Brian Campbell, a former Big Ten Player of the Year selection at Illinois, became just the sixth player on the PGA Tour with multiple wins this season after getting a victory Sunday at the John Deere Classic.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

July 6, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy The Golf Channel)

In the PGA Tour event that he would consider a home game, Brian Campbell won his second event of the 2024-25 season.

Campbell, the 2014 Big Ten Player of the Year during an All-American career at the University of Illinois, used a sudden-death playoff (similarly to how he won the Mexico Open in late February) to take home the 2025 John Deere Classic in Silvis. Campbell fired a 67 on Sunday to complete a four-day total of 18-under-par at the event he made his professional golf debut a decade ago.

Campbell’s final round that included six birdies allowed him to get into a playoff with 32-year-old Emiliano Grillo. Just like he had done nearly an hour before in his final hole of regulation, Campbell completed a two-putt par on the 18th hole to clinch his second win on the PGA Tour.

“Right now it's surreal,” Campbell said of his first PGA Tour in the United States of America. “I don't know what's going on. But, yeah, it all started [at The John Deere Classic] as an amateur, my first invite here. I've loved it ever since.”

I have no words. I mean, to be let alone in a playoff and to finish it off this way, it's just been amazing.

The 32-year-old Campbell is the first former Illini to win this PGA Tour event located on the Illinois-Iowa border since Steve Stricker did so in 2011 completing a third-straight victory of the John Deere Classic.

Campbell is now just the sixth player of the PGA Tour this season to capture multiple victories this season joining the elite company of Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Ryan Fox, Ben Griffin and Sepp Straka.

The victory, which forced the entire field to deal with heat advisory conditions at the TPC Deere Run at Silvis, will assuredly vault Campbell up the Fed Ex Cup standings (which he sat 59th at the beginning of the week) and will see his current official world golf ranking of 115th skyrocket once again.

“It's grueling out here. We're sweating. It's just hot,” Campbell said of his decision to not go to the practice tee or green after his final round on Sunday was over.

With so many players all week around the lead in an event where low scores are plentiful, Campbell knew about 40 minutes before the final group got to finishing hole that his 18-under posted score would be tested and could likely be involved in a sudden-death playoff.

“I think we really needed to take a break, get some water, rather than go out and beat balls and putt for who knows how many minutes,” Campbell said. “It was really just a team effort to get some rest and get mentally ready.”

Campbell had been scuffling with his results since picking up his first career win in Mexico as he had missed the cut in seven of his last 11 PGA Tour events including a missed cut in the U.S. Open nearly a month ago, which was his last event played before this week.

“You really got to dig deep and trust yourself,” Campbell said Sunday after the win. “It's easier said than done, but what worked for me a lot was trusting a lot of things I used to do when I was a kid. You know, getting back to enjoying the game and loving the game for what it is and just having fun with it.”

Illinois alumni and former teammates Thomas Detry and Campbell each earned their first-career PGA TOUR victories a few months ago over a stretch of three weeks of competition, closing out titles at the WM Phoenix Open and the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld.

"It makes me so proud and happy to see Thomas and Brian earn their first wins on the PGA TOUR," head coach Mike Small said in late February. "For both of them to satisfy lifelong goals of becoming PGA TOUR winners within just two weeks of each other, makes this extra special to all of us."

Detry, who starred for the Illini from 2012-16, wrapped up his title in one of the sports' most raucous environments at the WM Phoenix Open on Feb. 9. Two weeks later Campbell, an Illini great just one year ahead of Detry in the program from 2011-15, put an exclamation point on his dramatic career resurgence with a thrilling win on the second playoff hole at the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld, Feb. 23.

By virtue of their victories, Detry and Campbell have their exemptions extended through 2027 in the winners category.

Detry and Campbell become the third member of Small's 2014-15 Illini squad to secure a PGA TOUR victory in the past three seasons. The duo joined Nick Hardy, their former teammate from a decade ago, who earned a win at the 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

Campbell will next travel overseas next week to play in the Genesis Scottish Open where he can earn one of three possible qualifying spots for what would be his debut at The Open Championship.