Guardian

Campbell's nine-under-par round created a new PGA European tour record - no one has led a European event by six shots after the first round. The previous best was five, by Ernie Els, who went on to win the Dubai Desert Classic in 1994, and by Severiano Ballesteros, who managed not to win the 1991 Spanish Open.

On a day when the wind gusted to 30mph, when fewer than 20 of the 156-man entry broke par, Campbell massacred the field. Lee Westwood, one of five players grouped in second place on three under, said he had played well and added that he thought level par, 72, would be a good score in the conditions.

Another, Peter Mitchell, was so pleased to be in at three under that he said: "I hope I keep playing like that for the rest of my life." Yet another, Benoit Teilleria, a graduate from the Challenge tour, said simply: "I played perfect."

Colin Montgomerie, winner twice in what for him was a very merry month of May, heaped praise on Campbell. "That," he said of the 63, "was one of the rounds of the year - if not years."

Campbell, then, was exceptional. It was the best score, statistically, of his life although he confessed he had experienced better ball-striking rounds. Yesterday he chipped in at one hole and had only 26 putts, only just below his putts-per-round average for the season of 28.6, the best on tour.

The New Zealander was using the controversial Callaway driver, the ERC (the initials stand for the names of the firm's founder, Ely Reeves Callaway). "It has given me at least 10-15 yards on every tee shot," he said.

Asked if it was fair to get instant length just because of technology, he added: "It's scary to add length without having to change your swing and it's scary because it makes some of the courses we play obsolete. Five, six, seven years ago it was 250 yards to carry some bunkers and now the guys carry them easily."

But Campbell will shortly face a driver dilemma. On Wednesday afternoon he was given an exemption into the US Open at Pebble Beach in two weeks' time - and the ERC is banned in the United States. The United States Golf Association believes that it infringes the "trampoline test", which means, in effect, that the face of the driver is spring-like to an illegal degree. The R&A is conducting its own tests on the matter and has not yet pronounced, hence this highly unsatisfactory situation.

"After this week," said Campbell, "I'll go back to my other [legal] driver and practise with it for Pebble."

Campbell was a member of the New Zealand team that won the World Amateur Team Championship in 1992, running the US ragged in the final round. That US team included Justin Leonard, David Duval, Jay Sigel and Allan Doyle, all since successes as professionals.

Campbell flickered briefly in the 1995 Open championship, eventually finishing third, and then subsided into anonymity. But in the winter months he once again found the spark that had ignited his talent.