Cambo didn’t make it at the Aussie Open however Ben Campbell did New Zealand proud.

So how come I had to search so long to find out that, “Masterton teenager Ben Campbell, 18, was the best of the five amateurs who made the cut. He carded a closing 77 to finish in a four-way tie for 40th place on five over par.
Campbell was awarded the Low Amateur for his result which saw him finish a stroke clear of Korean-born amateur Do Eun An.”

Prior to unearthing this information I read that, “Australia will have 19 fully exempt players in the US next year - Geoff Ogilvy, John Senden, Allenby, Marc Leishman, Nathan Green, Jason Day, Mathew Goggin, Nick O'Hern, Greg Chalmers, Rod Pampling, James Nitties, Aaron Baddeley, Scott, Stuart Appleby, Sim, Cameron Percy, Lutterus and Jones plus life member Greg Norman.”

Fortunately the Australian web site was decent enough not to mention how many New Zealanders will be fully exempt.

Now you’d think the media would have given more prominence to young Ben’s brilliant showing-Naw! Too busy quoting Stevie’s comments about his boss.

As regular readers are aware, I’ve made mention in the past about the Swede’s success rate and investigated why they have done so well. And can’t help thinking that if Ben had been a Swede he’d have got more media coverage and some funding to further his career.

Which took me to the New Zealand Golf web site to find out more about this young man and what kind of support he is receiving from this, “…governing body for golf in New Zealand.”

And in the News section; “Masterton amateur Ben Campbell finished in a commendable share of 40th place at the Australian Open Championship in Sydney. The New Zealand representative fired a final round five-over 77 in tough conditions to finish on five-over for the tournament, earning a start after winning the Arron Baddeley International in China.”

It got kinda interesting when I did more research on the web site.

On the matter of US Collegiate Scholarships there are, “Currently 10 females and 3 males [are] on scholarship in the US.”

What! Only 3 males and this is one of the very few opportunity areas for young male Kiwi golfers to get financial and educational support to further their careers.

A click here will bring you to a list of  2009 Srixon Academy Squad Profiles and where you can learn more about Ben Campbell.

And then it went from bad to worse on financial support matters.

The following passage from the web site says it all for me; well not quite, as to why per capita New Zealanders are low achievers compared to Swedes.

"During 2007 SPARC reshaped how sports were being funded which resulted in Golf no longer being named as a “priority sport” in terms of direct Carded Coach funding.  As such NZ Golf has had to reshape and limit our Carded Coaches.
After consultation with the service providers, SPARC and the New Zealand Academy of Sport, NZ Golf concluded the best solution was to have our limited funding directed to the nominated members of the High Performance Coaching team.
This means that the assistance previously available to the 21 carded coaches from the New Zealand Academy of Sport has now ceased.”
Nuf said for now.

As promised some feedback on my journey back to Jack’s Point.

Hasn’t changed a bit. Yes it has, it’s maturing as one of NZ’s finest golf courses. And a word of warning from the management. Think twice about taking a chance and getting a late booking when down that way for the Michael Hill New Zealand Open.

Thought/tip for the day came to mind while reflecting on how come Tom Watson is still so good at his age?
Here’s a link to Tom’s YouTube, “Tom Watson’s Secret to the Golf Swing

Slainte
Stan