WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Former U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell says he has lost the motivation to play top-level golf and is quitting to concentrate on teaching.

The 46-year-old New Zealander, who won the Open at Pinehurst in 2005, told New Zealand’s Radio Sport on Saturday that retiring was a hard decision but “I have no complaints to walk away from the game that has given me such a wonderful life.”

Campbell lives in Malaga, Spain where he runs a golf academy and has plans to establish others in Asia and New Zealand. He told Radio Sport he hopes to play senior tournaments when he becomes eligible in four years’ time.

He said friends of the same age “are still out there competing … but right now I have got no motivation to play.”

Campbell won the U.S. Open during a breakout year in 2005 in which he also won the World Matchplay Championships at Wentworth.

He only made the open field through European sectional qualifying, needing a birdie on the last hole of the qualifying tournament to secure his place. Campbell started the last round four strokes behind defending champion Retief Goosen and shot 69 in his final round for an even-par total of 280, winning by two strokes from Tiger Woods.

He was only the second New Zealander to win a major after Bob Charles, who won the 1963 British Open.

“Obviously (winning the Open) 10 years ago was something special for me and for the country and for golf itself,” Campbell said. “I fulfilled one of my dreams to win a major and it was fantastic.

“But as everyone knows, it has been well documented, my career since then hasn’t been great. But if I walk away from the game right now I could be very proud of my achievements.”

Campbell said injuries had hampered his form and his recent divorce had caused him to reassess his priorities.

“It gave me time to reflect on my career and I decided to put golf on the backburner right now and just focus on other things,” he said. “I have had a wonderful, fabulous career over the last 20 years as a professional golfer.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Pete Brown, the first black player to win a PGA Tour event, died Friday. He was 80.

PGA Tour officials say Brown died in Augusta. Details on the cause of death weren’t immediately available.

Brown won the 1964 Waco Turner Open in Burneyville, Oklahoma, and the 1970 Andy Williams-San Diego Open.

A native of Port Gibson, Mississippi, Brown survived polio as a child and learned to play golf in Jackson, Mississippi, after first working as a caddie. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem called Brown a gentleman and a credit to the game.

Brown joined the tour in 1963, two years after Charlie Sifford broke the color barrier, and played until 1978.

SAN FRANCISCO – Masters champion Jordan Spieth had to play good golf for an easy time Wednesday in the Match Play Championship. Rory McIlroy made only one birdie and had an even easier time against Jason Dufner.

Unlike last year, it only meant that they were off to a good start in a tournament that won’t have any clarity until players start packing their bags.

Spieth made seven birdies, including a 7-iron to 4 feet on the par-3 13th for some breathing room, and closed out Mikko Ilonen on the 16th hole at TPC Harding Park. McIlroy made birdie on the opening hole and let Dufner do the rest, which was not much at all. The former PGA champion made five bogeys and lost on the 14th hole.

“Match play, you just need to beat the person that’s in front of you, and I did that today,” McIlroy said. “Now move on tomorrow.”

As usual, plenty of big names lost early.

Defending champion Jason Day struggled off the tee and lost to Charley Hoffman. Justin Rose lost to Mark Leishman. Henrik Stenson and Jimmy Walker lost in extra holes. Matt Kuchar lost when Ben Martin made a hole-in-one on the 17th hole and they matched pars on the 18th.

Instead of going home, they have some hope.

The format this year is 16 four-man groups in round-robin play, with the winner of each group advancing to the round of 16 on the weekend. Even without single elimination, one aspect of this World Golf Championship hasn’t changed. There was plenty of agitation.

“Nobody wants to lose,” Kuchar said. “I can assure you of that.”

Kuchar never trailed in his match, and they were all square going to the long par-3 17th. Martin hit a hybrid into a cool breeze from about 235 yards that rolled toward the hole and swirled around the cup before dropping for an ace.

“I’d say under the circumstances, that’s probably the best shot I’ve ever hit,” Martin said.

He tried to keep his emotions guarded, knowing there was still a par 5 to play. Kuchar missed a 5-foot birdie putt that would have extended the match.

The 32 losers still had two more matches, but Thursday’s round became even more critical. It’s possible they can be eliminated Thursday. It’s possible their Friday match will be meaningless. And yet all of them can still advance, although they will need some help.

“A lot has to work out now,” Kuchar said.

Day never trailed over the final 53 holes when he won the single-elimination version last year in Arizona. The Australian fell behind with a bogey on the fourth hole against Hoffman, and this time he never caught up. And now, he has some catching up to do.

“Obviously, I need to go out there and win the next two,” Day said. “And whatever happens, happens. If I sneak through, I sneak through. If not, then it’s my own fault for losing. It’s a different format, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes the next couple of days.”

Spieth played as though nothing had changed from a year ago. He told caddie Michael Greller not to check the painted dots on the greens that would indicate the pin positions for the Thursday rounds.

“I wanted us to look at it like it was win or go home,” Spieth said. “I think I did see him checking on a couple of them. But I wanted that to be our mindset. There’s going to be a lot of 2-1 scenarios in each group, so it’s best not to worry about anything else.”

Spieth had few worries on a mild day of sunshine. He took only eight putts through six holes and building a quick lead. Ilonen holed a bunker shot on the par-3 ninth, and then rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt at No. 11 to get to within one shot. Momentum was on his side.

Spieth hit wedge just over a bunker to 4 feet for birdie, and then his 7-iron had just enough to finish pin-high next to the hole at the back of the 13th green.

“I played solid,” Spieth said. “I think I made six birdies and a bogey? I’d take that the rest of the week.”

Rose, coming off a victory Sunday in New Orleans, still wasn’t sure what to think about the new format.

“Maybe I’d rather go home,” he said. “I don’t feel very hopeful right now, but I have a shot. So I guess that’s a good thing.”

In other matches:

– Hunter Mahan, one of five past champions in the field, had the shortest day in his 7-and-6 win over Stephen Gallacher of Scotland.

– Adam Scott had a birdie on the first hole and not another one the rest of the way. Francesco Molinari, who got into the field when Tim Clark chose not to play because of injury, beat Scott on the 14th hole.

– Only four of 19 holes were halved between Walker and Gary Woodland. Walker sent it to extra holes with a birdie on the 18th, only for Woodland to win with a birdie on the next hole, the par-5 first.

SAN FRANCISCO – Rory McIlroy arrived at Harding Park on Monday knowing he will be at the Match Play Championship at least through Friday.

So will the rest of the 64-man field.

In a format change to avoid the single elimination that often sent the stars home early, the Cadillac Match Play Championship features 16 groups of four players, with the best record from each group advancing to the weekend.

And there was one other twist – the groups were decided by a lottery.

Golf balls gave way to pingpong balls that were plucked out of a bowl to determine which players went into each of the 16 groups. The balls had numbers corresponding to the seeds (based on the world ranking), with Nos. 1-16 serving as the top guy in each group and the other players broken down into sections of Nos. 17 to 32, Nos. 33 to 48, and Nos. 49 to 64.

Had it been a straight draw, top-seeded Rory McIlroy would have been joined by Graeme McDowell (32), Keegan Bradley (33) and Francesco Molinari (64). With the lottery system, McIlroy got Billy Horschel (18), Brandt Snedeker (35) and Jason Dufner (53).

Masters champion Jordan Spieth, the No. 2 seed, drew Lee Westwood (26), Matt Every (40) and Mikko Ilonen (62).

One thing hasn’t changed. For all the analysis of who had the toughest group, match play remains as unpredictable as ever.

“It’s a tough road to get to Saturday,” Snedeker said.

The other change, of course, is the venue. Harding Park is a tight, tree-lined public course in San Francisco that hosted the 2009 Presidents Cup and a World Golf Championship in 2005. It’s nothing like Dove Mountain in the high desert of Arizona, a wide-open course at altitude that favored power and was toward the bottom of just about every player’s list of favorite courses.

Tiger Woods was the star both times the best in golf came to Harding Park. He beat John Daly in a playoff at the American Express Championship, and he went 5-0 in the Presidents Cup. Woods failed to qualify for the Match Play for the first time since it began in 1999. He now is No. 116 in the world.

Phil Mickelson also was a late scratch for what he described only as “personal reasons.” This marks the fourth straight year that Mickelson has missed the Match Play, where he has reached the quarterfinals only once.

Monday was a light day of practice, and there was a rare pro-am for a WGC event before the tournament begins on Wednesday.

There will be no halved matches during round-robin play. Tiebreakers will be determined by head-to-head matches, and in case of a three-way tie in a group, there will be a sudden-death playoff to see who advances.

The round of 16 on Saturday morning will be followed by the quarterfinals in the afternoon, and then the semifinals and championship match on Sunday.

Most players embraced the change, and it certainly helps with the sponsor and the public. No more than five of the top 10 seeds were around by Friday in the last three years of single elimination.

“Just because you have a bad nine holes doesn’t mean you’re going home until the weekend. That’s a comforting fact,” Snedeker said. “But you still have to play great golf. I think everyone is excited about the fact there’s no way to fake it. The guy playing the best is going to get out of his group.”

No one was happier than Ilonen, who only got into the field when Mickelson withdrew. Ilonen played in the Volvo China Open on Sunday, flew over to San Francisco as the first alternate and was prepared to wait around for two days and fly home to Finland if no one withdrew.

When he landed in San Francisco on Sunday night, he had a text from his wife that he was in the Match Play.

“I said, `How do you know?’ She told me she saw it on a website,” Ilonen said.

He didn’t trust what he heard until he went to a higher authority – Twitter.

Walking through the dining room, he quickly went over to his first-round opponent to greet him. That would be Spieth, and the sole purpose was to congratulate the 21-year-old Texan for his wire-to-wire Masters victory.

There is a different buzz to the new Match Play. San Francisco is a refreshing change from Marana, Arizona, for one thing. And there was less a sense of urgency about the Wednesday matches. Everyone is guaranteed three cracks.

“And then it will start feeling like the old one,” Jimmy Walker said. “But it’s still match play. You’re still trying to beat the other guy. You’ve got to play good.”

SAN FRANCISCO – Phil Mickelson has withdrawn from the Match Play Championship because of personal reasons.

Mickelson did not elaborate in a short statement Sunday released by the PGA Tour. Mickelson says he is happy with the new format and he likes Harding Park as a venue for the 64-man field. He said only that it was unfortunate he would not be able to play this year.

Mickelson was replaced by Mikko Ilonen of Finland.

Mickelson has not played since his runner-up finish at the Masters. He has skipped the Match Play in recent years when it was at Dove Mountain in Arizona, and when the Match Play was a single-elimination format. It now will be round robin with 16 four-man groups, meaning each player is guaranteed at least three matches.

AVONDALE, La. – Whatever derailed Justin Rose’s game appears long gone now.

Sensing he needed to birdie the final two holes to keep the lead, Rose pulled it off with aggressive swings and clutch putts for a one-stroke victory over Cameron Tringale on Sunday in the Zurich Classic.

“Earlier this year it looked impossible to win,” Rose said, referring to his three missed cuts and failure to finish better than 37th in his first five starts of 2015. “I’m very happy to have turned my game around.”

Rose completed a 7-under 65 in the rain-delayed third round Sunday morning and closed with a 66 at TPC Louisiana for his seventh PGA Tour title. He finished at 22-under 266, a record total on the course southwest of New Orleans that has hosted the city’s PGA Tour stop 10 times since 2005.

The Englishman has won at least once in six straight seasons, the second-longest streak on the tour behind Dustin Johnson’s eight straight. He’s projected to jump from ninth to sixth in the world ranking.

Rose said his drastic improvement two weeks earlier at the Masters, where he tied for second, helped him in the Big Easy.

“I took my Masters performance with a huge amount of confidence,” Rose said, recalling in particular the sense of calm he was able to maintain down the stretch at Augusta National.

Playing aggressively on the soggy TPC Louisiana, Rose made six birdies in the final round and played the last 66 holes without a bogey.

Rose’s final two putts from 10 and 13 1/2 feet allowed him to hold off Tringale, who birdied the 18th for a 65.

“I’m pleased,” said Tringale, who was looking to become the eighth first-time winner in the last 11 years in New Orleans. “To finish one back is still a pretty good week.”

Boo Weekley, who led after the first round, finished third at 20 under, and Jim Herman and Jason Day, ranked sixth in the world, tied for fourth at 19 under.

Canada’s David Hearn finished at 18 under for a share of 6th with Daniel Berger.

When Rose sank his final putt, he punched his right hand high above his head and looked straight behind the green at roaring fans in the suite of one of his main sponsors, Zurich, which also sponsors the tournament.

He then took off his white cap whipped it across his body and later flexed his left arm to bring attention to the sponsor’s logo on his sleeve.

He had to wait about a half-hour before his closest pursuers completed their rounds, but allowed himself to soak up adulation from fans before the result was official.

“I obviously walked off the golf course feeling like I’d done enough,” Rose said. “The reception when I came off the golf course was I’d done enough. So it’s hard not to enjoy it.”

Rose began the final round tied with Day for the lead at 16 under. But Day, who had to finish most of his third round Sunday morning, hooked his drive into trees lining the left boundary of the second fairway. On the next swing, his ball smacked a tree and bounced right back to him.

He wound up with a bogey on the par-5 hole that he birdied in first and third rounds. On 13, he left a 70-yard approach shot short of the green. He said hot, steamy conditions wore him down over the course of 32 holes.

“The early days and the hot days, and just the long days in general kind of finally caught up to me,” Day said. “I played great all week, but this final round just had a lot of mental errors.”

Rose made birdie putts beyond 10 feet on the par-5 seventh and par-4 eighth to improve to 19 under. That was good for the lead until Tringale, several holes behind, birdied the sixth, chipped in for eagle on the seventh and birdied the eighth to reach 20 under.

The course, carved out of a cypress swamp, was soggy from rain that had fallen for much of the past month, including heavy downpours that delayed parts of the second and third rounds.

There was standing water on the edges of some fairways and mud in well-worn spots. As players walked the course, their steps produced a sound similar to water being squeezed from a sponge.

Allowed to lift, clean and place their golf balls in the fairways and with no roll of any significance to be found, players swung aggressively and aimed approach shots pin-high.

With the top of the leaderboard tightly packed as Rose stepped to the par-3 17th, he showed no interest in playing it safe, even though the pin was placed to the left side of the green, near a bulkhead dropping down into a water hazard from which alligators looked on. Rose took out his 5-iron and belted a 210-yarder straight toward the pin, landing about 10 feet behind the hole, setting up his clutch birdie putt.

“It would have been easy to hit it 20, 30 feet right of that pin, but I kind of knew that – because I was three or four holes ahead of some of the other guys in contention – I knew they had birdie opportunities.”

On the par-5 18th, with water to the right, Rose unloaded a 295-yard drive down the middle, then smacked a 3-wood 243 yards just left of the green and chipped over a sand trap to set up what would be his winning putt.

AVONDALE, La. – Erik Compton birdied three of five holes after a nearly six-hour rain delay Saturday, giving the two-time heart transplant recipient a share of the lead with Jason Day early in the third round of the rain-plagued Zurich Classic.

Compton and Day were at 13 under, a shot ahead of Justin Rose, Blayne Barber, Jerry Kelly and Canada’s David Hearn at TPC Louisiana when play was suspended because of darkness.

Compton finished six holes, and Day played three. Before rain halted play at 12:14 p.m., Day finished off a 7-under 65 to take the second-round lead.

Winless on the PGA Tour, Compton also completed a 65 in the second round.

“It was nice to come out this morning and finish the round,” Compton said. “And then, I basically just did what everybody else did, just saddled up and waited.”

Compton opened the third round with a birdie on the first hole before the long delay. He came back with a birdie on the par-5 second and added birdies on the fourth and fifth holes.

“It’s going to be a low scoring tournament so fortunate to get off to a decent start, a good start,” Compton said. “It’s a lot of golf, so you know you have to reach a number.”

The strong storm downed at least one tree and toppled tables. Play resumed at 5:57 p.m. and was suspended for the day at 7:32 p.m.

Play was scheduled to resume at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, and sun and a high around 90 were forecast. The players will not be repaired for the final round.

Saturday was the third consecutive day rain has either halted or suspended play. On Thursday, play was suspended for 1 hours, 18 minutes. On Friday, play was suspended for the day at 4:30 p.m.

It took Day 13 hours to get in seven holes Saturday.

“It’s just a lot of patience you had to have today,” Day said. “I know that it’s very easy to get frustrated and start getting angry at the things that have gone on, especially with the weather. But with everyone that’s getting frustrated I know I can’t. Just got to stay centered and keep pushing.”

The Australian, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 6, will open his title defense in the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Match Play next week in San Francisco

Barber finished 11 holes, Hearn seven, Rose six and Kelly five.

Dustin Johnson, ranked No. 7 in the world, was 7 under. Boo Weekley, the first-round leader after a 64, was 9 under – 1 over through five holes in the third round.

Tournament officials said shortening the tournament to 54 holes wasn’t being considered.

AVONDALE, La. – Hudson Swafford didn’t want to dwell on the pressure of the high-stakes weekend that awaits him.

Tied for the Zurich Classic lead after a 6-under 66 on Friday in the suspended second round, the 2011 Georgia graduate was eager to meet some college friends from New Orleans and take advantage of being in Louisiana during crawfish season.

“I’m probably going to eat some mud bugs with my wife, some crawfish downtown, just walk around,” said easygoing Southerner, winless on the PGA Tour. “Got to see the sights here and take in the good food.”

Boo Weekley also was tied for the lead at 11 under when play was suspended ay at TPC Louisiana because of the threat of severe thunderstorms. Weekley, tied for first-round lead after a 64, had three holes left.

Jason Day, ranked sixth in the world, was 5 under for the round through 14 holes, pulling him into a five-way tie for third at 10 under with Brandon de Jonge, Cameron Tringale, former Zurich champion Jerry Kelly and Daniel Berger. Tringale had a 65, and de Jonge shot 70. Kelley was on the 18th green when play was stopped, and Berger had three holes left.

Canada’s David Hearn had a share of 8th at 9-under thru 11 holes.

Second-round play was scheduled to resume Saturday at 8 a.m. CDT.

De Jonge, from Zimbabwe, was the co-leader after the first round and might have remained atop the leaderboard had he not narrowly missed several putts. But he was briefly tied for the lead again late in his morning round when he hit his tee shot within a few feet of the pin on the par-3 17th and made his birdie putt. He narrowly missed another birdie putt on 18.

“I gave myself a lot of chances,” de Jonge said. “I just didn’t make any putts.”

De Jonge, who has more than 220 PGA Tour starts without a victory, is well aware that seven of the past 10 Zurich Classics have concluded with first-time Tour winners, and hopes to continue that trend.

“Obviously, I would like to win and get the monkey off your back,” he said. “But when it’s your time;, it will be your time.”

The field remained tightly packed with birdies seemingly harder to come by on Friday. Many players cited a combination of wind, soggy turf from recent rains and thick, swampy air as reasons the course to play even longer than usual.

Six players were tied for eighth, just two shots off the lead. They were Chad Campbell, Morgan Hoffman, Steven Bowditch, Justin Thomas, Chris Stroud and David Hearn.

Seven more players were at eight under, including Marc Leishman, who returned to the PGA Tour this weekend after taking a month off from golf to tend to family when his wife became gravely ill.

With his wife, Audrey, recovering, Leishman came to New Orleans saying he just wanted to “knock off some rust.” He did a lot better than that and is now in line for a nice pay-day, given officials were estimating the cut line at four under.

Leishman was 10 under for the round through 17 holes, putting him in position to set a course record with a birdie on the par-5 18th. But after a booming drive, Leishman gambled on an aggressive second shot, using his driver on the fairway. He pushed his ball to the right and into a water hazard. When play was stopped, he was on the fringe, lying four, needing to sink his next shot on Saturday morning to tie the course record of 62.

“Hopefully, I’ll hole out or get up and down for bogey,” said Leishman, who shot a 74 on Thursday. “It was a good day, my expectations were pretty much non-existent this week.

“It’s just good to be out there and knock the cobwebs off,” the Australian added. “Today, I hit some good shots and holed some putts and all of a sudden you’re 10-under.”

Weekley, a three-time PGA Tour winner, continued to play well with new shafts that he credited for a strong first round after missing the cut in three of his previous four tournaments.

Swafford, in only his second season on the tour, had six birdies during his second round.

His best finish is tied for eighth at the Frys.com Open last October, though his most impressive outing may have been at last month’s Arnold Palmer invitational at Bay Hill, where he tied for 11th.

Swafford said he has been gaining confidence since adjusting his back swing earlier this year and figured he’d contend for a win before long.

“I have seen it coming, I really have,” Swafford said. “I’ve seen a lot of good golf, seen a lot of good motions, displayed a lot of patience. So I’m not overly surprised with this.”

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Tiger Woods has added The Players Championship to his schedule, another indication that he is getting back to a normal golf season.

Woods won The Players the last time he played in 2013. He missed last year while recovering from back surgery that forced him to miss a combined seven months in 2014. He sat out two months earlier this year to work on his game – particularly his chipping – after posting a career-high 82 in Phoenix.

Woods is No. 106 in the world ranking and did not qualify for the Match Play Championship next week in San Francisco. The Players Championship is May 7-10.

Jack Nicklaus said earlier this week that Woods told him he would be at the Memorial, which is June 4-7.

Looking forward to going back to THE PLAYERS this year, hoping for a repeat of 2013.

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) April 24, 2015

AVONDALE, La. – Boo Weekley solved his uncharacteristic ball-striking problems with new shafts.

A day after changing the shafts in his irons, Weekley shot an 8-under 64 on Thursday in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans for a share of the first-round lead with Brendon de Jonge.

“You go to tinkering around with clubs and you finally find a shaft, and (True Temper) finally stepped up and built me a set of clubs and they worked,” said Weekley, the three-time PGA Tour winner who missed the cuts in four of his past six tournaments. “I’ve been missing something in my game, and it was because I (haven’t) been able to control my irons. It just starts messing with you mentally.”

Weekley had an eagle, seven birdies and a bogey at rain-softened TPC Louisiana. De Jonge, from Zimbabwe, had eight birdies in a bogey-free round.

Sean O’Hair and Canada’s David Hearn shot 65 on the Pete Dye-designed layout.

Tour rookie Mark Hubbard had five consecutive birdies in the middle of his round and finished with a 66. He was tied with Erik Compton, Brian Davis, Greg Owen and Daniel Berger.

Dustin Johnson, ranked No. 7 in the world, was at 67 in a large group that included former Zurich winner K.J. Choi and Jason Day, the highest ranked player in the field at No. 6.

Weekley, from Milton, Florida, played in front of a number of family and friends. He eagled the par-5 second hole and added birdies on the fifth and eighth holes. He bogeyed the ninth, but rallied with birdies on Nos. 11-13 and closed with a birdie on the par-5 18th.

“I felt like if the putts would have fallen that I hit, I felt like it could have been a 59 easy,” Weekley said after posting his lowest score in more than two years. “I felt like I should have easily shot 8-under on the front side.”

De Jonge, starting on the back nine, birdied three consecutive holes after a par on his first hole and made the turn at 4 under. He had four straight birdies on the back, but failed to birdie the par-5 eighth.

De Jonge, who hit 12 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens, played the par 4s in 7 under but was only 1 under on the par 5s in his lowest round of the year.

“I left a couple of shots on the par 5s but made it up on the par 4s,” said de Jonge, who added he has never played well at TPC New Orleans. “The course was there for the taking. You’ve obviously got to hit the fairways, but the tour let us play (lift, clean and place), so that was the key out there today.”

O’Hair was 3 under after his first two holes, including an eagle on the first when he knocked in his second shot from 123 yards. He was 7 under through his first 11 holes, but bogeyed the 12th before closing with a birdie on the 18th.

“I kind of caught myself pressing on the back nine,” said O’Hair, who has two top 10s in his past four tournaments, including a sixth-place finishes this past week at the RBC Heritage. “Once I got to 7 (under) I was kind of pushing a little bit, forcing a little bit on the greens.”

Players were allowed to lift, clean and place their balls in anticipation of showers that arrived in mid- afternoon, suspending play for 1 hour, 18 minutes. A calm wind for much of the day along with soft greens left the course defenseless.

“Hopefully, the weather (Friday) will be good,” Day said after a round in which he hit two balls in the water on the par-3 third for a double-bogey 5 and followed with a bogey on the fourth hole. “It will be good to see the course dry out, and obviously when the weather comes in it’s no fun for anyone.”