Michael Campbell

Wellington, Aug 16 NZPA - Struggling New Zealand golfer Michael Campbell has put his multimillion-dollar British mansion on the market in order to move his family to Sydney.

His sprawling seven-bedroom home in the seaside town of Brighton is for sale for $6.8m.

Campbell's golfing career has been faltering, and this weekend he missed the cut in the US PGA championships.

He and his wife Julie plan to relocate permanently to the posh eastern Sydney suburb of Bellevue Hill with their sons Thomas, 10, and Jordan, eight, the Herald on Sunday reported.

Campbell plans an extensive two-year restoration of the 100-year-old, six-bedroom beachfront home which he and Julie, a Sydneysider, bought three years ago for $11m.

Campbell told Britain's Mail on Sunday his roots were in the southern hemisphere.

His two sons needed to settle at one school and Sydney offered an outdoor life, he said.

While Campbell has earned more than $9m since he won the US Open and the World Matchplay Championship in 2005, his on-course earnings this year have been just $23,575, with only two months of the global season to go.

Broadcaster and sports presenter Peter Williams said yesterday that Campbell had become a "total enigma".

"People in the world of golf are just bewildered as to why it has all gone so wrong so quickly."

Although Campbell had suffered from a back and shoulder injury, Williams said, the British press had accused him of not showing heart and "withdrawing at any excuse to get out of a tournament whenever he's scoring badly".

Williams assumed Campbell would be financially secure with the help of endorsements and investments.