VALLARTA, Mexico — Brian Campbell of the United States cashed in on a huge break when his tee shot in a playoff bounced out of the trees and back into play, leading to a birdie on the second extra hole to win the Mexico Open over Aldrich Potgieter.
Campbell, who closed with a 1-under 70 at Vidanta Vallarta, won for the first time since he turned pro a decade ago and the timing could not have been better. The victory sends him to the Masters,
The Players Championship and the PGA Championship, along with five of the signature events left on the tour schedule, AP reported.
Campbell and Potgieter, who shot 71, each made birdie on the 18th in regulation and began the playoff with a par.
Returning to the par-5 closing hole for the third time – a big advantage for the 20-year-old South African with his power – the 31-year-old Campbell hit a low, hard fade toward the out-of-bounds stakes.
But it crashed into the trees and popped back out into the rough. He still was 94 yards behind Potgieter, but at least he had a shot.
He hit fairway metal to 68 yards short, and hit a lob wedge to 4 feet. Potgieter came up a foot short and into a bunker. He blasted out some 6 feet by and missed the birdie putt to the left.
Campbell was winless in 186 starts on the Korn Ferry and PGA Tour combined, earning $1,487,830. His payoff was $1,260,000.
Potgieter started the final round with a one-shot lead, fell behind with two bogeys to end the front nine, caught up to Campbell with a superb up-and-down on the par-5 14th. They each made one bogey coming in and finished at 20-under 264.
Lisa Coetzer, meanwhile, made two eagles on her way to a six-under-par 66 and a two-stroke lead after the first round of the South African Women’s Amateur Stroke Play Championship.
The eagles came on the back nine after she had made three bogeys on her way to turning in one-over-par 37.
The 14-year-old Ekurhuleni junior came home in 29, and her 66 was two strokes clear of GolfRSA No 1 Kesha Louw, with Isabella Ferreira in third on three-under-par.
“I really struggled on that first nine,” said Coetzer, who opened promisingly enough with a birdie on the par-five first. But she made bogeys on two and three, and another on five in an uncharacteristically poor start.
“I turned in one-over and I thought that wasn’t good enough,” she said. “Then I fired, and I never stopped.” She made five threes on the back nine, and only one of them came on a short hole.
She followed a birdie on the 12th with an eagle on 13, made par on the 14th, birdie on 15, par on 16, and then closed out with a birdie on 17 and an eagle on 18.
“For the birdie on 12, I hit to about 20 feet and I made a good putt,” said Coetzer. “On 13, I hit driver-five hybrid, and I made a really long putt, about 25 feet. On 17, I hit it to about nine feet, and on 18, I made a good 20-footer for eagle.”
