is that he has peaks and troughs and he is always going to be like that. Michael has the ability to be one of the top 10 players in the world."

Campbell is no stranger to form slumps, having suffered a torrid time when he returned after a serious wrist injury in the late 1990s. Knowing he has dug himself out of holes before makes Campbell confident.

He says: "Golf is a funny game, things turn around very quickly.

"I'm not panicking about my form. I have been through this a few times now and I have bounced back stronger.""

He won't be drawn on what he wants to achieve, although he says a win at Gulf Harbour in February would mean a huge amount.