Golf

2024 PGA Tour: Rafael Campos Triumphs at Butterfield Bermuda Championship

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Nov 19, 2024 / 7400 Views

Evan Walker

As he approached the 2024 Butterfield Bermuda Championship, Rafael Campos, who had just become a father for the first time, had little inkling as to how the week might unfold. Yet, as he hoisted the trophy this past weekend, Campos marked his maiden PGA Tour win, forever changing the trajectory of his career.

Rafael Campos knows two worlds. One is where love and kinship define familial ties. The other, equally important, is his existence on the golf course. In the space of a week, Campos, a burly 36-year-old from Puerto Rico, experienced major changes in both spheres.

Approaching the week of the 2024 Butterfield Bermuda Championship, Rafael Campos and wife Stephanie had just become proud parents for the first time. Experiencing the joys of fatherhood, Campos arrived just in time in Southampton, Bermuda, wildly unprepared to hazard another attempt at bringing some stability to his season on the PGA Tour.

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Nothing had gone right for Campos this year, and he was on the scary verge of losing his playing rights for 2025. With 13 missed cuts in his last 15 starts, there was a part of Campos that was preparing himself to hit the refresh button. This would entail a return to the feeder Korn Ferry tour to launch a fresh attempt at getting back to the PGA tour.

As he put it after the fairytale end to his week at the Port Royal Golf Course, the Almighty has a way of showing his presence. On Sunday, 17 November, in his 80th start on tour, Campos defied the odds and won the right to call himself a PGA Tour champion.

Despite being steadfast in his belief that he could stem the slide, Campos had begun to worry that time was running out as he meandered from one missed cut to the other. The challenging road had been fraught with concerns, his dry stretch having commenced since he played the Myrtle Beach Classic in May.

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Making the right choice and staying in the moment helped him. When wife Stefanie went into labour, Campos chose to remain by her side rather than getting on his flight to the tournament. He made it on Thursday, November 14, an hour before his opening tee-off.

For a man fighting to save his existence just one season after his return from the Korn Ferry Tour, having no practice time was not the ideal buildup. But that’s the way it has been for Campos this season, which has been a consistent walk on the edge. Had he not bested the field to snag the win, he would have had but one more week (in the upcoming RSM Classic) to save his card. As fate would have it, Campos can now breathe easy.

Surge of emotions

Tied for the lead going into Sunday, Campos needed a steady hand and mind to see it through. Thankfully, he scored on both fronts. The final putt on the 18th green wasn’t long and went in quickly. However, by sinking it for a three-shot win with a final score of 19-under 265, Campos gave vent to the host of emotions he had bottled up for so long.

“Just extremely grateful to have had this opportunity, especially [after] such an unbelievable week with my daughter [Paola’s birth],” he said.

The move from well outside the cutline to 80th place was another major reason for Campos’ free outpouring of tears on the 18th green. The golfer had previously occupied the 147th spot on the FedExCup Fall Standings, with only the top 125 keeping their cards for 2025.

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“After such a bad year, to have things kind of go my way, everything together at once, I’m just so happy and grateful to be a champion and not have to worry about where I’m going to be playing the next couple of years. That was something that was bothering me for the last like six months and ironic how everything just flipped and fortunately I can just go out and enjoy and play Golf,” said Campos, who became Puerto Rico’s second champion on the PGA Tour with his win, following after the late Chi Chi Rodriguez.

Hand of God

The tough times had no bearing in Campos’ faith, and there were instances from the past that came flooding back to play a part in his career’s biggest week.

Over the day, Campos kept his cool, matching his calmness to the day he posted his maiden win on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2019. He likewise maintained his discipline, refusing to throw regular glances at the leaderboard, thus ushering in greatness.

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“There’re a few times God has been present, and this was one of them. There were a couple things I thought about during the round. One was I remember years ago. I would always pray for some things or write them down. Ironically, like 12 years later I found the note and everything that I wanted came true, but it took 12 years. You don’t pray to have things happen like right now and all those things. Ironically, all those things happened. He’s definitely with us. I’ve been praying every day the last year, hoping to get a good week, hoping to just give myself some security. I knew he was with me; I knew my family was with me,” said Campos.

Latin American flavour

Over time, the Butterfield Bermuda Championship has come to be associated with champions and their emotional journeys.

Last year, Camilo Villegas broke a winless stretch lasting nine years here, and dedicated his victory to his daughter Mia, whom he lost to cancer after a six-month battle in July 2020. Mia was 22 months old, and the pain led Villegas and wife Maria to reach out to children and families in pain through Mia’s Miracles, an initiative under the Camilo Villegas Foundation.

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Tattooed with “attitude” on the right wrist and “positive energy” on the left, Villegas completed a turnaround and looked skywards to dedicate his triumph to the daughter who had spread joy in her brief span on earth.

This past weekend, Campos found himself in a similar vacuum. For the first time, he was staring at a scenario where he, given his status on the PGA Tour, could have been without job security come the end of November.

“For me, the most important thing was job security. That’s something we struggle here on the PGA Tour with because it’s so hard to get up here and it’s so easy to lose everything. I’ve been a pro for 15 years and this year was honestly the first time that I probably would have had zero status anywhere, like if I had not done well this week and kind of starting back from before PGA Latin America. In the back of my mind, I was like, it’s going to be tough just because I’m older,” he said.

From coping with the uncertainties of professional golf to making the league of champions, Campos traversed a path that has left him thankful, and the turn of fortunes has placed him in august company.

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Chi Chi Rodriguez, who passed away in August aged 88, was the first Puerto Rican to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Among other achievements, Rodriguez was an eight-time winner on the PGA Tour. On Sunday, Campos added a name to that list by winning on tour.

Chi Chi was an inspiration for Campos in his formative years, and he wants to do his bit by inspiring junior golfers in his land. “There’s so much talent back home, they just need a little belief that they can make it. One of my goals is to be a role model to the junior golfers back home. I know for a fact this will help them realise, hey man he did it, he went through everything, he went through all the stages and all that and he was able to get a trophy on the PGA Tour.”

Another strong week, but…

Unlike Campos, Mark Hubbard did not have his back to the wall. His T3 finish at 15-under 269 ensured he maintained his place on the FedExCup Standings, where he now stands at No. 63.

But Hubbard’s wait for victory continues after 230 starts on tour. The 35-year-old came close twice earlier in the season, and while the latest shot at the title did not end the way he desired, Hubbard stays upbeat.

“I think this is the best I’ve ever felt about my game this late in the year. I was balancing some equipment and finally found a set of irons that I’m obsessed with and found a putter that I really love,” said Hubbard, who is happy to have posted another strong finish despite the equipment changes through the season.

The virtue of patience

Tied third at the Mexico Open at Vidanta, T4 at Corales Puntacana Championship, T7 at Procore Championship, and T5 now on the back of the runner-up result at the World Wide Technology Championship, Justin Lower is learning the virtues of patience.

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Lower calls his placements ‘learning experiences’, acknowledging that it is not easy to perform under intense scrutiny. While he will be disappointed with the final day’s over-par show after a share of the 18 and 36-hole lead, Lower intends to keep his head down and keep playing good golf.