“Playing in a Masters is my goal almost since I turned pro.”
He is not particularly loquacious in front of the recorder (of the cell phone, of course), but the important thing is that he is at ease with the clubs when he fights in the metaphorical ring of the golf courses. Cacereño of 33 years just turned, huge star in his amateur stage, where he became number 2 in the world ranking, figure of college golf in the United States, Jorge Campillo has been rewarded for his talent and tenacity (ten years since he turned professional) with a first victory in the European Tour.
It was last April at the Hassan II Trophy, in what was his 230th appearance on the Tour. We interviewed him at the Real Club Valderrama on the eve of the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters.
-It has been a long wait, ten years, until you finally achieved your first victory on the European Tour. What were your first feelings when the victory was consummated?
-I don’t know… of relief, of satisfaction, of finally having achieved it… the truth is that it was good. I was getting very close, with six second places, and they say that whoever knocks on the door often opens it, and that’s what happened to me.
-What goals have you set for this year?
-I set my sights on winning a tournament and I have achieved it, and to do well in a major, to see if I am able to finish the season strong.
-Your experiences in the majors have not yielded positive results so far, not having passed the cut in any of the three that you have played…
-The British Open one year I didn’t play badly but I ended up missing the cut, the PGA very badly both times, this year a little better but so far quite weak. Let’s see if I can play well in the British Open.
-Climbing positions in the world ranking to be eligible to play the big ones will also be one of your goals…
-Yes, playing the Augusta Masters is the goal almost since I turned pro and, well, now I’m not far away (the top 50 in the world ranking have a place, and Jorge was 68th at the end of June), but you have to play well between now and the end of the year to get in.
-Do you see yourself making your Ryder Cup debut next year?
-If they counted this year’s rankings… Obviously you have to play very well to have a chance, you have to get into the big ones… I still have a lot of work to do but, well, maybe one day.
-It’s not the first time you’ve played at Valderrama, what do you think of this course?
-It’s great. It’s a complicated course and you have to be at your best, but I really like coming here. You can see the changes that have been made in recent years -they have pruned many trees, made the greens a little wider… – and the truth is that it is very good and there are no more holes that could have been unfair before.
-Speaking of changes, the ones you have made with the putt are giving you great results?
-Yes, yes. Last year at the end of the season I didn’t play that bad, the results said so, but I felt I was playing well but I had a bad feeling with the putt, it wasn’t flowing, I wasn’t touching the ball well, so I decided to go to Liverpool to see this man (Phil Kenyon, who assigned his assistant Mike Kanski) and from there I’ve improved with the putt.
-Is the American dream just that for you, or do you think you could still make the jump to the PGA Tour?
-It is true that it is difficult to get there, they have it very closed, and it is not easy to get into the top 50 (of the world ranking) to be able to play the invitationals and the big ones to have any option. If not, I see it very difficult.
-After your amateur stage having been number 2 in the world ranking, it seemed that you could have had better luck when you turned professional, that is, to get good results quickly?
-Being at the top as an amateur doesn’t guarantee anything when you turn professional. There are many names that do succeed, but there are others that you don’t even know where they are. The truth is that I got to the Tour early – it took me a year and a half or two after turning pro – and then I’ve been improving little by little, and I think I’ve been meeting expectations a little bit.
-Changing the protagonist, what did you think of Tiger’s victory at Augusta?
-Fantastic. The truth is that it is good for golf, it has been good for all of us. I thought he was never going to win a major again, although he did win a PGA Tour tournament, but he has silenced many of us. There were people who believed in him, but few. And I think he can win some more: let’s see if he is lucky.
-Although you are from Cáceres, your first contact with golf – at just 3 years old – was in this area, on the Costa del Sol. How do you remember that?
-We used to summer in Benamara (an urbanization nestled between Marbella and Estepona), and my father, who had never played golf, started playing for the first time in Aloha or El Paraíso and took me with him. Then the Cáceres golf club was built, but it was in Marbella where we all started playing golf.
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