Michael Campbell ended an agonising run of outs in the UAE capital to be very much in contention with two rounds to play in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

Campbell birdied his closing two holes, including holing a 15-foot putt from just off the green at the last, in a score of 71 to be sharing seventh place on four under par. 

Michael Campbell heads into the clubhouse giving the thumbs up after moving to a share of seventh after two rounds of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)

The former US Open winner will head to the weekend rounds only four behind England’s Justin Rose who added a 69 to his opening 67 to be at eight under par.

Campbell has never made the cut four appearances in the Abu Dhabi event but he laughed that off with another solid display around the National course.

“Today was a little bit scrappy but it was nice to finish off the round with two birdies,” he said.

“So I can walk away today very pleased and I’m very much looking forward to the weekend.

“I haven’t played for about eight weeks except for some social golf with a few mates, so it’s nice to get back into competition and with a scorecard in my hand.”

Campbell is looking to end a more than seven year winless drought and his cause has been helped with the shock departure of the World No. 1 Rory McIlroy and World No. 2 Tiger Woods.

It’s the first time the game’s top two ranked players have missed the cut since McIlroy and Luke Donald were cut from the last two rounds of last June’s US Open.

“It’s going to make it easier with Rory and Tiger out of the tournament but then Rosie (Rose) is playing really well so he could be hard to beat,” said Campbell.

“But then you can’t just focus on one player as there is still a lot of good players out there”.