As of today, unless there is a major agreement between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund in the coming days (and depending on the nature of the agreement), Spanish golf will only have one bullet in the American circuit. This refers to Jorge Campillo. The Extremaduran golfer is the only one who has a card on the other side of the Atlantic, after the announced suspension of Jon Rahm following his move to LIV Golf. Campillo earned his playing rights through the Race to Dubai, being one of the top ten in the European ranking without exemption on the PGA Tour.
Thus, the debut of Spanish golf in 2024 on the American circuit is in the hands of Campillo and his schedule. At the end of the Dubai Final, the man from Norba still had many doubts about the new structure of his calendar. He had to sit down, analyse it well and make decisions that have not been easy in any case. Well, there is now white smoke.
According to Ten Golf, Jorge will make his debut on the PGA Tour as a full member on 22 February, on the first day of the Mexico Open at Vidanta, in Vallarta. Interestingly, he will debut in the same country where he has played to date his only regular tournament of the world’s premier circuit. It was in February 2010 in Mayakoba. Fourteen years later he will repeat in Mexico.
The following week, Campillo plans to play the Cognizant Classic in Palm Beach, the lifelong Honda Classic that has changed sponsor for 2024. This is an important date, marked in red, as it will be Jorge’s first regular tournament in his entire career on American soil. It is held at the legendary PGA National in Florida, on the beautiful course designed by Jack Nicklaus.
Continuing with Campillo’s schedule, from here it will depend on how the results go. After Palm Beach, if he qualifies he could play the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a designated tournament, and if he does not succeed, he will have the option to play the Puerto Rico Open. Right after is the THE PLAYERS Championship, a tournament in which he does not have entry at this time. He would have to win in Mexico, Florida or Puerto Rico to qualify, or get into the top 50 in the world in the first quarter of the year.
In theory, the week of THE PLAYERS is a rest week and then would come another run of three tournaments in a row on the PGA Tour before the Masters in Augusta: Valspar Championship in Florida, Texas Children’s Houston Open and Valero Texas Open. In principle, therefore, there will be six tournaments in seven weeks, where he will also have the opportunity to qualify for the Masters, either by winning one of them (the only victory that would not give exemption is Puerto Rico) or by getting into the top 50 in the world ranking.
When we said that the decision has not been easy, we are referring to what Campillo stops playing on the DP World Tour, especially the Magical Kenya Open, where he is the current title defender and which is played the same week as Mexico, and the Hero Indian Open, a tournament that he has always liked very much and where he has made excellent performances. India coincides with Houston. Be that as it may, it is an absolutely logical decision: more world ranking points and better prize money, beyond the possibility of growing as a player.
So, the debut of Spanish golf on the PGA Tour in 2024 will be on 22 February in Mexico, the eighth week of the year. It is the latest debut of a Spanish golfer since 2016, when it was Sergio García who did the honours, also in the eighth week at the Northern Trust Open in Los Angeles. Between 2017 and 2023, the Rahm era, Jon’s debut was always earlier, in the first or second week at the Sentry between 2018 and 2023, and in the third week at the Career Builder Challenge in 2017.
To find the last time Spanish golf debuted later than the eighth week on the PGA Tour, we have to go back to 2011. On that occasion, our flag did not appear until the twelfth week at the Transitions Championship (former Valspar) by the hand of Sergio García.
