First-time PGA Tour winner takes advantage of 'bounce of a career' to win 2025 Mexico Open

USA Today

25-02-2025

First-time PGA Tour winner takes advantage of 'bounce of a career' to win 2025 Mexico Open
Brian Campbell's journey to his first victory on the PGA Tour took so many twists and turns that it was only fitting that he finally caught a good break.
Playing the par-5 18th hole at Vidanta Vallarta on Sunday for the third time in the last hour, Campbell benefited from a fortuitous bounce off his tee shot, which peeled right and was headed out of bounds.
'That was the bounce of a career,' NBC's Notah Begay III said.
Campbell's ball spit out of the trees, bounced off the cart path and he took advantage.
The 31-year-old journeyman sank a 4-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole to beat Aldrich Potgieter and win the 2025 Mexico Open at VidantaWorld. Asked how he finally made it to the winner's circle, Campbell needed just one word: "Grit."
That and a little bit of luck.
Campbell had never recorded a top-10 finish in his previous 27 starts on the PGA Tour and was winless in 186 combined starts on the Tour and Korn Ferry Tour. With his tee shot in the playoff in the right rough, he set up a wedge in his wheelhouse and planted it 4 feet from the hole. After Potgieter's birdie effort slid by on the left, Campbell converted for the win.
Campbell shot a final-round 1-under 70 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to post 20-under par 264 on a day where no one seemed to want to take home the trophy and winner's check for $1.26 million.
'I thought I was going to throw up at multiple times during the day,' he said.
The playoff set up as a matchup of opposites. It was The Prodigy Vs The Journeyman, Power Vs Grit and ended as one of those weeks where the snail hit the tape before the hare.
Campbell, a 31-year-old Illini product, had been the Big 10 Player of the Year in 2014 and low amateur at the 2015 U.S. Amateur but had flamed out in his one trip to the PGA Tour in 2017. It took him eight years to get back and he admitted he had nearly given up.
'I almost stopped golfing about two years ago,' said Campbell, who was in danger of flunking out of second stage of PGA Tour Qualifying School after making a quadruple-bogey at a par 3. 'Then somehow managed to fight back the next day and shoot a really nice number, got myself back in it enough to get to final stage. That led to last year and I had a really strong last year. It's crazy how quickly things can change.'
In 2024, he notched three runner-up finishes on the Korn Ferry Tour last season to finish seventh on the money list and graduate back to the PGA Tour for the first time since the 2017-18 season. Of the chance to do battle with Potgieter in the final threesome on Sunday, Campbell said, 'It's what dreams are made of, this is why I've worked so hard to get back there.'
Potgieter is raw and full of promise, which he showed with a course-record 61 on Friday. At age 20 years, 5 months, the South African was attempting to become the sixth-youngest player on Tour to win since the start of the 1983 season. He already holds the distinction of being the youngest winner in the history of the Korn Ferry Tour at 19 years, 4 months and 11 days for his victory at the 2024 Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club. When he won the 2022 British Amateur at Royal Lytham and St Annes, he became the second youngest winner in the events 127-year history at the age of 17. Potgieter is the longest driver on the Tour this season while Campbell ranked No. 182. This week, Potgieter only averaged 40 yards longer off the tee.
'It's hard to look at a guy next to you hitting it 60 to 80 yards past you, but you've really just got to stay focused on what you're there to do and do the best you can,' Campbell said.
Trusting his strengths, he ranked first in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green, second in SG: Around the Green and fourth in SG: Approach. Both Campbell and Potgieter, who shot a final-round even-par 71, made short birdies at 18 in regulation to edge Isaiah Salinda, who had been the leader in the clubhouse at 19 under after a bogey-free 65.
'To at least give myself a chance was all I wanted to do today. I thought honestly being however many back I was, like seven, I knew it was a long shot,' Salinda said.
Potgieter struggled with his short game, making three of his four bogeys on the front nine. He tugged his second shot on the first playoff hole left and was lucky that Campbell missed his first chance for the win.
'I guess I just wanted to keep the party going a little longer but not by design,' Campbell said.
Potgieter still said he was proud of his effort.
'Pressure's a big thing. You can't really beat it, you just have to learn and adjust to it next time you're in this position again,' he said. 'Hopefully my time will come soon.'
Campbell picked quite the way to earn his first career top-10 finish on Tour. When his winning putt dropped, his girlfriend, Kelsi McKee, dropped to her knees and burst into tears of joy.
'That's exactly how I felt on the inside,' Campbell said. 'Yeah, it's really hard to put it into words. You play so hard, you put your heart out there, you grind not just four days but really all week long we're out here. So to have it culminate like this has just been really special.'