Campbell evokes Arnie at Bay Hill

ORLANDO, Fla. Playing with Arnold Palmer for two days must have rubbed off on Chad Campbell.

The quiet Texan didn't hitch his pants, wink at the gallery and swing from the heels. He didn't sling his visor into the gallery when the final putt dropped.

Still, his Sunday charge at the Bay Hill Invitational did Arnie proud.

''I never counted him out,'' Palmer said.

Campbell rallied from a four-shot deficit with 11 holes to play, closing with a 6-under 66 that was so flawless that he had a birdie putt on every hole.

''Playing with Mr. Palmer the first two rounds, and being able to be out on the 18th green with him after it's done was quite special,'' Campbell said.

It was a fiasco for Stuart Appleby, on the short end of a 10-shot swing over the final 11 holes. He finished with a double bogey for a 76 and wound up six shots behind.

Ditto for John Daly, whose bid to qualify for the Masters took a small hit with a wild finish double bogey, eagle, bogey, triple bogey that knocked him from a tie for third into a tie for 10th.

As for Tiger Woods?

He was trying to become the first player to win the same event five straight times, but left Bay Hill with a different record the first time in a regular PGA Tour event that he shot over par three days in a row. Woods closed with a 73 and tied for 46th, his worst finish in five years.

Campbell won for the second time with the kind of golf that shows why he's one of the rising stars in golf. He finished at 18-under 270 and earned $900,000.

''Looking back now, I can't even think of a poor shot he hit in two days,'' Appleby said. ''Great golf.''

Without Woods going for a fifth straight title, Bay Hill was missing some of its buzz. That changed with Campbell's incredible charge, and the theatrics of Daly.

Campbell put pressure on Appleby with back-to-back birdies to close out the front nine, then was rock-solid the rest of the way as the Aussie eventually self-destructed.