Pro’s life-changing Mexico Open win comes with important message for pro golf

Brian Campbell has been through it all.

Once a star amateur at Illinois, Campbell turned pro in 2015 and quickly earned his PGA Tour card. But golf is a fickle sport. Campbell lost his card in 2017 and went back to the Korn Ferry Tour. He dealt with injuries for almost a decade while grinding to stay afloat in the pro ranks. He narrowly kept his KFT card in 2023 before finally cracking the top 25 on the season-long points list in 2024 to earn his ticket back to the PGA Tour.

That decade-long journey led Campbell to the 2025 Mexico Open at VidantaWorld this past weekend, where his life changed forever along Mexico’s Pacific coast.

The 31-year-old pro entered the weekend four shots back of 20-year-old rookie Aldrich Potgieter. He closed the gap to one heading into the final round and called it a “dream scenario” to have a chance to win on the PGA Tour. Campbell, the shortest hitter on Tour, battled all day on Sunday before finally beating Potgieter on the second playoff hole to become a PGA Tour champion.

Campbell’s win was also aided by an unlikely lucky bounce on the deciding hole.

The journeyman blew his tee shot right and into the out-of-bounds area. He watched as his ball soared OB, surely taking his title chances with it. But the golf gods had Campbell’s back on Sunday as the ball hit a tree and ricocheted back into play. From there, Campbell hit his second 60 yards short of the green and got up and down for a title-clinching birdie.

After Campbell’s improbable win, his caddie Cooper Wilson gave an emotional interview about the life-changing nature of Sunday’s victory.

“The ball shouldn’t have bounced back,” Wilson told the PGA Tour. “It did. He had the 3-wood off the dirt. Hit a 60-yard shot to however close and made it. To have a job for two more years and chase his dreams some more.

“To see him go from finishing 75th on the Korn Ferry Tour to keep his card, to last year — last year we had success but we also had failure. Like in Bogota last year, losing in a playoff. To have it all come full circle and to see his talent shine and to see our relationship build is really rewarding.”

As men’s professional golf continues to be fractured by a civil conflict that prioritizes money above all else, Campbell’s journey and storybook win is a reminder of what makes professional golf special.

The secret sauce the PGA Tour has always had is that while the stars win a good chunk of the events, there’s always the opportunity for someone like Campbell to have the week of his life and change everything. Any given week, an underdog can get hot and top the best in the world, forever changing the trajectory of their career.

The magic of the PGA Tour lies in its willingness to be open to stories like Campbell’s. That while the stars drive revenue and deliver eyeballs, the stage is open to anyone who can play their way in. The only gate-keeping is your own score.

“Walking up to the green, I told him I’d take his short game over any player in the world, and that I knew he could get it done. He showed it,” Wilson said. “The more you go through something with someone, the more you grow close to one another. I think we have a good balance of business but friendship grows over time. To see his life changed today makes me happy.”

Campbell and Wilson went back and toasted the tree that kicked his errant drive back into play, allowing him to etch his name into the PGA Tour history books.

The epic bounce might get the headlines, but it was Campbell’s resilience and belief that got him to this point — back from the golfing abyss. Golf, much like life, is about making your own luck and seizing the opportunity when the moment arrives.

“Trust yourself,” Campbell said after his win. “This is a crazy game that we choose to play out here, but keep believing in yourself and have a lot of grit out there. It’s cool to see what can happen.”