Why Brian Campbell’s Improbable, Two-Win 2025 Was One of the Year’s Best Stories

A 31-year-old journeyman who was last in average driving distance made SI Golf's list of the best things we saw in 2025.

Brian Campbell won the John Deere Classic for his second of two wins in 2025. / Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

Happy New Year! Before we turn the calendar fully to 2026, SI Golf looks back at a few favorite things from 2025, including opening morning at the Ryder Cup, a maiden golf trip to Scotland and, below, the surreal rise of Brian Campbell.

The Mexico Open was supposed to be an afterthought. It had one of the weakest fields of the year and, in late February, was sandwiched between some of the season’s biggest tournaments. 

Instead, it produced a thrilling finish and one of golf’s unlikeliest success stories in recent memory. 

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Brian Campbell, 31, entered that week ranked 222nd in the world, with just 27 PGA Tour starts on his resume—and no top 10s—over the span of a decade. He earned his Tour card in 2017, lost it, and didn’t regain it until 2025. 

Yet, after 72 holes in Mexico, he found himself in a playoff against 20-year-old rookie Aldrich Potgieter. And this was a curious matchup for the sport as a whole: Campbell was the Tour’s shortest hitter (averaging 262 yards off the tee) and Potgieter was the longest at 328 yards. 

They traded pars on the first bonus hole. Then, Campbell received the break of a lifetime.

On the second playoff hole, the Californian sliced his drive into the trees; however, it kicked out into the rough, leaving him 311 yards from the hole, and he would knock his third shot to 3 feet. 

When Potgieter missed a 6-footer for birdie, Campbell had won—and was speechless. 

Luckiest break ever?!

Brian Campbell's ball bounces off the trees and stays in bounds on the second playoff hole! pic.twitter.com/KWBMbGtaKE

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 23, 2025

“I’m literally freaking out on the inside,” he said on the 18th green. “I have no idea what’s going on.”

His career earnings at that point were $303,115. With the win, he collected $1.26 million. He also secured a spot in the Masters and PGA Championship for his first major starts since the 2015 U.S. Open. 

Ironically, the Tour’s shortest hitter, in an age of bombing the golf ball, emerged victorious on the circuit’s longest course.

And he’d later prove his Cinderella story wasn’t a fluke.

On July 4 weekend, Campbell topped Emiliano Grillo in a playoff at the John Deere Classic, 10 years to the day that he made his Tour debut at the same event as a University of Illinois golfer. 

Outside of his two wins, his best finishes were a pair of T32s at the Masters and RBC Heritage. He only had another top 40 all year. 

It certainly was one of the most curious two-win seasons in PGA Tour history. 

Now, the PGA Tour’s landscape is set for an overhaul under new CEO Brian Rolapp, and it appears the focus will primarily be on the stars, shrinking the opportunities for rank-and-file players. However, the Mexico Open was a reminder of what the PGA Tour has been for decades. Sure, there’s plenty of Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroys and Scottie Schefflers, but the underdog story is vital to the sport. 

So when a journeyman ranked last in driving distance finally breaks through, it’s truly life-changing. And it yields emotions that a star paddening their resume can’t.

That’s why Campbell winning the Mexico Open was the best thing I saw in 2025.

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