Brian Campbell Given Reality Check on Ryder Cup Chances Despite Two Wins This Season

Following his second win of the season at the 2025 John Deere Classic, Brian Campbell confessed, “Right now, it’s surreal. I don’t know what’s going on. I have no words.” And indeed it’s been so, given that he’s only the 6th player at the PGA Tour to grab multiple wins this season. But despite the “surreal” feeling, this win has propelled Campbell to 28th place in the Ryder Cup rankings. Does that mean he is likely to be present at Bethpage Black for the 2025 Ryder Cup?

Two golf analysts, Andy Johnson and Brendan Porath, tried to answer that question. During a recent Fried Egg Golf podcast, Porath begins, “He just, it’s amazing to get, you know, to be able to compete, let alone win twice, uh, the distance he’s hitting the ball off the tee.” But given Campbell’s performance, who ranks 172nd in Strokes Gained: off the tee on the Tour against Emiliano Grillo (60th), Porath jokes that it would be fun to see Campbell, “take down some sort of speed demon Danish player or something.”

Brian Campbell maintains a “trust yourself” attitude when it comes to golf

Following his 2025 John Deere Classic win, the 32-year-old Brian Campbell said, “I guess that’s how I approach most weeks. There are things I can control and things I can’t control.” Despite this, the 2x PGA Tour winner often had moments where he “was thinking about, hey, you know, this could be a special week. I don’t know if I like to let myself get ahead of myself and think about winning all that much, but I know if we stick around and keep doing the right things that we’re going to be there in the end.”

After his rookie season in 2016-17, Campbell spent seven years away from the PGA Tour, battling injuries and disappointments on the Korn Ferry Tour and other circuits. He often questioned his ability to make a comeback, even considering a career change after losing two years to injury in 2021-22. Despite these setbacks, his determination ultimately paid off.

“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 to do something else?’” His doubts peaked during the second stage of PGA TOUR Q-School three years ago when he made a quintuple bogey on a par 3.

Campbell continued, “I thought my career was over in that moment. 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 eight 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.”

And it looks like it has changed. Somewhat, at least. Brian Campbell’s victory at TPC Deere Run places him in elite company with Steve Stricker, a three-time champion of the event (2009-11). Notably, Campbell’s winning score of 18-under 266 matches Bryson DeChambeau‘s 2018 total, which is the highest winning score at the course in recent years.

It’s still early to tell if Brian Campbell can sustain his momentum against the long-hitters, but it’s definitely exciting to see him keep playing well!