Brian Campbell, the Big Ten player of the year in 2014 for Illinois, is finally a winner as a pro.
Campbell, 31, birdied the second playoff hole at VidantaWorld in Vallarta, Mexico, on a putt of 3 feet, 7 inches to beat 20-year-old Aldrich Potgieter of South Africa in the Mexico Open, Campbell’s first professional victory in 187 combined starts on the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour.
Campbell (70) and Potgieter (71), the 54-hole leader, finished 20-under 264 to top Isaiah Salinda (65) by one shot and Aaron Rai (67) and Ben Griffin (67) by two.
Brian Campbell got a break off the tee
Campbell and Potgieter played the par-15 18th hole twice. They parred it the first time, Potgieter missing a birdie-putt attempt of 18-10 and Campbell missing from 12-9.
Campbell then got perhaps the break of his professional life on the next tee shot. He hit a wild slice that hit a stand of trees that were out of bounds, with the ball bouncing out into the right rough. Potgieter found the fairway.
Campbell pounded a 3-wood down the fairway, leaving himself with a third shot of 68 yards. But he knocked a wedge close and Potgieter’s second shot found the front bunker, and he blasted out to just over 6 feet.
He missed and Campbell made to decide the second playoff of the season on the PGA Tour.
Salinda, a PGA Tour rookie and a Stanford graduate could have joined the playoff with an eagle at the last but drove into the rough at No. 18 and couldn’t reach the green in two.
Rai, who was 5-under through his first six holes and was tied for the lead at one point, bogeyed Nos. 16 and 17.
Campbell earned $1,260,000 and 500 FedEx Cup points. He also picked up a PGA Tour exemption for two years and qualified for a Masters invitation and berths in The Players Championship in two weeks and the PGA Championship May 15-18 at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte.
Campbell has had a long road to victory
Campbell missed five of his previous seven cuts on the PGA Tour this season and was lagging at 165th on the PGA Tour money list and tied for 163rd on the FedEx Cup points list.
He’s now 12th on the FedEx Cup list and 24th on the money list with $1,281,032.
Campbell had only one season on the PGA Tour before 2025, and he lost his card in 2017 after finishing 180th on the FedEx Cup. He regained his card for this season by finishing seventh on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour points list.
Campbell had never had a top-10 finish on the PGA Tour before the Mexico Open. He was runnerup five times on the Korn Ferry Tour, including last season when he tied for second, one shot behind winner Braden Thornberry.
Tour swings to Florida
The Tour now moves to the Florida Swing, beginning with this week’s Cognizant Classic at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens. Campbell is in the field, along with Salinda, Griffin and four other players who were in the top 10 in Mexico.
The tournament begins on Thursday. The headliners include Daniel Berger, Rickie Fowler, Brian Harman, Billy Horschel, Sungjae Im and defending champion Austin Eckroat.
In succession, the Tour will then play the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach and the Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: PGA Tour Mexico Open: Brian Campbell nips Aldrich Potgieter in playoff
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