In the world of golf, the people who are the loudest are the ones saying everyone must be the same. Sure, the “swing your swing” campaign is still alive and well, but if you watch YouTube, or even PGA Tour events, you’ll hear so much talk about the analytics in the game you would start to think you need to do the same.

What’s my ball speed?

How about the spin rate?

The fact is, golf is a unique game because there are a million ways to be successful. Sure, you can pound the ball like Bryson DeChambeau, but you also have players like Zach Johnson and Brian Harmon who are not long hitters, but masterful around the green.

This past weekend the PGA Tour saw one of the shortest hitters claim victory at the John Deere Classic, and that is with Brian Campbell claiming victory. Despite his lack of length off the tee, it was Campbell’s second win of the 2025 season.

As stated earlier, Campbell is the shortest hitter on the PGA Tour, he ranks 171st out of 171 players and has the slowest ball speed. He entered the week with just one top-30 finish this season, his win at the Mexico Open. It has been a decade since his Tour debut, and he’s spent most of that decade on the Korn Ferry Tour. He’s battled injury, doubt, more injury, more doubt. His results over the last month have been MC-WD-MC. Nobody saw this win coming because not even Campbell saw it coming.

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

Campbell is a unique case not just in his swing speed, but the fact his 2025 season, and also his career, has been literally boom-or-bust.

In his post-round press conference, Campbell pinpointed a moment where the entire trajectory of his pro golf future hung in the balance.

“I’ve worked my entire life to be in this position, but unfortunately we had a couple years there where it wasn’t looking so good,” he said. “You have to start thinking about am I going do something else. Maybe pro golf or this route is not going to work out.

“But it was at second stage Q-School about two, three years ago. I made like a quintuple bogey on a par-3 and 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 8-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.”

When asked what advice he would give to anyone out there who is struggling with the game, his advice was on-point.

“Oh man, the advice I would give is just you really got to dig deep and trust yourself,” he said. “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. Getting back to enjoying the game and loving the game for what it is and just having fun with it.”

Needless to say, while having fun is always paramount, after winning in Mexico earlier this season it is easy to let expectations sneak into your brain.

“After your first win I would say there is a lot of expectations that come about. Unfortunately I dealt with a lot of random sicknesses that hit me and pulled me out of a few tournaments I really wanted to play,” he said. “Even more so, I just really had to trust what I had been doing before, and, man, now we’re here. It’s just wild.”

Congratulations to Campbell for his big win at the John Deere Classic, and doing it in a second playoff is crazy to consider. What’s next on the PGA Tour? The big names on tour head to Scotland for the Genesis Scottish Open to gear up for the Open Championship in two weeks at Royal Portrush.

Jeff Hartman is the host of the Fairways & Dreams podcast, and the latest episode can be heard in the player below: