Jorge Campillo (-2) has had a more than convincing start today at the Valero Texas Open, although in reality his final score of 70 strokes, which places him in the hot zone, just one stroke from the top ten, has left the player with a worse taste in his mouth than anything else.
Firstly, because the Extremaduran started off brilliantly at hole 10 of the Oaks course at the TPC San Antonio, with three consecutive birdies that were very expensive. And he did so, let’s not forget, on a course with challenging greens due to their firmness, which has already become a serious headache for the majority in this first round. It is true that the leader, an inspired Akshay Bhatia (-9), has gone far away with a scorecard of 63 strokes, but more than a hundred players have been unable to beat the course.
Jorge started off like a rocket, we were saying, and his feelings were also very good, almost always among the top ten in the tournament and regularly giving himself birdie options. The Spaniard was using a new putter today and was feeling very comfortable on the greens, so everything was going the right way.
However, in the final stretch, things were going to get slightly twisted. Firstly, Campillo wasted two excellent opportunities at holes 6 and 7 and ended with a bogey at 9 hitting from the fairway with the pitching wedge and flying over the green. Let’s also say that he played that last hole with very little light on the course (and also some of the previous holes), whether it serves as an excuse or not…
The problem of lack of light, of course, does not catch the Spaniard by surprise in his American adventure, which does not mean that no one can ever get used to such treatment: in the six tournaments he has played, including this week’s, he has always gone out to play in one of the last three matches when he had to, Thursday or Friday, go out in the afternoon shift. And it is well known that in the PGA Tour the first rounds hardly ever drop below five or five and a half hours, so there has not been a single occasion, not a single one, in which Campillo has finished without it getting dark and with the greens in the worst state one can find.
Okay, he is still a meritorious player who is making his debut on the circuit, but he is certainly not a newcomer to the world golf elite and it is striking that he is always placed in the matches where, whether it is Thursday or Friday, it ends in worse conditions than most. Probably not even the last of the rookies would deserve such treatment and yes a more random distribution of the schedules, no matter that one has not yet been able to earn the stripes.
“The final result is not bad, but it is for how I have played. I have finished badly again after playing very orderly,” the Extremaduran explained to Tengolf once the round was over, very frustrated and really annoyed by the fact of having to finish once again with very little light.
