Michael Campbell seemed to be playing a different game from the rest in the first round of the Compass English Open here. While the New Zealander was shooting 63, the majority were struggling to keep their heads above water on what was reputedly the first day of June. Campbell said it was the best round he had ever played and thought there were several factors responsible for his score which, in the context of the day’s play, was startling.
One was the company he kept in the pro-am and another the new and controversial Callaway driver. On Wednesday Campbell played with Ian and Liam Botham and the Australian opening batsman Michael Slater. Yesterday he partnered Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke, the runners up behind Colin Montgomerie in the Volvo PGA Championship on Monday.”Rubbing shoulders with all these guys has made me feel like a winner,” Campbell said. Talking to Ian Botham about winning was, apparently, an inspirational experience although Campbell lost money to Beefy in a side bet. Nor did they take the pro-am by storm, finishing ninth.Campbell reckons that with the ERC club he is hitting the ball 10 to 15 yards further on every drive.

“I was up with Darren who is known as a long hitter and just passed Lee,” he said.Westwood, however, begged to differ. “It’s a good driver if you hit it straight as he did but I didn’t see any difference in length. He didn’t hit one where I thought that must be down to the club. I think it’s all a bit of codswallop.”The United States Golf Association have banned the driver on the grounds that, in their view, it infringes the rule about no club having a “spring-like” effect on the ball. The Royal and Ancient, the game’s governing body along with the USGA, have yet to make a ruling (they are awaiting the result of tests at Birmingham University) which means that the club can be used in Europe but not America. This in turn means that Campbell, who earlier this week received a special exemption to play in his first US Open from 15-18 June, will have to revert to his old Hawkeye driver at Pebble Beach, California where presumably his tee shots will be shorter than they were here.”It’s a bit scary because it makes some of the courses obsolete The combination of the modern ball and club is frightening. It’s scary to add 10 yards without doing anything to change your swing I’m not complaining.

It’s a different game now.”Campbell, who is fifth in the Order of Merit after winning in Taiwan and Australia, had eight birdies, an eagle and a solitary bogey, at the 14th, where he drove into rough. A strong wind and penal rough meant the course was playing long.”Under the conditions, level par was a good score,” Westwood said. The Englishman was scornful of the notion that, at nine under par and a record six strokes in front after 18 holes, Campbell was already out of sight. “What, with 54 holes to go?” he asked.Westwood, whose only blemish was a bogey five at the 10th, is one of a posse of players at three under. As for Monty, he finished well to come home in 33 for 71 after being three over after four holes.It could be argued that it ain’t over ’til the fat laddie sings except that Monty, who works out in his private gym, would maintain that he is no longer overweight.

It is, of course, too early to discard betting slips on the pre-tournament favourite but, at eight shots adrift of a leader who has a spring in his step, Monty cannot afford to make mistakes “I’m very tired indeed,” he said Where’s the wastepaper basket?. The temperature is rising on and off the track and Ron Dennis, the team principal of McLaren-Mercedes, is stoking the fires. The temperature is rising on and off the track and Ron Dennis, the team principal of McLaren-Mercedes, is stoking the fires.
Michael Schumacher and Ferrari have set the pace and Dennis acknowledges the red presence generates emotional and commercial heat like no other. If Dennis needs any extra incentive on this, the weekend of his 53rd birthday, it is the prospect of defying that raging blaze. And as for the assertion that his champion of the past two years, Mika Hakkinen, is drained of motivation, Dennis points to yesterday’s practice times.The Finn, who has been advised by Niki Lauda to find a new team and asked repeatedly whether he is contemplating retirement, edged out Schumacher with an exhilarating late lap. Dennis took the opportunity to fly a few flares of his own and respond to what he dismisses as a crude form of psychological warfare by declaring his intention to explode Formula One’s most cherished myth.”People talk about the Ferrari myth,” he said, “and that is what I consider it to be – a myth. Ferrari kidology works with some, but not with us.”Ferrari strategy is to try and seek some psychological advantage but that works only if someone is paying attention.