Grim day for Campbell
The worst round of Michael Campbell’s professional golf career ended with his disqualification from the Players Championship in Florida tonight.
Just before an approaching storm halted play for the day – Colin Montgomerie was furious as he was seconds from finishing his round when the siren sounded - Campbell completed a 17 over par 89.
It broke the highest-ever score on the course in the event, but the reigning European Open champion then signed for an 87 and so will not be playing in the second round tomorrow.
“It’s like an alien has taken over my body,” said Campbell, who wrenched his left shoulder moving luggage at the start of last week and quit last week’s Bay Hill Invitational after taking 10 on his very first hole.
“You’ve got to laugh, otherwise you’d go in there and slit your throat,” he added. “It’s only a game and only one round in my life.
“I think the easier part to cure will be the physical side rather than the mental side, but I believe in my ability to come through this.
“I nearly quit because I was hitting some shots 100 yards left – I’ve not done that since I was 12. I couldn’t hit through the ball. But at least I had a strong finish. I had to break 90 at least.”
He did that with a drive and eight-iron to six feet for his one and only birdie on the 447-yard last, one of the toughest holes on the entire US Tour.
Nearly half the field have still to complete their first round and joint leaders at four under par are Americans Skip Kendall, Jay Haas, Bob Tway, Rocco Mediate and Kevin Sutherland. The first four of those have finished, but Sutherland has two holes to go.
Montgomerie was one over par and about to attempt his 12-foot birdie putt on the long ninth, his 18th, when he was stopped in his tracks.
He had been two under par at the turn, but then bogeyed the first and took seven on the 532-yard second after a bad drive into the trees down the left.
Meanwhile, Darren Clarke thought there must be some mistake today as he began with a one under 71. The name of Tiger Woods was not on the leaderboard.
“I thought somebody was having some fun,” said the Ulsterman. But they were not – for much of the day the world number one, winner of three of his four tournaments so far this year, was way down the field.
However, birdies at the 16th and 17th rescued a level par 72 for Woods and he said: “I kept myself in the ball game. I could easily have shot 77 to 79 the way I hit the ball and even par was a heck of an accomplishment.
“I didn’t get off to the greatest of starts, that’s for sure. I hit a couple of blocks, a couple of pulls and had some funny bounces too. But that’s the way golf is – everybody knows it’s very fickle.”
Clarke kept himself ahead of the red-hot favourite for the massive £780,000 first prize by finishing with a 15-foot par putt at the long ninth.
“It was the longest putt I made all day,” he said. “I had so many makeable putts for birdie and didn’t make any of them.
“I would have been very disappointed with level par, so it was important to close like that. This is one of the most mentally challenging courses we play - one poor shot and you are staring at a double bogey straightaway.
“My patience was very good. I waited for things to happen, which I’ve not always been very good at.”
His 71 was matched by Scot Paul Lawrie and Spaniard Sergio Garcia, while Padraig Harrington was one under after only 10 holes and both Nick Faldo and Luke Donald stood level par at the stoppage. Justin Rose was two over on his debut, though.
Clarke was up at 5am watching a spectacular thunder and lightning storm which dumped an estimated three inches of rain on parts of the Jacksonville area in just one hour.
The Tournament Players Course escaped the worst of it, though, and the start was delayed for a mere 30 minutes.
Clarke parred his first six holes, then birdied the 507-yard 16th and 532-yard second. A three-putt bogey immediately followed, but he hit a 107-yard pitch to two feet for another birdie at the sixth and thought he had made another on the difficult short eighth, only to see the ball horseshoe out.
Lawrie had only 24 putts in his 71, chipping in for a par at the second after being forced to take a penalty drop off his wayward drive.
Equally adventurous was the island green 17th, where he flew the green and went into the water and had to hole from 20 feet for a bogey four.
Garcia has been having a torrid time this season, with a best finish of 25th for his 112th position on the US money list.
He admitted he did not expect to be a contender at the beginning of the week, but after a horrid opening hook and bogey five he came back to eagle the long 16th from 25 feet.
“Hopefully I can keep it going and get some confidence,” he said. “I’m making some changes and I’ve got to be patient.
“More than anything it’s consistency. When I play well I hit the ball really, really well, but I depend so much on rhythm and I’m just trying to get to a point where I can get round when I’m not playing well without shooting a high number.”
Woods was two over at the turn and in danger of going three over on the 424-yard 10th, but made an eight-footer for par before converting his 10-foot birdie chance on the 16th and stuck it to four feet at the 17th.
Collated scores after the first day of the Players Championship at Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach, Jacksonville, Florida,
(USA unless stated, par 72, first round to be completed tomorrow):
68 Skip Kendall, Jay Haas, Bob Tway, Rocco Mediate
69 Stewart Cink
70 Robert Allenby (Aus), John Daly, Matt Gogel
71 Steve Flesch, Robert Gamez, Glen Hnatiuk (Can), Shaun Micheel, Billy Andrade, Joey Sindelar, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Darren Clarke (Gbr), Paul Lawrie (Gbr), Stuart Appleby (Aus), Scott Verplank, Tim Herron, Jeff Maggert
72 Kirk Triplett, Glen Day, Tiger Woods, Jonathan Byrd, Mike Weir (Can), Chad Campbell
73 Olin Browne, Jonathan Kaye, Eduardo Romero (Arg), Stephen Ames (Tri), Jim Furyk, Mark Calcavecchia, Chris Riley, Nick Price (Zim), Retief Goosen (Rsa), Gene Sauers, Brad Faxon, Craig Parry (Aus), Brent Geiberger, Peter Lonard (Aus), David Peoples
74 Joel Edwards, David Gossett, Frank Lickliter, Paul Stankowski, Thomas Levet (Fra)
75 Dudley Hart, Steve Elkington (Aus), Dan Forsman, Len Mattiace, Garrett Willis, Steve Lowery, Rich Beem
76 Jesper Parnevik (Swe), Fulton Allem (Rsa), David Duval, Robert Damron, Jose Coceres (Arg)
77 Chris DiMarco, Harrison Frazar, Hidemichi Tanaka (Jap), Rod Pampling (Aus)
78 Tom Pernice, Steve Stricker, Greg Norman (Aus), JP Hayes, Spike McRoy
79 Ben Crane, Trevor Immelman (Rsa), JL Lewis
Disqualified Michael Campbell (Nzl)
Retired Carl Paulson
Withdrew Scott Hoch
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