Jorge

Campillo

The 35-year-old Spaniard finished at 15-under 273, four shots back of first-time European Tour winner Viktor Hovland. It marked the third-straight made cut for Campillo, who has struggled to make just five cuts in 13 starts this season. He’ll make his ninth start at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open this week. Campillo has made the cut in five previous event appearances and placed top 10 in his last two, finishing T-7 in his last appearance in 2019 and solo third in 2018. The former Indiana University standout has won twice on the European Tour, securing his maiden victory in 2019 at the Trophee Hassan II and earning his second at the 2020 Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.

What a remarkable day in the desert. It began with a bogey-birdie exchange from the first, but when the Spaniard followed with seven pars he lost ground to the new leader Jeff Winther. He responded in style, ticking the tenth and 13th to regain the lead. However a bogey at the 16th added to the nerves and when he found a bush from the 17th tee he dropped two shots. Suddenly he was all square with playing partner David Drysdale heading up the last. The Scott missed a 10’0" birdie putt to win it, but drained one from the same distance on the first extra hole to counter a brilliant 30’0" par breaker from Campillo, the second was also shared with birdie, the third and fourth with pars. The 18th had seen just six birdies all day and there were five in the play-off alone; crucially Campillo made the extra one.

Until the end of last year the Spaniard had childhood friend Borja Simo on his bag, but, when Simo returned to the family business, former Challenge Tour player Jesus Legarrea stepped in and it’s taken a while for the pair to bed in. In fact, Campillo hasn’t had a top 30 all season so this is a huge opportunity to transform the campaign – and in some style, maybe, with a second European Tour win. He started from the tenth on Thursday and made an early bogey at his third hole, the 12th. He would make another bogey there in R3, with a three-putt, but it was his first in 45 holes. A two-putt birdie at par-5 13th was his immediate response, however he gave the shot back at the 15th. Before then it had been plain-sailing. He ticked three-in-a-row at the fifth, sixth and seventh, slam-dunked a 35’0" birdie putt at the ninth and chipped-in for another red number at the tenth. This is his third experience of leading after 54 holes; both previous times he finished second.

The duo are a shot in front of Alexander Bjork, Marcus Kinhult, Joost Luiten, Romain Langasque and Oliver Fisher. Campillo was runner-up in this event at Doha GC last year but showed he enjoyed the new course, Education City, as well with a 66 in round one. He matched that tally today and, so far, has dropped just a single shot (par-3 12th in R1). The Spaniard made his first move with a birdie-par-birdie-birdie run from Nos. 4-7 going out and had another push after the turn with birdies at 11 and 13 to tie Sullivan. One more circle would have given him the outright lead but Campillo closed with a run of five pars. After a tough time of it so far this year (three missed cuts in the last four), this is more like the player we saw at the start of 2019. His only halfway lead in a regular 72-hole strokeplay event on the European Tour was in this very event two years ago. He imploded with a Saturday 75 on that occasion although a R4 66 pulled him back to T13.

It has been a difficult season for the Spaniard, who saw his long-term (in fact only career) caddie return home to Spain at the end of 2019 and since then he has failed to land better than T34 in five attempts, playing four times only twice and one of those was the WGC Mexico Championship (no cut). He owns four top 25s in seven tournament starts, with a best of T2 last year, so the change to Education City GC might have bothered him, but the first day evidence suggests otherwise. He started the day on the back nine, making birdies at the tenth, 13th, 16th and 17th, with just the one error at the 12th. It was to be his only bogey and he added more red at the first and sixth on the way home. After the morning wave had completed he shared third with Thomas Pieters and Lorenzo Gagli, one blow behind Joost Luiten and two back of clubhouse leader Nicolai Hojgaard.

Throughout his professional career the Spaniard had good friend Borjan Simo, from his home, village on the bag, but Simo has returned home to work in the family business and so Campillo has employed a new man. Last week in Abu Dhabi they opened up with a neat enough T34. Before that he ended 2019 with two top 20s, his first since July at the Irish Open. His form on the course defines the term “solid-yet-unspectacular”. In eight visits he has only once failed to last the distance, but he has never breached the top 20, with his best effort T23 in both 2014 and 2017. The other five starts have seen him land T47 or worse. Only once in all those appearances has he ended a round in the top ten, after the opening lap in 2017.

Quietly this is a big fortnight for the Spaniard who has played his entire professional career with one caddie – his best friend Borja Martin Simo. But after next week’s event Simo will return home to Spain for good to work in the family business. In truth, if they have a good send off it is more likely to come next week than this because in three visits to the course Campillo has a best of T27, his only top 40. Moreover he has only once broken 71 in 12 laps. He’s not been in good form in recent months. In fact he lacks one top 25 finish since he was T7 in the Irish Open in July. However his last three results do read MC-T34-T28 so he is heading in the right direction.

The Spaniard is yet to look at home above European Tour level. He’s played two PGA Championships and two Opens – and he hasn’t made a cut. The same fate might have befallen him on the WGC were cuts a thing. He struggled to T27 (improving at the weekend) in the 2018 Mexico Championship and was T54 in this event on debut last year. This year he had a magic spell of five top three finishes in six starts, including a maiden ET win, during the spring, but in recent weeks he has been dire. He’s on a run of 1-for-8, with T33 in the European Open his only weekend. He hasn’t broken 70 since July or bettered 72 in his last eight laps.

It seems slightly extraordinary that a man who has missed five of his last eight cuts could rank 11th on the Race to Dubai, but that says much about how good the Spaniard was early in the season – he earned himself plenty of leeway, but he’ll be ready to kickstart his end of season. Within that poor recent run has been a few reminders of his 2019 quality. He was T15 at Valderrama and T7 at Lahinch in the Irish Open, then T33 last time out in the European Open. This will be his ninth KLM Open start and he has been solid but rarely spectacular. He is 5-for-8 with a best of T15 last year.