“I don’t feel part of the PGA Tour.”
That was Rafa Campos back in February, on the range at PGA National, where he would soon be shut out of yet another tournament as a Korn Ferry Tour graduate. With a low priority rank, Campos would tee it up just three times before the Valspar Championship in late March. Never mind that Campos posted two top-20s during that stretch; he’d exit the Tour stop in his native Puerto Rico at No. 110 in FedExCup points.
“I feel like I can be one of those top-50 guys in the world, but I need the opportunities, plain and simple,” Campos added earlier this year. “When you’re only playing a week per month not knowing when you’re playing next, and then having to put a bit of extra pressure on that week knowing that you need the points, it’s not the same as being able to have a full schedule.”
Campos later missed eight straight cuts during the meat of the season. He then failed to make four straight weekends entering this week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship. At No. 147 points, he was two starts away from likely losing his job.
But then something crazy happened: Down to his final couple opportunities, Campos finally capitalized, overcoming windy conditions to shoot 19 under and capture his first career PGA Tour title by three shots on Sunday at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda.
Now, Campos is part of the PGA Tour for at least the next two seasons.
And it took mere milliseconds for it to sink in, Campos’ emotions pouring out as the ball disappeared in the hole for the final time to mark the 36-year-old Campos as just the second PGA Tour winner from Puerto Rico, following the late Chi-Chi Rodriguez.
“It’s been an unbelievable week, best week of my life,” said Campos, still balling and drenched after being showered with champagne from some peers, including Nico Echavarria, who grabbed his second career Tour win a few weeks ago. “After such a bad year, to have things kind of go my way, everything together at once, I’m just so happy and grateful to have the support I do. My team, my coaches, my sponsors, my family. My caddie did a great job today. I just can’t believe this is actually happening to me after such a year. I’m just grateful to be able to call myself a PGA Tour champion. It’s something I’ve dreamt about all my life. I just want to call my family.”
Campos’ wife, Stephanie, was back home in Puerto Rico with the couple’s newborn daughter, Paola, who was born on Monday. With Campos fighting to keep his card, Stephanie chose to induce labor between starts in Cabo and Bermuda. Campos didn’t arrive in Bermuda until Thursday morning, just hours before his first-round tee time.
Suddenly at peace with whatever professional golf threw his way these final two weeks, Campos embraced the high wind gusts, which flirted with 40 mph on Saturday. And despite being ranked outside the top 150 on Tour in strokes gained tee to green, Campos gleaned confidence from remembering his lone professional victory, in a gusty Bahamas in 2019 on the Korn Ferry Tour. He fired a 9-under 62 on Saturday to grab his third career 54-hole lead on Tour, and on Sunday, he played the six-hole stretch of Nos. 6-11 in 4 under with an eagle at the par-5 seventh.
Things could’ve easily gone sideways after Campos lipped out a 1-footer for par at the par-4 14th, but Campos still had a two-shot lead at that point. A birdie at the par-5 17th kept him two clear of eventual runner-up Andrew Novak, who bogeyed his last hole to shoot 71, three worse than Campos’ closing 68.
There are no gimmes on the PGA TOUR.
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 17, 2024
Rafa Campos' lead is down from 3 to 2. pic.twitter.com/0jwSMrpe8j
“It was so hard to make putts today,” Novak said. “So many short misses, stuff like that. Greens haven’t been cut since Friday, it’s blowing 30, two feet isn’t even safe. Like it was so scary today.”
Sam Ryder tied for Justin Lower and Vince Whaley for fifth, a shot back of Mark Hubbard and Adrien Dumont de Chassart at 15 under. Ryder’s strong finish bumped him up 13 spots to No. 122 in FedExCup points. Wesley Bryan backed up a third-round 61 with a 74 and T-17 finish, yet he still climbed three spots to No. 125 in points entering next week’s fall finale, the RSM Classic.
The top 125 players after that retain full membership on the PGA Tour next year. Campos no longer needs to worry about such a bubble.
He’s part of the PGA Tour for a while.
