One swallow does not make for a summer but Michael Campbell had every good reason to smile after securing his best finish in four years with a share of 11th in the French Open in Versailles.

Michael Campbell smiling after his best finish in four years. (Photo - Jenny Matthews/www.golffile.ie)

The former 2005 U.S. Open champion birdied four of five holes from the 11th in a closing round 67 for an eventual two under par tally.

It left Campbell trailing just six strokes behing Germany’s Marcel Siem who ended an eight-year winless drought in winning by a stroke on eight under par.

Campbell’s result is the proud New Zealander’s best finish anywhere since sharing 13th place in the 2008 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and an event after Campbell had finished third in both the Mercedes-Benz Championship and the following week’s Quinn Direct British Masters.

“It has been a good week and I’ve taken a lot of positives away from the four rounds,” said Campbell.

“I’ve always enjoyed playing this National course but my game has been coming around for a good few weeks now ever since I started working again with my old coach, Jonathon Yarwood.

“Jonathon is getting me back to what my game steadily back to where it was when I won the U.S. Open, so all credit to him.

“To shoot a final round 67 felt really exciting and as everyone knows, I haven’t been able to do that for so long.

“So I will take this result now to the Scottish Open and hope to build on that.”

A check of Campbell’s stats for the week reveal: Stroke average – 70.5, Driving distance 273.1 yards, Driving accurace 69.6% (5th overall), Greens in regulation 66.7% (18th overall), Putts in greens in regulation – 1.726 putts (11th overall) and Pulls per round – 28.5 (8th best)

The Pirhana attached Campbell collected a prize cheque for Euro 52,572 which is more than Euro 40,000 more than he had earned this season from three other tournaments where he had made the cut.

Campbell is now 151st on the Race to Dubai.