The Victorian narrowly missed out on a place in the Australian team at last year’s Asia-Pacific at Royal Melbourne but that disappointment only spurred him on to win the Queensland PGA Championship on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australia a couple of weeks later.
With a Tour card secured for two years thanks to that victory, he is set to turn professional once he finishes the Japan Open at Tokyo Golf Club where the field will include fellow Australian Adam Scott. The call has already gone in for one of Australia’s rising stars to play a practice round with the former Masters champion next week.
But before then Campbell, from Yarra Yarra, would like to become the third Aussie in a row to win the APAC title, joining Harrison Crowe and last year’s victor Jasper Stubbs.
“It’s pretty cool to have that Australian bag,” the 23-year-old said after a practice round at Taiheyo Club Gotemba, which sits in the foothills of Mt Fuji.
“It’s the first time for me. I’ve been looking forward to it for a while now and I feel like I really earned my place on the team this year.
“I’m super excited to get it underway.”
With player withdrawals happening as the Asia-Pacific tournament week progressed last year, Campbell kept moving up the qualifying list, eventually finishing as first reserve and waiting for just one more player to pull out.
“Absolutely it sucked last year to be the last guy who missed out at Royal Melbourne. I guess I was probably a bit lucky to be that close to playing,” he said.
“It was cool to get close but it kind of made me work a bit harder and everything that happened after then was probably a direct result of missing out.
“I think it was meant to be for me and I think it worked out well.”
After his Queensland PGA Championship win thanks to a 72nd hole birdie at Nudgee Golf Club, Campbell went on to win this year’s Master of the Amateurs at Southern Golf Club and finish second at the Australian Amateur Championship and Riversdale Cup,
His Australian winter has been spent furthering his golf education by competing in all of the major amateur events in Great Britain and Europe.
Joining him in this week’s field are Australian Amateur champion, Quinnton Croker (Qld), defending champion Jasper Stubbs (Vic), US college golfer Tony Chen (Victoria), 18-year-old Queenslander Billy Dowling, Victoria’s Lukas Michel and Western Australian left-hander Connor Fewkes.
Chen, who played with Campbell in junior golf at Yarra Yarra, is also a rookie this week while the other Aussies all played in last year’s APAC.
– Paul Munnings.
