A tidy game and success on the greens that had eluded him yesterday have allowed Jorge Campillo (-9) to rejoin the fight for the top spots at the Mexico Open at Vidanta. The Extremaduran golfer, with a very good scorecard of 67 strokes (the same result with which he opened the tournament on Thursday), has recovered 15 positions in the ranking and will fight tomorrow for the top 10 in his first event as a full member of the PGA Tour.
“I played tidy, more or less, I hit the ball well from the tee and I made good putts. A good day of golf”, acknowledged Campillo after his round. A ‘moving day’ that started in the best possible way, closing with three consecutive birdies his first nine holes today at the Vidanta Vallarta, and that he closed by squeezing the most out of the par fives in the second half of his round, with two more birdies, to compensate for the only mistake of his round, the bogey of the 16th, a hole where he also stumbled on Friday.
The four iron of hole 2 or the five irons of 8 and 17 were, as Jorge confesses to Ten-Golf, his best shots of a very productive day in which, despite missing several fairways (he hit six out of 13), he signed very good recoveries to place himself among the top five in greens in regulation (15 out of 18) and in strokes gained with the putter. Now he needs to finish the job on Sunday and leave Mexico with a great result that boosts him emotionally… and allows him to fight next week for another great challenge.
Walk it in, @KnappTime_LTD 👏
The rookie from California leads by 3 @MexicoOpenGolf. pic.twitter.com/jAQjPGZhZw
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 24, 2024
Because beyond the hefty cheque he could get at Vidanta Vallarta (a top 5 would give him practically more money than any of his victories on the DP World Tour) or the many world ranking points at stake (with the aim of breaking into the top 100 to be able to play the PGA Championship), in this Mexico Open and in the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches next week there are five places (for the top five in the overall of both tournaments) for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a tournament designated with 20 million purse where the best players in the world will be (except those from LIV Golf, of course).
Repeating a round like today’s, with five birdies and a single bogey, would undoubtedly bring him closer to a top 10 with which to brilliantly close his debut and take positions for the second test of fire at the PGA National. “They have moved some tee and the course is playing easier” compared to the practice rounds, acknowledged Jorge, who hopes to “play tidy like today” this Sunday in a tournament that seems to be in the hands of Jake Knapp (-19) after his recital this Saturday.
Is this any good?!@KnappTime_LTD is a man on a mission @MexicoOpenGolf. pic.twitter.com/ZM2v4BUo77
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 24, 2024
The 29-year-old Californian, who is playing this season on the PGA Tour after finishing among the top 30 of the Korn Ferry last season, made seven birdies in his first nine holes today. In the second half of his round he made three mistakes, but more than compensated for them with four more birdies (11 in total) to hand in a scorecard of 63 strokes, eight under par, which allows him to stand as the sole leader with a comfortable four-stroke lead over Sami Valimaki (-15) and a whopping seven over the third-placed, Ben Silverman (-12), Henrik Norlander (-12) and Chan Kim (-12). Only he can lose the tournament.
