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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 13, 2006

Michael Campbell

MAMARONECK, NEW YORK

RAND JERRIS: It's our pleasure to welcome to the interview room this morning. Mike is the defending champion, having captured the 2005 championship last June down at Pinehurst. Maybe you could just start us off with some general comments about your past year as a U.S. Open champion and what that experience meant to you.

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: Well, in a nutshell, really, it's just been a wonderful journey the 12 months. I've experienced many opportunities, a lot of doors have opened for me. I've really enjoyed being the U.S. Open champion the last 12 months. I've fulfilled one of my childhood dreams, and hopefully can retain my title this week.

I think now I have new responsibilities as a major winner, especially back home, and one image sketched in my mind forever will really be that letter that Nicklaus sent me. Jack Nicklaus sent me a handwritten letter saying, "Now you've got new responsibilities as a major winner to make this beautiful game of golf in your homeland country, New Zealand, and also throughout the world."

With that in mind, I've set up a few foundations back home in New Zealand. One is called the Michael Campbell Foundation, and also we've instigated through Greg Turner, another golfer from the European Tour, a program called the winning edge program, which is a very exciting program, to nurture and help the younger kids back home to play golf, and hopefully with my influence and with my input, it's going to help young golfers fulfill their dreams.

There's one step I want to bring out today, and that is I found out there's going to be three New Zealanders in the Top 500 in the world, and to me that was a pretty scary stat. To me I've decided to take hold of the situation and hopefully make a change, and in about another 15 years' time when I'm sitting back in my rocking chair and see 20 guys playing the U.S. Open instead of two, that's my ultimate dream, once I retire from this game.

RAND JERRIS: Can we have some comments about the golf course and how you feel about your game coming into this week.

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: Yeah, I only played nine holes yesterday, so I can't really comment on the back nine. But the front nine is a typical setup of a U.S. Open championship. The greens are going to be hard and fast by Thursday and the weekend. The fairways are, once again, long and narrow. The rough is probably thicker than last year, I believe.

But, you know, I've had the same sort of results from last year, five missed cuts at the start of the year, then started playing better the last month or so. So my form coming into this week is pretty similar to last year. Confidence wise, yeah, pretty similar. But once again, I feel very comfortable with my surroundings now being a major winner and being defending champion to me is a label that I'm actually very, very comfortable with, so I'm very happy with that.

Q. How would you describe your preparations for the U.S. Open? I know it's not exactly the lead up you wanted, not being able to play on Tour, so how would you describe it coming up to here?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: Once again, we do it at home by looking at the golf course, not actually playing it, but by looking at obviously the conditions are very similar, so we practiced from very heavy rough and practiced on very fast greens, so when it came to this week at Winged Foot, my whole game sort of fit into this whole puzzle here.

One thing I've actually noticed is you need to hit it long and straight here this week, more so than Pinehurst. I think Pinehurst was a bit more forgiving off the tees, but this week I found the fairways are very undulating, and you can hit a good shot and still hit it in the rough. You've got to be on your "A" game to win around here, particularly with the driving accuracy.

Q. How would you describe your confidence level as you go into the Open this week?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: I'm very confident. I'm a person who rides on a wave for a very long time. I'm like a switch, and I can turn on very, very quickly. And I feel that being here this week makes me very excited, makes me feel very at ease with myself and very comfortable with my defense. I'm feeling very, very confident right now.

Q. There's been a lot of talk about the rough here this week and how thick it is. I'm just curious, what's the thickest you've ever seen a rough, and the second part to that question, what's the strangest thing that's ever happened to you when you lost your ball or put your ball into the rough?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: As I said, I only played nine holes yesterday, and what I saw yesterday was brutal. It's going to be up there with the thickest and the deepest, absolutely. It's probably a golfer's nightmare this week because you can't see the ball sometimes. The ball in some positions sinks right down to the bottom, you can't even see the ball. If a caddie or yourself walk on it, it's a two shot penalty, so that's one thing you try to avoid.

Q. You talked about feeling comfortable as a U.S. Open champion, with the title. Was it a shock at first? Was there an adjustment, and how would you describe that feeling and what you went through?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: Obviously it wasn't a shock because my dream I would say dreaming to win a major tournament for the last since I was 11 years old, so when it becomes reality, it's not a shock. It's like, "Okay, dreams do come true."

So that's one thing I eventually noticed. Then all of a sudden I got given responsibilities of certain things back home, and I filled those shoes quite nicely. I've been a role model now. What I say now really matters back home in New Zealand. My opinion matters, which is quite scary sometimes, if you say the wrong things at the wrong time.

Besides that, I've realized it's more than me just playing golf now, it's the whole nation of New Zealand watching me now, which is no problem. I'm happy with that. It's not really a burden, it's more like a challenge.

The most important thing for me this week, really, is to go out there and satisfy my own expectations, not anybody else's. That's the most important thing. If I go out there and play the best I can and come Top 10 or Top 15, that's the best I can do. If I got a win, that would be even better.

But it's been a long time, I think, since Curtis Strange won back to back U.S. Opens. But I think it's still possible. I feel that my game has come together very, very nicely, so we'll see what's going to happen in the next four days.

Q. Can I just take you back to this foundation? How important is it for you to put something back into junior golf, and also, how pleasing would it be to see the likes of a Nick Faldo or an Adam Scott come through this program?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: Yeah, I think it's wonderful because I know from my personal experience that you need some support of financial support or guidance. When I was a kid, the Junior Golf Association really helped me a lot growing up for ten years as a junior. I think if I inject a few funds that way of golf development in New Zealand, financially or morally or some sort of training sessions or whatever, I don't know...

The thing that we're trying to do here is bridge the gap between playing too much and actually competing. The most important thing out there is competing, and that's what Greg Turner and myself and a few other people have put together is this wedge program where we're trying to put together 15 events in New Zealand, golf tournaments, where the men, the women, and also juniors can play together.

The most important thing, as we all know here, is you can hit balls on the range until you're blue in the face, but the most important thing you cannot do is replicate the feeling of competing, and that's what we're trying to do back in New Zealand right now.

When I was a kid growing up as a junior, we used to travel around Australia and Asia and play tournaments. We didn't practice much, we just played and competed, and learning how to win. And that's one thing that we try and do on this winning edge program that Greg Turner set up is try to have an environment of kids competing every week. And so far we've got, I think, between six and seven tournaments up and running back home in New Zealand, trying to achieve, obviously more, between 15 and 20 tournaments per year, which is a great environment for, I think, newer touring potential golfers.

Q. This approach of including everybody, men, women, boys and girls all together, this is all for amateurs? Is it really for juniors or just for anybody?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: It's for everyone who can play the game, and also one thing I must mention, also, the winners of each division, the men's division, the women's division and the junior division, get a chance to spend a whole week with me and my coach in Florida. It's based on a points system like a Money List or Order of Merit where they accumulate all the points, and at the end of the calendar year, the three winners get to spend a whole week with me in Florida where they get trained by my coach and obviously spend time with me asking questions about how to approach the game and how to play the game sort of thing.

So you imagine a kid who's got huge potential, 21 years old or 20 years old, spending a whole week with me, and I think it'll be great for them. It'll be great for me to pass on my experiences, and also great for the winner to talk to my coach Jonathan Yarwood. It's the whole package. I'll be flying them over from New Zealand to Florida where I'll be based next year, maybe Orlando, and spend a whole week with them. So it'll be nice to pass on my experiences to these three young kids.

Q. Do you think that mixed junior golf is the future?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: Yeah, I think so, definitely. Golf is not only played by men, it's played by women, as well. And obviously if I try to pass on every single knowledge to these people, the better for the game, especially for New Zealand.

Q. You said you were going you were thinking about being based in Orlando next year? Does that lead you to believe that you might be playing more events on the PGA TOUR?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: Did I say that (laughter)? Maybe, yeah, I'm not sure. Well, my coach is based there in Orlando. That's why I said maybe fly them to Orlando to where my coach is, so that's why I said Orlando.

Q. Just by being defending champion, I think you're rated only at 100 to 1 shot in Vegas. Does that upset you at all, or did you see that mean

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: No, that's great. Let Tiger and Vijay and Phil have all the attention, and I can just do what I did last year. Fantastic, bring it on. Look at last year, no one gave me a chance to win, and I won. Once again, no one sort of has given me a chance this year, apart from myself, which is the most important thing.

I don't care what you guys think or write or say, but I know I have a chance. I could have said it until I was blue in the face last year, but no one would listen to me, which is great. The whole year is repeating itself. Yeah, let them have all the attention; let them have all the hoopla with it. I'm just going to go out there and play golf.

Q. Michael, last year at Firestone you mentioned to me that a hole at Royal Melbourne, at 140 yard par 3 at Melbourne is one of the scariest holes in golf. To me, we as the media or the fans put too much into length? Does length scare anybody out there, or do we make too much of the length of a golf course?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: I think also yeah, I think so. It's just one thing that through the last ten years are probably obsessed with length. You ask any amateur golfer, professional golfer, it's how far you hit it, how far you hit a 7 iron, how far you hit a driver, not if you can get up and down from 50 yards away or sink a three footer.

I believe it's ego. I believe it's a huge part of ego. People want to have the longest par 5 in the world. People want to have the longest par 3 in the world, whatever. To me it doesn't mean anything; it's all about finessing the ball. And the par 3 I'm talking about last year at Royal Melbourne, I'll tell you what, there's more doubles and bogeys on that hole than birdies, and it's only like a 9 iron from here. And to me that's a test of golf. You can't hit a normal shot into it; you've got to hit a real, high, soft floaty little 9 iron, and you've got to land it within probably a square meter. If you do, you're in the bunker or off the green or you're making 5. To me that's more like golf, not hitting a 3 wood into a par 3. That's just a smash. Whereas you've got a 9 iron in your hand, you've got to think about it. It's more fun. To me it's more fun playing that sort of shot rather than smashing a 3 wood.

Q. Since you mentioned them, obviously Tiger and Phil are going to be two of the most popular names out there. Tiger with the big long layoff since his father died, what do you expect from him? And in terms of Phil, if he were to win, that would be three majors in a row. What kind of accomplishment would that be for a guy who three years ago they said could never do it?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: Well, first of all, Tiger, it's his first one back for a long time and it's going to be hard for him because of his father passing away. We obviously feel for Tiger. I believe he's going to benefit from it. He's going to say, okay, look, he's still with me, not in the physical space but somehow connected with him somehow, so it's going to empower him somehow more than anything else.

And for Phil to win again this week, three majors in a row is quite a feat. When he won the 2004 Masters there, it opened up the floodgates, him actually believing he could do it. We all knew, everyone in this room knew he could win a major. For the last ten years it took him that. But he needed to believe he could win, not us. Once he won, that was it.

There's no stopping Phil now. He's a great player, and once again, a great victory at this year's Masters, and he's obviously a favorite to win this week. It's amazing, once you get the bug, once you win your first major, in my case you want more. I'm not here to win one major, I'm here to win more than one. My plan is to be a multiple major winner. That's my goal.

RAND JERRIS: Michael, thanks very much for your time. We wish you luck defending your title this week.

End of FastScripts.

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