The Puerto Rico Open, a PGA Tour tournament that shares dates on the calendar with the Arnold Palmer Invitational and year after year becomes a golden opportunity for players not used to being in the fight for victories, experienced an endless second day of competition this Friday. The intense rains that forced the game to be interrupted for more than two hours yesterday meant that more than 50 players could not complete their first round. So before seven in the morning, local time, the competition was already underway at the Grand Reserve Club in Río Grande.
One of those affected by the delay was the Spaniard Jorge Campillo (-2), who in the holes he had left to close his first round could not improve the result of four strokes above the field par with which he had gone to the hotel on Thursday night. A round of 76 strokes that placed him six from the provisional cut, making it almost a ‘miracle’ the fact of being able to continue playing the weekend. Although the truth is that the Extremaduran, against all odds, was about to achieve what seemed impossible…
By the halfway point of his second round, which he played next, Jorge had been able to turn his scorecard around like a sock. Four birdies, without a mistake, to get to par and dream of overcoming his third consecutive sieve in this new stage as a full member of the PGA Tour. Three more birdies, between the 10th and 13th, left his small feat practically within reach. He only needed one more in the last five holes to achieve it. However, everything went wrong and he was not only unable to win that last stroke to the field, but he made a bogey to sign a round of 65, notable but insufficient.
After coming out with par from hole 14, at 15 he could not make approach and putt from 70 meters, first clear opportunity lost. At 16 he wasted an even clearer option, missing a putt for birdie from a couple of meters. And at 17 is where everything definitely went wrong: he sent his ball from the tee to the bunker, recovered to the fairway and his shot to green landed four meters from the hole, a risky putt to save par that he did not hole committing the mistake that practically confirmed his goodbye to the tournament.
Hometown love ❤️
Puerto Rico native @RafaCamposGolf felt the support as he finished his second round with a share of the lead @PuertoRicoOpen. pic.twitter.com/HZPuKIfYBb
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 8, 2024
Despite everything, Jorge tried until the end. An eagle on the par five of the 18 could give him the possibility of continuing to play the weekend. But his shot from the tee ended up again in the sand, he played a risky three wood from the bunker trying to ‘hunt’ the green in two… but what he found was the water. A par after dropping confirmed the disappointment for the Spaniard, who had been swimming non-stop all day to end up drowning on the shore.
Ayora, two holes away from overcoming the sieve
Who does seem to have everything in his favour to continue in the tournament is Ángel Ayora (-5). The San Roque player, who started his round at hole 10, was able to overcome two bogeys at 12 and 14 to close at par on the day his first nine with birdies at 15 and 18, squeezing the par fives. On another par five, the 2nd, he signed his third birdie of the day, and although he made a mistake at 4, with another bogey, he completed his ‘full house’ on the par fives with a last birdie at 5 to open a small gap with respect to the cut result (four under par).
Birdie for the lead 💪@Matt_9977 is alone at the top @PuertoRicoOpen. pic.twitter.com/XxOGAXjBsS
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 8, 2024
The lack of light meant that Ayora could not play his last two holes, the par three of the 8 and the par four of the 9. Two pars or even a par and a bogey will give him tomorrow the opportunity to continue playing the weekend in this Puerto Rico Open to which he arrived with an invitation. Fighting for victory, however, seems practically impossible due to his eight-stroke disadvantage to the leader, the American Joe Highsmith (-13), who leads by one margin over a group of six players made up of Matti Schmid, Kevin Streelman, Rafael Campos, Ryo Hisatsune, Brice Garnett and Erik Barnes.
