No place for battling Campbell, but still signs of a true champion

Campbell has suffered such a slump in form recently that you almost feared it would be case of watching car-crash golf as the man who tied for third behind John Daly in 1995 tried to earn a place back in St Andrews in two weeks' time.

On a glorious morning in Fife, you feared the worst for Campbell when he started with two bogeys at Kingbarns but what followed thereafter was not nearly as bad as some of those in a small gallery might well have feared.

There's a chance that other players in Campbell's position at the moment might well act like spoilt kids and get angry with themselves at every opportunity.

But there was no sign of that whatsoever with the man who held off Tiger Woods down the stretch to claim that US Open success.

Campbell almost looked as though he was out playing a bounce game, though that certainly shouldn't be taken as him taking his predicament lightly.

He hit some stunning shots and, with all due respect to his playing partners, the Kiwi's ball-striking was a class apart. Campbell clearly looked to be enjoying himself and, after getting himself back to one-under by the turn in the morning, he set out on his back nine with a spring in his step.

He had good birdie chances at his tenth, 11th and 12th and, on another day, they all might have dropped. As he headed up the hill to the fourth tee, his caddie did his bit to keep him going by saying he didn't think anyone would be shooting the lights out. Little did he know that James Byrne was posting an eight-under 64 around that time. On hearing of that score after signing a 72 for himself, Campbell knew he needed to shoot the lights out in the afternoon but, as had been the case in the morning, his putter stayed cold.

A 77 for a total of 149 and a share of 36th wasn't what he was looking for on his trip to Fife but, hopefully, it won't be too long until this former major winner is back firing on all cylinders again.