WEB ONLY: Campillo shoots final round of 63 to claim championship

Senior Jorge Campillo has now done something not even golf extraordinaire Tiger Woods has done.

Although Campillo doesn’t have the 14 major victories or hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank, he does have a trophy that is not is not in Woods’ collection.

Campillo, the third-ranked amateur golfer in the world, an 8-under 63 final-round score to capture the individual championship in the Windon Memorial Classic on Monday in Chicago.

Campillo, the runner-up at last year’s NCAA Championship, led the field with 18 birdies overall, five more than anyone else.

IU coach Mike Mayer has seen many good golfers come through IU, including Jeff Overton, who holds five of seven individual records and qualified for the British Open this summer.

Mayer said Campillo’s round ranks among the top he has witnessed.

“Sixty-three is one of the better rounds of golf I’ve ever seen,” Mayer said. “It’s pretty special.”

In the 1995 Memorial, Woods tallied a final round 67, finishing two strokes behind the tournament’s winner, Florida’s Josh McCumber.

That day, Woods’ Stanford team finished second to the Gators.

Fast-forward nearly 13 years later. Campillo also propelled his team to its second runner-up finish of the season, beating every team except Illinois.

Campillo, who matched his career best single-round total, which he achieved at last year’s Boilermaker Invitational, said he doesn’t get tired of winning.

“It’s nice to win,” he said. “I really don’t like to lose.”

Campillo wasn’t the only Hoosier to finish in the top five as fellow senior Seth Brandon swung to a 2-under 211 to finish alone in fifth place.   

Brandon, who has improved steadily over the course of the fall from his 40th place showing in the opening tournament, said he believes he is getting back on track.

“This tournament was promising for me,” Brandon said. “I had a lot of good putts.”

With his success in the tournament, Brandon became the third Hoosier this season to finish in the top-five, along with Campillo and junior Alex Martin.

Freshman David Erdy shot a 4-over 217 and finished 19th, while Martin dropped to 28th, two shots back.

Martin won at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational and finished seventh at last week’s Cardinal Intercollegiate, but struggled a bit this week. But even without Martin turning in his best performance, the team overall beat out third-place Tulsa this week by 17 strokes.

The only team the Hoosiers couldn’t beat, Illinois, is one of the hottest teams in the country, Mayer said.

Most of the Hoosiers will now have nearly a three week break to catch up on class work and practice on, among other things, improving course management. Awaiting them when they get back to competition will be the prestigious Isleworth UCF Collegiate, which is set to include each of the top-five teams at last year’s NCAA Championship.

Campillo, instead of settling down, will depart today for Australia, the site of the World Cup taking place Oct. 16-19. Campillo will represent Spain, his native country, in the event.

Upon his return, the Hoosiers will look to build on their second-place finish, something Mayer said represented a solid tournament for his group.

“It was a good team effort,” he said. “We beat some really good teams.”