Rafael Campos has played in his homeland’s biggest tournament — the Puerto Rico Open — every year since its introduction as a PGA Tour event in 2008.
But this year, Campos is taking a pass on the his home open.
Why? We’ll let him explain.
“[I] got one of the best calls I’ve received in years,” Campos said from this week’s Mexico Open. “The Friday of Scottsdale [two weeks ago], I was with my wife in the morning and I see a message for Mr. Drew Donovan, [who] is the tournament director for the Arnold Palmer Invitational and it said, ‘Call me.'”
Donovan had called to offer Campos a sponsor exemption in the API, one of the PGA Tour’s Signature Events with a $20 million purse. It’s just the second Signature Event Campos will play in and he’s guaranteed to bring home valuable FedEx Cup points and a piece of that massive purse with the event not having a 36-hole cut.
“I started kind of crying a little bit because it means a lot to us, to me, to us, the Puerto Ricans, just being able to go and play in a bigger event, bigger opportunity,” said Campos, who won the Butterfield Bermuda Championship last year. “Really motivates the younger generations back home to realize that, ‘Hey, if you put in the work, if you dedicate your time and really work hard, you can really move to those bigger and better opportunities.'”
Campos is the only member of the PGA Tour from Puerto Rico and has been in the middle of a rough stretch with his game of late.
While he won in his 80th career PGA Tour start in November and the victory saved his PGA Tour card, it hasn’t translated into continued good form. Other than the win in Bermuda and a 57th-place showing at the Sentry, Campos has missed the other nine cuts in his last 11 starts on the PGA Tour. In 2024, he made just eight of 25 cuts and he hasn’t made one this season as the Sentry didn’t have a cut.
So, a couple of weeks ago, Campos’ caddie stepped in.
“It wasn’t until after Farmers a few weeks ago, three weeks ago that my caddie pretty much said, ‘Hey, man, like we can’t keep playing like this, we’ve got to make some changes,'” Campos said. He sought out Boyd Summerhays, one of GOLF’s Top 100 Teachers in America and took lessons with him. “Really understood the reason why the ball was going the way it was. Made a huge change two weeks ago, especially the way I grip the club and how I want the club to be moving out of my backswing.”
Campos’ poor form and swing change made the sponsors’ invite from the Arnold Palmer Invitational all the more surprising, but when an opportunity like that comes along for a journeyman pro like him, he has to take it.
He was emotional when he shared the news with his wife.
“I was a little teary eyed, and I go in and my wife was there, she’s like, ‘Hey, are you OK?'” Campos said.
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, unfortunately, we can’t play the Puerto Rico Open.’
“She’s like, ‘Did you get injured, did you fall, what happened back there?’
“I told her we got a spot in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.”
Campos, like many other pros seeking sponsor’s exemptions into PGA Tour events, said he had written around 150 letters to tournament directors trying to get spots in their fields. The acceptance by the API is one of just a handful of times it’s actually worked out for him.
“That’s a blessing,” Campos continued. “It’s an opportunity obviously we’ll always remember. I really want to take advantage of that opportunity and at the same time hopefully it’s the start of me gaining the confidence I need to start playing some good golf and hopefully being in that tournament for the future.”
