Rafael Campos puts in the work, pays off with TOUR return

Golf is a harbinger of life – in either, the road back is often tougher than the initial journey – and that holds true for Rafael Campos.

The Puerto Rico native earned his TOUR card once before and lost it; however, he is headed back to the big show after finishing No. 30 on the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour Points List. Thirty players earned 2024 PGA TOUR membership via the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour season-long standings, finalized after the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance.

It was an emotional conclusion to the Korn Ferry Tour season for Campos, as he oscillated between Nos. 30 and 31 on the Points List on the final day of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. He ultimately finished less than 6 points ahead of Jorge Fernandez Valdes for the No. 30 spot, regaining the TOUR status that he previously held in 2020 and 2021.

“It’s been a tough year,” Campos said in the moments after clinching the final TOUR card of the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour season. “I’m just happy that I have another chance to go back to the PGA TOUR and try to do as well as possible. A lot of things I need to improve under pressure; I’ve been struggling quite a bit … I’m just grateful my family came here, my team came here, my wife. I know they were struggling as much as I was.

“It’s just nice to be #TOURBound again.”

After a rocky 2022 season where he made just five cuts in 19 Korn Ferry Tour starts, Campos and his wife knew a change was needed to compete at the highest level. He found it difficult to play a full season without getting injured – he tore his left QL as a TOUR rookie, and he tore his right QL last season – and he remembers feeling disheartened that his physical fitness was inhibiting his potential. So last offseason, Campos assembled a team of coaches, trainers and a nutritionist, and it paid off. He lost close to 50 pounds and stayed healthy throughout the 2023 season.

The stalwart commitment to himself and his game has propelled him back to the PGA TOUR.

“I was distraught,” Campos said. “I was like, ‘Man, since I won in 2019, I only have a little bit of status left for this year.' I was sitting down with my wife and I’m like, ‘I do not want to get injured anymore. I do not remember the last time I played golf without feeling something bothering me on my body.' It was probably a good four or five years before. She’s like, ‘Rafa, you need to do something,’ and right there, in that second, I made a call, trainer, made a call, nutritionist, made a call, chiropractor, made a call, coach, made a call, manager.

“I’m really happy that all these changes have allowed me to play a full season without getting injured.”

Campos first picked up a club when he was 9 years old. He began competing shortly after; by the time he was in his mid-teens he knew what he wanted to do: play on the PGA TOUR. His journey to the pinnacle of professional golf, though, has not always been a straight path. Much like his other passion, sport fishing, there were times when the fish weren’t biting.

Campos has been through it all. He had hoped to attend the University of Alabama, but after an issue with his paperwork he ended up in Richmond, Virginia, attending Virginia Commonwealth University. His happy-go-lucky nature stems from his time at VCU and the astute introspection of “learning how to lose” while playing collegiately. After turning pro in 2011, he played four full seasons on PGA TOUR Latinoamerica before earning Korn Ferry Tour status. He played four years on the Korn Ferry Tour before earning his first TOUR card.

Through it all, he realized the importance of staying true to his roots as he pursues his dreams.

“We do forget about a lot of (childhood memories),” he told James Nitties on the Chasing #TOURBound podcast. “It’s nice to remind yourself where you came from, how you got here, and the things you kind of go through.”

The Puerto Rican pro needed every bit of that perspective after losing his TOUR status and then falling back to Korn Ferry Tour past champion status into 2023. Perhaps it was just the jolt he needed, though, as a refreshed and refit Rafa (as he is known around the golf world) entered the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour season on a mission.

At age 35, he put together one of the most complete campaigns of his professional career, amassing eight top-25s, three top-10s and a runner-up performance at the Compliance Solutions Championship in Norman, Oklahoma. He stayed energized throughout the season and compiled just enough points to secure a top-30 position. Things were in doubt into the final few moments of the season, but the result is the Korn Ferry Tour’s ultimate prize: a PGA TOUR card.

The coming season is about more than just the opportunity to rejoin the PGA TOUR. There is one other goal for the wily veteran: competing for Puerto Rico in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. PGA TOUR status will go a long way in helping secure a start for his country next summer.

It is time for the jovial man often referred to as the nicest player on the Korn Ferry Tour to celebrate. He is back on the PGA TOUR. One phase of the journey is complete, and now an even tougher phase begins: staying on the PGA TOUR.

“It’s been tougher every year,” Campos said, “and it’s pretty cool to be in this spot again.”