VidantaWorld has been labeled a bomber’s paradise. The par-71 layout measures 7,436 yards with two par-5s over 600 yards. Jake Knapp, Tony Finau and Jon Rahm have all won Mexico Opens here.
So, it was of little surprise that the PGA Tour’s young Oppenheimer, 22-year-old Aldrich Potgieter, was one of two players left standing come Sunday evening’s sudden-death playoff. Potgieter leads the Tour in driving distance (328.7 yards), ball speed (190.78 mph) and clubhead speed (125.75).
And the other guy? The complete opposite.
Brian Campbell is last on Tour in driving distance (262 yards) – by over 15 yards. His average ballspeed (160.93 mph) and clubhead speed (108.22 mph) are nearly Tour-worst numbers. He’s the anti-Potgieter, and on paper, he was one of the least likely contenders this week at VidantaWorld.
Luckily for Campbell, Tour events aren’t won on paper.
This one – the 34-year-old Campbell’s first of his Tour career – was won with a world-class short game, clutch wedge play and one of the luckiest bounces you’ll ever see.
Oh, and one more thing.
“Grit,” Campbell said, clearly at a loss for words. “I can’t believe it.”
Moments earlier, on the second playoff hole, Campbell flared his drive right at the par-5 18th hole while clocking just 164 mph, an eye-popping 30 mph slower than Potgieter’s drive on the hole. Campbell’s ball seemed destined for the forest – and out of bounds – but it was until it wasn’t, the ball reappearing as it bounced back in play. Off what, it’s still unknown.
“I mean, I’ll take it,” Campbell said with a laugh.
Campbell, just 227 yards from the tee, laid up with 3-wood to 68 yards. From there, his brilliant wedge game shined, as Campbell stuck one inside 4 feet, closer than Potgieter who bombed his drive 321 yards before finding the front greenside bunker with his second shot.
“You gotta trust it as much as you can,” Campbell said of his game. “It’s impressive how far some of these guys hit it out here, and that’s just not me. I have to take my game elsewhere.”
Potgieter, the anti-Campbell, struggled around the greens all day while carding even-par 71. It’s not the first time Potgieter’s short game was exposed, as poor chips and bunker shots likely cost him wins at the DP World Tour’s Nedbank Challenge and PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open in recent months. Seventy-seven players teed it up Sunday, and all but one gained more strokes around the green than Potgieter, who lost nearly two and a half.
Potgieter’s troubles began at the par-5 sixth, where he left a 60-yard pitch 38 feet short and eventually made par. He flubbed a chip at the par-4 eighth and bogeyed, before doing similarly at the par-3 ninth. Sinking a 20-footer for par bailed him out at the par-4 10th, but Potgieter wasn’t as fortunate at the par-4 15th, which he bogeyed after leaving a chip short of the green and watching it roll back to his feet.
Potgieter birdied No. 18 in regulation to card a disappointing even-par 71 and join Campbell (70) at 20 under, a shot clear of third-place Isaiah Salinda (65) and two ahead of Aaron Rai (67) and Ben Griffin (67). But Potgieter could only par the finishing hole twice in overtime; he missed from 6 feet to set the stage for Campbell’s winning birdie. Campbell had uncharacteristically missed two putts from 3 feet and change earlier in the round, but this time, it was no problem.
“Pressure’s a big thing,” Potgieter said. “You can’t really beat it, you just have to learn and adjust to it next time you’re in this position again.”
Campbell has made just 28 starts in his Tour career, though he went almost seven years between starts Nos. 23 and 24. Campbell was a standout at Illinois, where he won four times, including two NCAA regionals. His head coach Mike Small called him a big-game hunter, recalling the closing 63 that Campbell fired at the 2014 NCAA Championship to send the Illini to match play at Prairie Dunes. Campbell also played in back-to-back U.S. Opens as an amateur, the latter start coming in 2015 at Chambers Bay, where Campbell was low amateur.
But upon graduating from the Korn Ferry Tour and arriving on the PGA Tour as a rookie for the 2016-17 season, Campbell saw his fortunes flip; in 20 starts, he missed 13 cuts and only mustered a pair of top-25 finishes, though that wasn’t even the worst part. Campbell and his partner Miguel Angel Carballo were penalized for slow play at the 2017 Zurich Classic in what is still the most recently such penalty on Tour.
A few years after that, Campbell lost his Korn Ferry Tour card and then failed to get past the second stage of Q-School in 2021. As Campbell battled having no status and the injuries started to pop up, he, admittedly, “almost stopped golfing.”
Three runners-up and a T-3 last year on the Korn Ferry Tour earned Campbell his return ticket to the Tour. He qualified for last summer’s U.S. Open, too, and tied for 56th in his first major start since Chambers.
The U.S. Open is still the only major Campbell has played, though that will soon change. Thanks to Sunday’s victory, he’s into the Masters and PGA Championship, as well as his first Players Championship and the rest of this year’s signature events, starting with the Arnold Palmer Invitational in two weeks.
“It’s crazy how quickly things can change,” Campbell said, “and I’m so blessed to be in this position.”
When Campbell was handed the trophy Sunday evening at VidantaWorld, it was much heavier than expected. Yet, that didn’t stop him from lifting it sky high with relative ease.
He may be short, but if his journey to the Tour’s winner’s circle has proven anything, the gritty Campbell has strength in spades.
