For the past 15 years, as he slowly ascended the slippery ladder of professional golf, Rafael Campos has been a fixture in the biggest tournament in his home country, the Puerto Rico Open. He will miss it this year of his own volition, a development that on one hand is exciting and on the other causes angst.
Winner late last year of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, one of the most clutch and emotional victories on the PGA Tour in 2024, Campos would have returned to Grand Reserve Golf Club this week as a true conquering hero. He joined the late Chi Chi Rodriguez as the only Puerto Ricans to win a PGA Tour event. Instead, he has found a spot in the $US20 million Arnold Palmer Invitational, receiving a sponsor exemption into the signature event after sending a heartfelt handwritten letter to tournament officials at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Florida.
“This has always been a special week for me because the Puerto Rico Open is the one event I grew up with, and that’s the only time I get to play in front of the Puerto Rican crowds,” Campos, 36, said in a telephone interview with Golf Digest. “But because of things that have happened to me in the past five months that drastically changed my life, I wanted to try to play Bay Hill. So I wrote the letter to Sam and Amy [Saunders, Palmer’s grandson and daughter, who oversee the event] hoping to have an opportunity to maybe inspire younger kids back home.
“It’s my responsibility and obligation to the kids back home to promote the game,” Campos continued. “I know the character that Mr Palmer had. He always tried to promote the game of golf, and that’s something I felt that really clicked with me, and I really hoped that they understood that I’m just trying to emulate a person I really admire.”
Campos’ reference to what has happened to him in the past five months actually boils down to what happened to him in the course of one week five months ago.
On the Monday of the Bermuda event, Campos’ wife Stephanie gave birth to the couple’s first child, daughter Paola. Stephanie decided to have labour induced to give her husband a chance to compete in the penultimate tour event of the season. At the time, Campos had missed the cut in 12 of his previous 13 starts and stood 147th in the FedEx Cup standings.
He stayed in Puerto Rico until Wednesday to get his family settled at home and then flew to Boston, slept overnight in the airport, and arrived at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda, 90 minutes before his opening round. A second-round 65 guaranteed a pay cheque and then came a third-round 62 that propelled him to his first tour title, a much-needed prizemoney payout of $US1.242 million and two years of job security.
Campos earned a berth in the Masters but not in any of the tour’s signature events beyond the season opener, The Sentry. He zeroed in on the Arnold Palmer Invitational because of his abiding respect for the tournament’s namesake and for Sam Saunders, Palmer’s grandson, and because he wanted to give his countrymen another reason to cheer while they enjoyed the opposite-field event in Puerto Rico.
When tournament director Drew Donovan phoned Campos with the news last week that he was going to receive one of the five exemptions, Campos started to cry.
“My wife sees that I have tears, and she’s like, ‘Are you OK?’ And I tell her, ‘Yeah, honey, I just have to tell you that I’m sorry, but we’re not going to go play the Puerto Rico Open,’” Campos said. “She said, ‘What, are you injured or something?’ I’m like, ‘No, we’re going to Orlando.’
“I’m very sentimental with these things, because I was really happy to receive the invitation, and the people in Puerto Rico understood how difficult it was for me to not go to the Puerto Rico Open. They know how much it means to me, my family, and golfers in Puerto Rico and the Latin community. There’s a lot of people that rely on me and are actually paying attention to what I do and really wish me well. That’s rare in a sport [where] you’re mainly by yourself. You don’t forget that.”
Ranked 180th in the world, Campos figures he has written 70 letters over the years to tournament directors seeking an exemption. He has been successful twice now, with the first coming at the 2021 Valero Texas Open. It didn’t hurt that the letter he penned to Bay Hill was handwritten and shared deeply personal reflections.
“I know I might not be a household name,” Campos wrote, “but that is not something that will stop me from doing my best to promote the game of golf to the younger generations. Mr Palmer inspired us since we were little (either through his unbelievable talent in golf or through his loving character on and off the course as well) and plan to emulate and use that character as motivation for me to show the younger generations that anything is achievable and possible if you really desire it and work hard.”
“Well, you know, Rafa is such a great story,” Donovan said. “Mr Palmer wrote that he preferred to be remembered as a caretaker of the game and someone who tried to preserve it and improve it if he could. We looked at Rafa and his commitment to furthering golf in Puerto Rico and for Puerto Ricans everywhere and he expressed that so well in his letter. That really ties into the Arnold Palmer legacy that we hold closely to and parallels what Rafa is trying to do as caretaker of the game and providing opportunity and hope beyond the game.”
Campos, who has an aunt and cousins who live in nearby Windermere, Florida, will feel at home this week by continuing a family tradition they have enjoyed at the Puerto Rico Open. Campos usually rents an apartment near the course where his whole family – parents, siblings, nieces and nephews – squeeze into a three-bedroom apartment. “We find a way, and we are going to do it this week,” he said, laughing. “No one wants to miss it.”
Even with family living 10 minutes away, Campos has never seen Bay Hill, so he is tempering his expectations in an even with a stacked field featuring the top 50 in last year’s FedEx Cup standings. He would only make one prediction going forward.
“I have this mix of emotions right now,” he said. “I’m not a big name, so I am grateful for the opportunity. I want to try to become a big name, show young golfers at home that they can try to move on to bigger and better opportunities. I know this much – I won’t stop sending letters. I still want to try to give myself every opportunity to keep promoting the game of golf like Mr Palmer always did. In that sense, I won’t be at home this week, but Bay Hill will feel a little like that, I think.”
