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HSBC WORLD MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

September 14, 2005

Michael Campbell

SURREY, ENGLAND

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: My pleasure.

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Why don't you start off with your thoughts on this week and then we'll take some questions.

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: Well, I think the golf course is in great shape. It's better than when we play in May every year. Obviously it was a good summer and the presentation of the golf course has been outstanding. It's a format that I enjoy playing. It's a format that I tend to like over the years. I played here I think three years ago my first time and enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to the next four days.

Q. Did you have second thoughts about playing with the Presidents Cup next week?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: No. No. Too far to travel? For me it's only like an hour's travel.

It is a long way to come for one week and go back again. It's nice to see such an international field. You've got a lot of guys from Australia and obviously here and England and New Zealand and other countries from around the world. So it's nice to get a mixture of people playing this week.

Q. The first time you played here in the PGA Championship you finished second and now you are here as US Open Champion Ã¢ï¿½ï¿½ a lot has happened since then?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: The PGA? That was a long time ago. Can't remember. It's been ten years since I came in second here, '95 I think it was. A lot of water under the bridge. I've achieved a lot and obviously I've gone through some good rounds and some bad round over the years.

Coming here as the U.S. Open Champion is obviously a wonderful label to have. I've really enjoyed the last few months being the US Open champion. But that's behind me now and it's there's a tournament to play this week. The Match Play, it's been wonderful over the years, so to be part of it, winning the trophy would be great, so I'm looking forward to that.

Q. Do you feel that guys put the extra effort in to beating you now that you have won the US Open?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: I think the same, against Ernie or Goosen or Tiger, it's always nice to beat them. I know that there's going to be guys out there, every time they beat me they are very pleased about themselves, which is what makes us such competitors. We enjoy each other's company, but deep down inside we are competitors. I know for a fact every time I finish a round with Goose or Ernie or Phil Mickelson or Tiger I want to have done well. They are targets. We are targets and I can feel that I'm a target around the world since I've won the U.S. Open.

Q. Outside of the majors, where do you rank this challenge?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: That's a good question. Well, with the history of it and the past champions, it's got to be right up there, right behind, if not equal to the World Golf Championship events that we play, probably above that. It's got more history to it, behind it.

The previous champions are all of the greats in golf. I actually believe this is one of the fifth majors of the world. I know the field this week isn't particularly strong for certain reasons. But it would be quite an event if all of the top 16 players in the world could compete, but unfortunately through their own scheduling and other reasons, personal reasons, they are not here.

I feel for the sponsors because they put up a lot of money. This is I think the richest first prize in all of golf, and while the tournament is not as strong as they would like to have it with the rankings of all of the players, but maybe they should think about moving it to a more appropriate time or place. There's always going to be problems but I actually rank this event above all of the other events we play in this year.

Q. When would you play it?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: Well, it's probably, I would say during the off season, like around December. You get guys playing the target event, and every time they play these events, they have great fields. And it's always around December, during time off, what we call the silly season. Maybe we could incorporate this tournament towards the end of the year when it runs sort of like taking time off and things like that. That could be more appropriate to have it in December.

The timing of the whole thing, right now it's a busy period. Everyone is still playing tour events over in America and over here, but I just believe if you move the tournament to more of an appropriate time for the players to play, we would probably play and get a stronger field.

Q. What about the weather. Not ideal here in December?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: Well, yeah, the weather would be a factor. I think it's very important to keep it here at Wentworth. It's a great golf course and everyone likes coming here and playing here. I'm trying to think of even November, that's too late. Just the timing of the whole tournament, that's the problem -- the timing. Just the fact that if guys don't come over this week because of the Presidents Cup next week, or if we can tie it in with the U.S. tour more we can have a better field this week. I'm not saying this is a weak field. No disrespect to all of the players this week. But obviously a few players are missing unfortunately. That's the way it goes.

Q. Hypothetically if the Presidents Cup was also this week, what would you choose?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: I'd probably choose this week, definitely, The Match Play. Playing as a team is always good fun, but career wise, I think this is obviously financially better than playing for the Presidents Cup. I've played here many a times before and played well, so would probably fancy The Match Play as opposed to the Presidents Cup.

Q. Do you still look at the winning the Order of Merit this year Ã¢ï¿½ï¿½ Retief went to the top after his win last week?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: Goosen is a good friend of mine and we're very, very good friends, but when it comes to golf it's a little different. I've known Goosey and I admire him as a person and he's a good buddy of mine. He's playing great right now. He's won twice and winning last week in Germany. His form is quite exceptional. He's 300,000 Euros in front of me I think. He's still beatable. I think I've got four tournaments left here on The European Tour, so I'd better make the most of it. If things come to fruition, I think I'd meet him around the semi-finals. So once I get past the semi-finals against Goosey, I have a good chance of taking over the top spot on The European Tour Order of Merit.

Q. What do you think of the fact that so many players can turn down the chance to play for a million pounds do you have any concerns about the image golfers may have to the man on the street?

MICHAEL CAMPBELL: It's a little bit disheartening that here we have the biggest prize in the world and half the guys don't turn up. You can say it's probably a slap in the face to the sponsors. Obviously they have the best players available to play this week and for certain reasons they are not here. To the public eye, it doesn't look good, I don't think. And here they are playing for a million pounds first prize and several players turned it down because they kind of, it doesn't fit into their schedule. To me, I actually find that quite strange. If you think about it, though, in America, they play for $1 million, U.S. dollars every week. And a million pounds is obviously a little bit more than $1 million, I think it's 1.6 million U.S., which is a lot of money, but it's not the money issue now. It's playing a schedule that suits you so that you can perform well every single week.

But they feel that coming over to England is a long way to come and they feel that they need to stay back to where they are and recuperate from what they have been doing with their previous schedule and maybe they need to just rest this week. But as I said, it leaves a very bad taste in your mouth I think from a sponsor's point of view and the general public here.

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Michael, thanks very much for joining us.

End of FastScripts.

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