While the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld did not provide many star names, and certainly seemed to lack quality on Sunday, it definitely did deliver when it came to drama as Brian Campbell managed to beat Aldrich Potgieter on the second playoff hole.
Brian Campbell was the man to secure his first PGA Tour win by triumphing at the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld. The American posted a one under par round of 70 to force a playoff with overnight leader Aldrich Potgieter.
Campbell received an incredible break on the second playoff hole as his drive looked destined to finish out of bounds. However, the ball smashed into the trees and back into play to give him the chance to get up by the green in two.
While he had plenty of work to do, Campbell was able to make the birdie which was enough to edge out Potgieter.
Smylie Kaufman stunned by Brian Campbell stat from the Mexico Open
Remarkably, the 31-year-old was one of the shortest hitters in the field, while Potgieter was amongst the very longest. Campbell was 131st for driving distance during the second round, according to the PGA Tour website.
But that did not stop him being first in strokes gained from tee to green across the week. And speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman admitted that he could not quite believe just how good Campbell was in that area.
“Brian Campbell ended up fourth in approach to the green category but he was first tee to green. That is just insane to me. Considering how long this golf course played and how short he is off the tee, he was 73rd, 293 [yards]. When you run all the formulas for this golf course. This is the guy you pick at Hilton Head and Colonial, The Sony. I can’t tell you how badly I wouldn’t recommend a player like this at this golf course. So you have to give him so much credit for how well he hit his long irons, his fairway metals and how well he drove the ball to get it into the fairways,” he said.
Kaufman assesses Aldrich Potgieter’s performance at the Mexico Open
While Campbell won, Potgieter is perhaps the player many are talking about. The 20-year-old hits the ball an absolute mile, while his putting was hugely impressive this past week. However, getting across the line has been a problem on a couple of occasions now.
He had a three-shot lead heading into the final round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge in December. And he did not play like someone who was entirely comfortable with the lead in Mexico.
However, there is so much to like about his game. And given his age, there seems to be so much potential for Potgieter to improve, particularly with these kind of early setbacks.
Certainly, Kaufman is expecting to see the South African in contention a lot more often in the years to come.
“I will start with the positives. Obviously the driving. It’s phenomenal. His putting show was really impressive, how many putts he made outside of 10ft. An underrated thing, being a 20 year old and not having experience closing out PGA Tour events, I thought he was very composed for the most part. Showed a lot of grit when he needed to have it. When you have the lead, at least when you sleep on it, for a couple of nights, that is all you are thinking about. So when he needed to make a couple of putts, like he did at the eighth and 10th hole, that showed me had the character to step up in big moments,” he said.
“The weak parts, it seemed like he was indecisive when it came to his short game shot around the greens and this is what you get sometimes on elevated green surfaces when you have the option to fly it or bump and run it. It doesn’t appear to me that he has this wide array of shots, when you grew up in South Africa in firm conditions, I am sure the shot he is most comfortable with is bump and runs. And when you have the technique that he does, full swing, super strong grip, that isn’t a great translator for pitching. You’d like to be more on the neutral side to weaker if anything. So I think that is what he needs to continue to improve on, just having more shots around the green at his disposal that he can queue up on a Sunday. It seemed he wasn’t quite sure what shot to play and it led him to some bogeys.
“I would also say decision making. Just into the greens on where he played shots on just being too aggressive at times or too conservative at others. But other than I was so impressed by what he did, shooting a 61 on Friday.
“Getting to briefly talk to him right after the tournament, I had the chance to interview him, and while we were sitting there and the winner was getting interviewed it was gut wrenching. You are just trying to make conversation. He looked up and said to me ‘I think I am going to be thinking about this for the next three days’. It’s going to be really hard on him over the next couple of days.”
It will not be easy for Potgieter to take the positives for a little while. But he has found himself right in the mix on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour at this stage of his career. There are several reasons to think that Potgieter’s name will be one we hear a lot about in the years to come.
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