TOUR NEWS: In the current jargon, how a course suits a player's eye is almost as important as how he is striking the ball.

So, the other 143 players in the field for this week's Players' Championship at Sawgrass - an event with a purse of $6.5 million (€5.3 million) and winner's cheque of $1.7 million (€1.4 million) - should take note: Chad Campbell doesn't merely like the course at Ponte Vedra in Florida, he "loves" it.

"I love that golf course," remarked Campbell, who on Sunday completed the best comeback in the history of the Bay Hill Invitational to claim his second title in his last 10 starts. "I love The Players' and I'm glad to see I'm playing a lot better than I was at the first of the year. I felt like my game is really coming around right now. I'm really happy with pretty much every aspect of it. I'm definitely looking forward to Sawgrass, and like I said, I really like that golf course, so it really suits my eye well."

Among those opposing Campbell in the Players' will be the Irish pair of Padraig Harrington, runner-up a year ago to Davis Love in the event commonly referred to as the unofficial "fifth major" because of the strength of the field, and Darren Clarke. Harrington is resuming tournament play after a two-week break, his last outing being in the Dubai Desert Classic, while Clarke secured a top-10 finish at Bay Hill that could have been so much better.

For Campbell, though, this win at Bay Hill backed up the assertion that he is a rising force in the game. A year ago, Sports Illustrated conducted a poll among tour players about who they thought would win majors, and Campbell - who served his golfing apprenticeship on mini-tours and the then Buy.Com Tour (now the Nationwide Tour) before securing his main tour card - was the player who came out on top. And this, remember, was before his runner-up finish to Shaun Micheel in the US PGA at Rochester last August.

"As far as my chances to win a major, I definitely feel a lot more comfortable in them," insisted Campbell. "I think that just comes over time. Obviously, with the success on just the tour, other than the majors, that builds your confidence for that.

"I definitely think I can compete. I kind of showed that at the PGA. I came up a little bit short there, but I'm definitely looking forward to getting to Augusta. I feel like I'm playing a lot better than I was last year at that time."

Certainly, there was a big-time temperament about how Campbell, winner of the season-ending Tour Championship last year, won in Bay Hill, where he overcame a four-shot deficit on Australian Stuart Appleby with 11 holes to go. Campbell carded a flawless, six-under-par 66 for an 18-under-par total of 270, which earned him the top prize of $900,000.

As regards making up that deficit and completing the surge on Appleby, Campbell remarked: "You know, I really wasn't even thinking about it. I was just trying to just do what I needed to do. I felt like I obviously needed to make birdie, so I was just trying to do that. I wasn't really thinking, 'he's four shots ahead of me'. I wasn't really thinking that. I was thinking, 'I need to make birdies, and if I don't do that, I don't have a chance to win this tournament'. I was just taking care of what I needed to do."

By the time he walked onto the 18th green, he could have seven-putted and still won.

Appleby lost the lead for good with a three-putt on the 14th hole. He missed a three-foot par putt on the 17th, then drove into a hedge and hit into the water on the 18th, lucky to escape with a double bogey for a four-over 76 to finish six shots behind.

Campbell's performance was so impressive that he putted for birdie on every hole, four of those from just on the fringe. The pressure was relentless, and Appleby, trying to become the first multiple winner on the US Tour this year, was never able to rally.

"I really didn't have nothing to lose," Campbell said. "I was just trying to hit at every pin. My ball-striking was good enough that I could do that."

One man who left Bay Hill knowing that some things need to be straightened out was Tiger Woods, who couldn't come up with a fifth straight victory in the tournament. After hitting into the water on the sixth - his fourth straight day with a penalty shot - Woods closed with 12 straight pars for a 73 on Sunday. It was the first time in a regular US Tour event that he shot three consecutive rounds over par.

"My bad shots were unplayable," he said. "I just need to tighten up those shots."