Leading to a birdie on the second extra hole, the human secured a win in the Mexico Open over Aldrich Potgieter.
Campbell, who finished with a 1-under 70 at Vidanta Vallarta, earned his first professional victory, a decade after he began his career, and the timing couldn’t have been more opportune.
His win sends him to the Masters, The Players Championship, and the PGA Championship, as well as five other major tournaments remaining on the PGA Tour schedule, each with a $20 million guarantee.
I’m truly astonished.
Campbell required a moment of serendipity to turn his mediocre golf game into something more exceptional.
Campbell and Potgieter, who scored 71, both made birdie on the 18th hole in the regular round and started the playoff with a par. Returning to the par-5 final hole for the third time, a significant advantage for the 20-year-old South African due to his strength, Campbell hit a low, hard shot that curved to the out-of-bounds stakes.
He crashed into the trees and managed to get his ball back out into the rough. Still 94 yards behind Potgieter, he had a chance to make a comeback. He hit his next shot with a fairway metal, landing it 68 yards short of the green, and then hit a lob wedge that checked up just a few feet short of the hole.
“Sometimes you just need to take a break, Campbell said. Unfortunately, I hit a really poor tee shot, it hit the tree, but I managed to keep it in play and put us in a good position to hit a wedge and keep the pressure on.
“I was thrilled to have been able to stick with it until the very last moment.”
Potgieter twice hit his second shot from the 18th fairway, using a 6-iron on both occasions, and successfully made par. The first time, he hit a difficult shot that curved sharply to the left and landed on the green. In the second playoff hole, he lined up a shot perfectly, but it fell about a foot short and landed in a sand trap.
He hit the ball about 6 feet to the left, missing the short putt, which put Campell in a position to make a birdie putt that at one time seemed unattainable.
He had a winless streak of 186 starts, racking up a total of $1,487,830 in earnings across the Korn Ferry and PGA Tour combined. His payout on Sunday was $1,260,000.
Potgieter began the final round with a one-stroke lead, but fell behind with two bogies at the end of the front nine. He then caught up to Campbell with an impressive recovery shot on the par-5 14th hole, where he sank a great up-and-down. Both players made one bogey on the back nine and finished tied at 20 under par, with a total score of 264.
Potgieter, who led the field in driving distance, was unable to take advantage of the opportunity on the par-5 closing hole, even after hitting the fairway with each of his drives.
“I’m hoping my chance will come soon,” said Potgieter, who won the 2022 British Amateur at the age of 17 and last year became the youngest to win on the Korn Ferry Tour.
He mentioned that pressure is a major factor, and you can’t simply overcome it, but rather learn from it and adapt for the next challenge.
He finished one stroke ahead of the rest of the field with a score of 67 and shared fourth place with Ben Griffin, who also shot a 67.
Campbell credited his grit for the win, a quality he’s exhibited long before Sunday.
He attended college in Illinois and was the lowest amateur player at the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. He received a PGA Tour card in 2017 and missed the cut in 13 out of 20 tournaments he started in. One of those was the Zurich Classic, where he was penalized for slow play due to a unique ruling that also involved his partner, Miguel Angel Carballo.
After that, he was sent back to the minor leagues for the next seven years, where he finished third in a tournament three times and ranked eighth in the Korn Ferry Tour, earning him another chance at the PGA Tour.
His win earns him a two-year exemption through 2027, and he’ll have a packed March and April with the Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Players Championship, the Masters, and the RBC Heritage all on his upcoming schedule.
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AP golf:
