The Magic that Made Brian Campbell

Stars put asses in seats, there’s no doubt about it. But Sunday was a pretty great reminder of how special this little game we love really is.

Brian Campbell has been through it all, a true journeyman in every sense of the word.

He turned professional in 2015, earned his PGA TOUR card in 2017, lost it, and seven years later at the age of 31, got it back finishing seventh overall on the Korn Ferry Tour last season. His four starts prior to the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld looked less than optimistic for the SoCal native; Campbell withdrew from the Sony Open in Hawaii, tied for 51st at The American Express, and missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open.

Nothing about his recent play gave any indication of what he would go on to accomplish Sunday afternoon—a win that changed his life.

*Via Getty Images

In fact, it was the perfect ending to the last month for the TOUR, which saw one of golf’s all-time best, Rory McIlroy, add a win at one of the “cathedrals of golf” to his resume, and the brightest up-and-coming star, Ludvig Aberg, cement himself as the greatest young talent in the game at one of the most storied courses in the country.

Among all the talk and speculative deals that would bring the game back together so its stars can go head-to-head more than four times a year, wins from players like Campbell are something the TOUR needs to stay alive. These types of feats are what separate golf from every other sport in the world. Four days can change someone’s life forever. Four days to prove all the blood, sweat, and tears were worth it.

And boy-oh-boy has Campbell spilled his lion’s share of blood, sweat and tears over the years.

Across 159 Korn Ferry starts, Campbell made 92 cuts, finished inside the top-20 21 times, and was a five-time runner-up. He earned $1,184,715.

“I’d be lying if I said there weren’t doubts,” Campbell told Skratch’s Dan Rapaport. “There’s always doubts. Even two years ago, I was on second stage thinking maybe golf wasn't what I was gonna do.”

But on Sunday, he flew home with a check worth $1.26 million—and he did it by playing his own game.

Vidanta Vallarta is a bomber’s paradise, proven by past champions like Tony Finau and Jon Rahm. Its fairways are generous and the rough isn’t at all penalizing, meaning most players implement the “smash driver, find it, and hit it again” philosophy, including Campbell’s two playing partners. Aldrich Potgieter, the 36- and 54-hole leader, is the longest player on TOUR—yes, even longer than Rory McIlroy—while Stephan Jaeger has added over 20 yards since 2022 and now averages well over three bills.

But none of that mattered.

Campbell, the shortest hitter on TOUR with an average drive of 277.8 yards, was in a different zip code than Potgieter and Jaeger from the jump. While those two had short irons and wedges into some greens, Campbell was keeping pace with 4- and 5-irons. He let his approach play do the talking—Campbell was fifth in Strokes Gained: Approach for the week—and did just enough to force a playoff against Potgieter, a 20-year-old from South Africa.

We’re trying our hardest to avoid the cliche of calling Campbell’s win a Cinderella story, but the weekend was almost textbook out of a fairytale with ups, downs and even one seemingly magical contribution from the woodland creatures at Vidanta Vallarta.

After a jump-scare off the tee during the second playoff hole, Campbell lost it way right, his ball destined for the out-of-bounds area that stretches all the way down the closing par-5.

And I don’t know if it was a squirrel or a Giving Tree-type act of kindness, but the forest spit his ball back into play, saving his chances south of the border.

After a great shot back into the fairway, Campbell stuffed a wedge from 67 yards to three feet to all but guarantee a birdie four. Potgieter had a chance to match but missed a six-footer that would’ve sent the tournament to a third playoff hole.

Campbell, a name most, if not all, golf fans had no knowledge of prior the the final group’s tee time, was now a TOUR winner.

“I'm literally freaking out on the inside,” Campbell said after sinking the clinching putt. “I have no idea what's going on… I mean, my team, my whole family, everybody around me, I'm just so appreciative of everything. To be in this position is just so unreal. I just, you know, I can't believe it, really, it's awesome.”

To celebrate, Campbell and his caddie, Cooper Wilson, shared a toast with the tree that saved their tournament. Wilson himself said, “That ball shouldn't have bounced back.”