Jorge Campillo admits that when he took his first swing at the Mexico Open this Thursday, teeing off at hole 10 of the Vidanta Vallarta, he was still stunned. “Let’s see if I can hit the ball,” he told himself as he positioned himself in the stance. Pressure from debuting as a member of the PGA Tour? Negative. Nothing to do with it. Or at least, no more pressure than any other first swing of each week. The right amount of tension, yes, butterflies, yes, little more.
Behind that initial impression is a much more entertaining story. We refer to his introduction. It was carried out by a lively Mexican announcer who left Jorge practically dumbfounded. “He started shouting like a football commentator: ‘From Cáceres, Spain, three victories on the European Tourrrrrr… Jorgeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Campilloooooooooooo’, the Spanish golfer recounts with laughter to Ten Golf. “The truth is, he left me stunned,” he adds.
The first swing ended up in the water, although Jorge doesn’t blame the announcer, far from it. It was a coincidence. Simply, things of golf. “The swing wasn’t even that bad. It’s a very tense drive, with water on both sides, it bounced on dry ground, but to the right and ended up in the water,” he assures.
Campillo’s game showed two very distinct faces in his debut in Mexico. From tee to green he was not sharp. “It wasn’t something horrendous, but I would rate it as mediocre. Too many poorly hit shots,” he asserts. The numbers back him up. He hit seven fairways and ten greens, far from his usual figures. Last year he finished the DP World Tour with an average of almost 70 percent of greens in regulation and sixty percent of fairways.
He didn’t feel comfortable with his long game, beyond the fact that the course is long and it gets even longer with the wind. “I don’t even know how many 5-irons and 3-irons I hit for the second shot. It blew quite a bit and, moreover, it was against me on almost all the holes.” The way to compensate for this weakness on Thursday was the short game. “Honestly, I think I gave a clinic around the green. A lot of grit,” he explains.
So outstanding was this part of his game that Jorge took the opportunity to settle a score he had with his brother. “He came to the tournament this week and followed me for the 18 holes. He’s always nagging me about how bad I chip, so when I finished I had to tell him: let’s see who chips badly now…”, he says amused.
In addition to the approach, very good both from the sand and from the rough, Campillo highlights the performance on the greens. “It’s true that no long putts went in, but I made all the ones from a metre and a half and two metres and that doesn’t usually happen when you have many,” he clarifies.
Finally, Jorge corrects the PGA Tour’s shot tracker on hole 14. “It says that I left the approach ten feet (three metres) away, but that’s not the case. I left it given. It was a great approach”. Another opportunity to give it back to his brother.
Campillo started the Mexico Open with a round of 67 strokes to place himself in fifteenth place. Today he will play in the last match of the day shortly after nine o’clock in the evening, Spanish peninsular time.
