Michael Campbell is hoping a second visit to the venue where he finished tied-3rd in the 2005 Johnnie Walker Classic on the DP World Tour can spark his Legends Tour season into life.
The US Open winner is one of 14 players in the field this week who teed it up on the pristine Golden Bear Course 20 years ago, and he has high hopes of challenging for the inaugural Reignwood Legends Championship on a course where he’s played well before.
Other players who will have fond memories from their previous visit here include Scott Drummond and Santiago Luna, who both finished tied-10th. David Park, Thongchai Jaidee, Emanuele Canonica, Anthony Wall and Maarten Lafeber were all inside the top-30, as well.
Campbell is hoping to feed off his experience here to improve on his best finish this year of tied-14th at the Costa Navarino Legends Tour Trophy.
“It’s a great feeling for me to be back here, and hopefully I can do well this week,” he said. “I haven’t really showed my mojo so far this year, so hopefully this week we’ll kick it off.
“The greens are quite fast – running about 11-and-a-half on the stimpmeter, I think. The fairways are very generous, the par-fives are reachable in two and the greens are superb, so I think it’s going to allow the guys to shoot low this week.”
That result back in April 2005 was particularly significant for the Kiwi as he had missed his first five cuts of the year, before recording his first top-five finish since the previous July at Reignwood Pine Valley. Two months later, he lifted the US Open trophy.
“It’s all about momentum. I had the five missed cuts, then all-of-a-sudden I made a big swing change with my coach, Jonathan Yarwood, and I came here and finished tied-3rd. That really gave me a lot of confidence and momentum going into the rest of the year. Then a few months later I won the US Open, so it’s a great memory to come back here and see the golf course again.”
While many of the players have experienced this spectacular venue before, it’s the first time the Legends Tour has visited mainland China in the circuit’s 33-year history. It joins a growing list of new countries the Tour has been to in the last couple of seasons, including Vietnam, Greece, Zambia, Mexico and India, as we continue to spread and grow golf around the world.
There are two championship courses at Reignwood Pine Valley, which is just north-west of Beijing, both of which were designed by Jack Nicklaus. The Golden Bear Course is being used this week, and it will play at a testing 7,016 yards for its par of 72. As is common with Nicklaus designs, the fairways are pretty generous, but there are plenty of large bunkers and water features to catch errant shots, and the greens have some wicked slopes on and around them.
Fourteen players have made the journey to China from last week’s US Senior Open. Scott Hend was the best of the bunch in the major, finishing tied-16th to strengthen his position at the top of the Legends Tour Order of Merit. That was the Australian’s second major top-20 this season, to go with his win at the Barbados Legends hosted by Ian Woosnam and a runner-up finish in the Staysure Marbella Legends.
Three more players from the top-10 of the season-long standings are competing this week and hoping to close the gap to the Aussie at the summit – James Kingston (3rd), Simon Griffiths (6th) and Keith Horne (10th). The field is further bolstered by 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie, Champions Tour regular Thongchai Jaidee and last year’s Order of Merit winner, Adilson da Silva.
The home hopes will be carried by Quan Yang and Lianwei Zhang, who was the first Chinese golfer to achieve success on the international stage. Zhang won the 2003 Caltex Masters on the DP World Tour and played in the Masters the following year.
The 54-hole Reignwood Legends Championship gets underway on Friday 4th July. Visit the homepage to see the full Order of Merit standings and round one tee times, and to find out more about the tournament. You can follow all the action throughout the week on the Legends Tour website and social media channels.
