Jorge Campillo (-15) has been playing a different game in the first two rounds of the Estrella Damm Andalucía Masters. Rounds of 64 and 65 strokes, thirteen birdies, one eagle, and zero bogeys. He is very sharp from the tee, brilliant with the irons, and relentless with the putter. He hasn’t gotten into any trouble in 36 holes. None whatsoever. The only minor issues he has encountered have been due to some putts where he overhit and had to sink a tricky return, as happened today on the 17th hole, where he was forced to make a return putt of more than three metres for par.
He is leading the tournament by five strokes. Anyone might think he has it in the bag, but no one with any knowledge of this sport can count their chickens before they hatch. Campillo, much less so. It’s not that the bear is caught, nor cornered; for the Spaniard, his lead with 36 holes to go is akin to not even knowing if there are bears in the woods.
This is the lesson learned from 372 tournaments played on the DP World Tour, twelve years at the highest level, three victories, and 105 top 25 finishes. No lead is safe enough to be confident. In fact, the first thing Campillo recalled after finishing his round was that “at the KLM Open last year, I had a three-stroke lead after the second round and ended up in 29th place.” In reality, it was two, but it’s his memory and a thorn in his side that will surely serve as motivation this weekend.
Statistics are stubborn. No one needs to tell the golfer from Norba. He has led after two rounds on the DP World Tour on five occasions and only succeeded once. It was at the Qatar Masters in 2020 when he slept on the lead on Friday tied with Andy Sullivan. His other three leads after 36 holes were:
– Qatar Masters 2017. He was tied with eight other players and finished thirteenth.
– Belgian Knockout 2018. He led after the second round, although this tournament shouldn’t count because from there it was stroke play format.
– Irish Open 2022. He led with -11 alone and finished seventh.
Beyond the thorn of the KLM Open, Campillo has another one in Spain. He has played 35 DP World Tour tournaments in his country and has yet to win. If anything excites him, it’s winning on home soil. He finished second in Mallorca and has five top 10 finishes. It was hard for him to play well in Spain because of the desire he always had to perform well. In fact, the evolution in this regard is remarkable. In his first eleven tournaments on Spanish soil, he missed the cut seven times. Now, he has made the cut in eleven consecutive tournaments. He needs that comfort, and it seems he has achieved it for some time. It’s his moment, although Jorge has yet to see a bear on the horizon.
Campillo, depending on what happens in the afternoon, has a five-stroke lead over Jordan Smith (-10), an expert in tournaments in Sotogrande, Julien Guerrier (-10), who settled for a par round today after yesterday’s display, and Scott Jamieson (-10), who posted the second-best round of the morning after Jorge’s.
As for the rest of the Spaniards, Nacho Elvira (-4) has secured the cut with a round of 70 strokes. He needed it after two consecutive weekends in limbo. Also making the cut, the twenty-second in 24 tournaments played, is David Puig (-3). The drama has been for Adri Arnaus (-2), who is going to miss the cut unless there’s a hurricane in the afternoon, after finishing with three bogeys in the last five holes. In Korea, he will play for his European Tour card in one go. Also missing the cut are Álvaro Quirós, who played under par today, Rafa Cabrera Bello, and Santi Tarrio, in the same situation as Arnaus.
