Comeback begins at 40 for Cambo

Michael Campbell believes there is "no expiry date" on his golf career and, despite a chronic shoulder injury, he is preparing to return to the highest echelon of the game.

The shoulder injury, which kept him out of last year's New Zealand Open (the first he has missed in 20 years), has not gone away.

The Sunday Star-Times asked him if he was actually suffering arthritis in the shoulder, to which he replied: "Yeah, probably. It's just one of those things I need to work on every second day with exercise, stretching and a lot of physio.

"I'm quietly confident about it holding up. But it's up to me, I need to make sure I work harder."

Working harder has become the 40-year-old Campbell's mantra as he seeks to end a form slump that reached biblical proportions in 2009, with a string of missed cuts and plenty of rounds where his score ballooned out to levels a good amateur would be unhappy with.

"I have to knuckle down and put 2009 behind me and look to the future. If for some reason I didn't play again for the rest of my life I could retire happy – I've won a major, 15 tournaments worldwide, two Halberg Awards – I've done wonderful things and, at the age of 40, I can feel proud of myself, but my playing days aren't over. I realise I have to work hard, but I think I'm on the other side of it [the slump] now.

"If you ask guys who have played with me, guys who have worked with me... I'm very, very close. Golf is about millimetres and I'm so close.

"I just need to string 18 holes together and that will build confidence. It's all about being patient and believing what I'm doing."

Campbell takes a lot of heart from the comebacks of other players, such as American Steve Stricker, who, once he turned 40, rose to golf's top five after being in the wilderness for many years.

"Steve Stricker has done amazingly since he turned 40 – before that he was just OK. One thing I love about golf is that there's no expiry date, you can just keep going. You can have glitches along the way and come back three or five years later and have a great year, and I'm waiting for that."

Campbell admits his current slump dates back to the way he handled himself after winning the US Open. With that trophy to his name, and his career secure until 2015, he indulged himself.

"After winning my first major, I got too excited and then I laid back a bit with my work ethic... I made a few mistakes, I wanted to change my swing, I wanted to play less, I wanted to change my fitness regime – it was just stupid."

Campbell recounts a dinner he had with Padraig Harrington about a month after Harrington won the 2007 British Open. "We had a long conversation over dinner and I said, `Don't ponder on what you've done, don't think about winning your next major, keep doing what you're doing and it will fall for you again.'

"And incredibly it did."

The following year, Harrington won his second Open and added the US PGA as well.

"I gave him that advice because I'd learned from what I did. After Padraig won his second major I said, `How was it mate?' and he said, `Even better than the first.'

"That got me going." Campbell's first step towards resurrecting his reputation starts with a string of tournaments in the Middle East. The decision to play there meant he had to make a controversial decision to skip the New Zealand Open.

"It was an awful decision to make. I would have loved to have come home and played but golf is a selfish game: my career is more important."

Campbell said the issue was scheduling. In recent years the New Zealand Open had been part of the European Tour but two years ago, the flagship tournament became aligned with the US PGA's secondary Nationwide Tour.

"When it was a European Tour event there was never a problem as they couldn't have two European events on at the same time.

"Then they joined the Nationwide Tour. I totally understand why they did that. They had to do it because they needed the money. That's fine by me; I'm not bitching about it, but as a result it just doesn't suit me."

Campbell is at pains to point out that until last year when injury ruled him out of the tournament, he'd played 20 consecutive Opens dating back to 1988. "Not many people know that."

Campbell is now based out of Sydney, which comes with its rewards and it's downside, such as his sons Thomas, 11, and Jordan, nine, starting to sound a little too Ocker for their dad's liking. "They know the words to the Australian anthem – it's killing me."

- © Fairfax NZ News