Campbell in Heaven on the golf course
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-09 09:01

The floodgates opened at No. 7, the hole with a massive rock in the middle of the fairway. In Campbell's case, that must have looked twice as small. He hit a wedge into 2 feet for birdie, then hit 3-iron to 25 feet on the par-3 eighth and made that, then a 20-footer on No. 9.

"Just kept on going and going and going," he said. "It was like, 'OK, Michael, don't try to change anything, just go with flow. Don't try to think about anything else.' The hardest thing as human beings is to stop searching. I'm trying to stop searching right now because I've got the answer that works for me."

He found something at Pinehurst, where the 36-year-old from New Zealand held off a late charge by Woods to win the U.S. Open. Campbell also sailed through the HSBC World Match Play Championship, another big win.

The trick now is to capture that feeling more often.

David Toms experienced it at the Accenture Match Play Championship at La Costa, when he mowed down everyone he played on his way to his first World Golf Championship title. Phil Mickelson was atop the leaderboard for 10 consecutive rounds of stroke play earlier this year. Woods knows it better than most.

"Tiger seems to find that sense of confidence all the time," Campbell said. "We try to achieve that every time we play, but it doesn't come to us that easily. We can all do certain things with the golf ball. It comes down to talent, obviously, and mind-set — how strong you are mentally."

Clarke is strong in other ways right now.

His wife, Heather, has been battling cancer for the last three years, and is in London going through chemotherapy again. Clarke pulled out of the U.S. Open when she took a turn for the worse, and plays now only because it doesn't do either of them any good for him to stay at home.

It helps to play well.

"If I'm playing OK, then I can focus on what I'm doing," he said. "If not, then my mind wanders."

Clarke opened with a birdie, then hit 4-iron to about 25 feet on the par-5 second hole, and made an eagle putt from below the ridge. Three holes later from the left rough, he hammered a 5-wood to the back of the green and holed a 60-foot putt for eagle.

"Any time you have a problem off the course, you can find sanctuary on it," Woods said of Clarke, one of his best friends on tour. "What he's going through, I wouldn't wish on anybody."

Padraig Harrington, who won this event two years ago, shot a 68 and Kenny Perry had a 69. Only three other players in the 16-man field broke 70, with Davis Love III and Colin Montgomerie bringing up the rear at 76. David Toms, in his first tournament since surgery to repair an electrical problem in his heart, had a 73.