An uninspired first round of 74 had left him needing to score well under par to qualify for the final two rounds.
He played the front nine in 34 to put himself on track to make the final in the 150th playing of golf’s oldest championship.
A 3m birdie putt on the 5th was followed on the 6th by a 6m birdie for the 30-year-old.
Campbell knew his way around St Andrews well and appeared to be both assured and confident in his first major.
The layout of the Old Course becomes rather quirky and cramped around the 8th, 9th and 10th holes.
Campbell hit an excellent approach into the 10th and lined up his birdie putt. He had to back off his putt to allow those on the 11th to tee off.
His birdie attempt looked slightly rushed and he left himself with a very missable 1m putt for par. He calmly holed it for par. Crisis over.
On the 12th hole he struck a superb drive on to the green over 300m, leaving himself with an eagle putt on the par four. His two-putt birdie, followed by pars home would have seen him qualify comfortably.
It was not to be. His drive into a bunker on the 15th left him with no option but to chip sideways about 10m on the par-4 15th for a resulting bogey.
The Road Hole 17th has undone many golfers in the past and Campbell became another victim of the toughest hole on the course.
His 200m second shot missed the green to the right. He chipped within range but failed to make the 2m putt for par.
He was then probably aware that he was one shot over the projected even par cut line with only the last hole to go.
He needed a birdie on the 18th, but failed at the last hurdle after missing his very makeable birdie putt from about 3m. For Campbell it was all over — but he had not looked at all out of place among the game’s finest players.
Ryan Fox also had his chances to qualify, but a double bogey on the 16th and his failure to make a birdie on the 18th after a 300m drive by the green put him two shots above the cut line.
-- Geoff Saunders
