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The Next Golf Prodigy?
If you're wondering who will rewrite the record book after Tiger Woods, 6-year-old Reece Campbell may be the answer By Lisa Taddeo
Associate Editor, GOLF MAGAZINE Here at Kinghorn, on a Scottish
day that smokes itself like a
thick cigar and paints its
plumes across sooty skies,
the 4-foot-tall boy drives a ball clean
across a canyon. His swing is as artless
as a first kiss and as clumsily unsure, but
with the trajectory of Euclid's dream
parabola, the end result is there on the
green: the ball was launched by a stick,
the stick was swung by a child, and
the child comes from the school of
Holy S---, I Can't Believe It's a Kid.
The Kid is All Right: Reece's backswing is hardly conventional, but his perfectly slotted downswing and balanced finish are textbook-perfect
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Is this truly just a case of talent
stretching its strings across the body of
this little moppet and playing a tune that
it takes most men entire lifetimes to
learn, let alone master? His club wobbles
on his backswing, yes, but imagine an
ant swinging a toothpick. This is a game
that's so much larger than the people
who play it, and here is a 6-year-old
sculpting shots, chipping a line of balls
like a fast-action BB gun, not even
looking where they land (within inches
of the hole). Like a trick pony, he hits
wedges smack into baseball gloves
from 25 yards away, and Reece is
kick-up-his-kiddie-feet-at-home in
bunkers that can tuck him in and
swallow him whole.
His is a talent as natural as a
weed. But here's a weed you
want to water. And because
you'd be stupid (wouldn't you?)
not to cultivate it, his parents
have let Jane Connachan, a
teaching professional and former
player on the Ladies European
Tour, watch and analyze him.
They play on Saturdays; she hasn't
won yet.
"I can't think of anyone his age
who can play the shots he plays,
and I work with a lot of kids,"
Connachan says. "I have one boy
of 9, who skillwise is similar,
but still nowhere near Reece."
Alan Murdoch, director of golf at
Edinburgh's Kings Acre Golf Course,
who coaches Scotland's top amateurs,
has also watched Reece and believes that
the boy has more talent than both
Michelle Wie and Tiger Woods—combined—at his age. "I've been
coaching for over 20 years and
remember seeing both Wie and Woods
when they were young. I was impressed
by them but not as much as I was when
watching Reece on the range."
Reece has been offered a free year at
the Colin Montgomerie Links Golf
Academy at Turnberry, but his
parents aren't so sure they want
someone toying with his
swing. Connachan
agrees. "I think that if
anyone were to change
it, it would be destructive
rather than constructive,"
she says. "He holds it as a lefthander
would and he swings
like John Daly, but he's absolutely
perfect. He does eve ry thing right.
If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.
And he ain't broke."
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