To be an inspiration to your community, oftentimes, you need to leave home. That’s not necessarily how Rafael Campos would define the entirety of his pursuit as a professional golfer, but it’s a big part of it.

The 36-year-old is the only native of Puerto Rico in possession of a PGA TOUR card. When he won the Butterfield Bermuda Championship last fall, he joined Chi Chi Rodriguez as the only Puerto Ricans with a victory on the circuit. (Rodriguez won eight times en route to induction in the World Golf Hall of Fame.) It also lifted overall awareness of Campos and what the success means as his homeland rallies around him.

In support, driven by his breakthrough victory, albeit ironically, Campos is not competing in the Puerto Rico Open for the first time when healthy. The explanation, what’s new at Grand Reserve Golf Club and more details are below the ranking of those projected to contend and others to consider for the first Additional Event of the season.

Others to consider

• Taylor Montgomery ... It’s great to see him feeling physically well enough to compete often, and it’s even better that he’s cashed in five of six starts this season. Final rounds have been his nemeses thus far but he was lurking through three rounds at PGA National last week before retreating into a T25. Has just two starts remaining on his Major Medical Extension to earn 26.251 FedExCup points and retain status. To clear the hurdle in his tournament debut this week, he’d need no worse than a solo 21st-place finish (worth 26.756 points).
• Adrien Dumont de Chassart ... With conditional status this season, the second-year member has taken advantage of the playing time afforded that category on the DP World Tour with a T8 and a T24 in three starts. Also just finished T16 in Argentina on the Korn Ferry Tour on Sunday, and if you run it back to a T3-T25 close on the PGA TOUR in 2024, that’s five top 25s in his last six starts worldwide. His only other top 10 as a rookie last season was right here at Grand Reserve, where he placed T6.
• Justin Hastings ... Luke Clanton hogged the headlines at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches for fulfilling the minimum requirement to secure his PGA TOUR card via PGA TOUR University Accelerated, but Hastings had just polished off a steady T13 at the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld, which is played on paspalum just like this week’s stop at Grand Reserve. The senior at San Diego State University is up to 11th in PGA TOUR University, he won the Latin American Amateur Championship in January and as a native of the Cayman Islands, he’s right at home in the tropical setting.

While Campos can’t be in two places at once, his heart is forever with Puerto Rico, especially when the PGA TOUR makes its annual stop. At the same time, his body and mind will be on the significant opportunity that awaits at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard where he’s making his debut via a sponsor exemption. The fourth Signature Event of 2025 will be contested concurrently this week, while the Puerto Rico Open is the first stop that feeds into the fifth – the RBC Heritage – via the Aon Swing 5.

As 72 entrants at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge face off, another 132 are poised for their own competition at Grand Reserve on the northern edge of Puerto Rico. The coastal stock par 72 situated just east of San Juan tips at 7,506 yards, and it presents as a shootout catering to capitalizing on scoring opportunities.

Receptive paspalum greens won’t run longer than 11 feet on the Stimpmeter because of its exposure to the wind by the sea, so even approaches from the thickest of the two-inch rough flanking fairways are given a chance to check. Being aggressive pays off but only in conjunction with responsible course management.

Meanwhile, the more things stay the same, the more they change. Flipping the script on that familiar phrase aligns with the fact that the nines have been reversed for the competition for the first time. So, instead of a par-5-3-4-5 close, the tournament will come down to respective pars of 3, 4, 3 and 4, and that’s going to modify strategy with the finish line in view.

Using the 2024 edition as the example and when the overall scoring average for the week was 70.069, what were then holes 15-18 averaged 0.914 strokes under par. Comparatively, Nos. 6-9 stood up as a group at 0.023 strokes over par, almost a full stroke tougher than their counterparts on the opposite side. The moral of the matter is that would-be winners will want to be in position entering the new home stretch with the intent to hang on.

Scoring across Grand Reserve should resemble last year’s as the elements won’t generate much consternation. Breezes from a prevailing easterly direction will be constant if light most of the time. A few sprinkles can’t be ruled out in the tropical climate that will yield daytime highs in the mid-80s.

The winner of the Puerto Rico Open will be among the last qualifiers into THE PLAYERS Championship. As of Monday, 16 in the field already are promised tee times at TPC Sawgrass next week, while another seven are among the next 13 poised to fill the field of 144.

NOTE: ShotLink is not utilized for this tournament.

ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE

PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton previews and recaps every tournament. Refer to the timing of his contributions below. He’s also active as @RobBoltonGolf on X where you can connect with him.

MONDAY: Power Rankings (Arnold Palmer)

TUESDAY*: Power Rankings (Puerto Rico); Fantasy Insider

SUNDAY: Payouts and Points (Arnold Palmer); Payouts and Points (Puerto Rico); Qualifiers

* - Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by PGA TOUR Superstore, which also publishes on Tuesday.