JDC Champ Epitomizes the Fight in Fighting Illini
Time and again while working his way to a John Deere Classic title just three hours north of his college haunts at the University of Illinois, Brian Campbell heard the encouraging chants of “I-L-L.”
As often as he could, Campbell readily finished the call-and-response with the familiar “I-N-I.”
Yet, as Campbell prevailed over 14-year veteran Emiliano Grillo in a one-hole playoff for his second sudden-death win in less than seven months, that six-letter collegiate battle cry was missing one very essential modifier.
They are the Fighting Illini, you know. And few of his fellow grads better embody the fight in that name.
In adding the John Deere to his February victory at the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld Sunday at TPC Deere Run, Campbell joined Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, 2023 Deere winner Sepp Straka, Ben Griffin and Ryan Fox among two-time winners this year.
He vaulted to 28th in FedExCup standings and 55th in the Official World Golf Rankings. And, in his second full season on TOUR, the 32-year-old native Californian can even can ponder the longshot possibility of joining the U.S. side at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black this fall.
In that sense, the long unsung Brian Campbell is an overnight sensation some eight years in the making.
Between his rookie TOUR campaign in 2016-2017 and his second shot at the big leagues, Campbell spent seven years in the golfing wilderness. He battled to get back through multiple injuries and myriad disappointments on the Korn Ferry Tour and elsewhere, wondering at least once if had the internal fortitude and game to find his way back.
“I’ve worked my entire life to be in this position, and unfortunately we had a couple years there where it wasn’t looking so good,” he admitted. “You have to start thinking about ‘Am I going do something else?’”
His doubts came to a head during the second stage of a PGA TOUR Q-School tournanent three years ago when made a quintuple bogey on a par-3. “I thought my career was over in that moment,” he said.
Instead, of course, he fought on.
“That night just kind of had a talk with myself. Said, ‘You know what, whatever happens is okay. Trust yourself.’ The next round I went out there and shot 8-under and got myself right back in there. I guess I was like, maybe golf is not over for me. That moment was when everything changed.”
Time and again over the ensuing years and over his week at Deere Run, Campbell called on that sense of resolve, and he needed it again in a wild final round, when the low scoring had typified past Quad Cities events but had largely been missing through the first three rounds came back with a vengeance.
Early on, the leaderboard was popping like a Fourth of July fireworks display, with 11 early starters charging from the back or middle the Sunday-starting pack with rounds of 65 or lower. Michael Thornjornsen and Beau Hossler shot 8-under 63s to enhance their paychecks. 2021 JDC champion Lucas Glover and Sunday playing partner Jacob Bridgeman posted mid-round 64s that vaulted them to top five finishes.
Still, the intermittent showers that greeted third-round leaders just after 1 p.m. slowed the scoring, and the leaderboard tightened. Defending champion and third-round leader Davis Thompson failed to fire, and challengers like six-time winner Max Homa, two-time winner Grillo and a handful of others took the lead, then fell back, then rallied to the front again.
Campbell had the lead to himself on the 15th tee, where he stood 6-under par and bogey-free on the day before a wild drive found the tree-lined hazard and a double-bogey put him in arrears again.
“Just made a bad swing,” he said. “I think the humidity made me slip, and I knew it was in the hazard from the start. I just kind of accepted it and I was like, “You know what, we’re still in this. There is a lot of holes left that I actually really like.”’
So, the fighter from Illini-land fought back again. A birdie at the par-5 17th put him in front again, and he narrowly missed a winning birdie bid at 18, and found himself in a playoff after Grillo birdied 17 and even more narrowly missed his birdie bid from 38 feet, 6 inches at 18.
Northwestern grad David Lipsky near joined the playoff, reaching 18-under with a spectacular eagle at 17, but drove it left on 18, and saw his par putt just miss at then end.
In the playoff, Campbell found the 18th fairway, something he hadn’t done in Mexico with a drive that was bound for timber out-of-bounds, but bounced back into the fairway to key his win over Aldrich Potgieter.
This time, it was Grillo who drove into the trees right of the 18th fairway. He sent his approach bounding to the back rough after Campbell had hit a championship-caliber approach to 16 feet. Campnell’s two-putt par sealed the win when Grillo failed to get up and down.
Campbell joined Fighting Illini legend Steve Stricker, who won three straight at Deere Run from 2009-2011, in the JDC winner’s circle. He was an Illinois commit in ’11, and well-remember watching from his California home when Stricker sealed the last of those wins with and epic birdie from a fairway bunker
“I’m just so proud to be in the same conversation as Steve Stricker. I’ve looked up to him even before college started,” he said.
Campbell’s 18-under 266 was the highest winning score at Deere Run since Bryson DeChambeau prevailed with the same number in 2018. It still felt magical to him.
“So thrilled to be here,” the fighter said. “Magic does happen at the John Deere.”