JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 4, 2025

Brian Campbell

TPC Deere Run

Quick Quotes

Q. Brian, great final nine holes. Tell me what switch flipped in the final six holes for you, especially that four-birdie stretch.

BRIAN CAMPBELL: Yeah, honestly no idea. Just told myself to keep getting birdie looks. Didn't make anything on my front nine, but I knew it was doing the right stuff, putting it in play.

I guess I opened the lid there and made four in a row, so that definitely felt good.

Q. Obviously have some strong ties to this area being an Illinois alum. Does it feel that much sweeter to put yourself in a good position? Obviously plenty of golf still ahead, but knowing there is a lot of the Illini fans out there?

BRIAN CAMPBELL: Yeah, it's been awesome. Friends and family out here and people I haven't seen since college coming out. So it's been really special.

I went over to campus on Sunday before coming here. Didn't get to see coach, but got to hang out with a few of the team members and get some practice in.

Q. Obviously a winner already this season. To put yourself in position to potentially get a second win, knowing how your career has been, all the challenges, the ups and downs, what does what mean to you to be able to play good golf at this stage in your career?

BRIAN CAMPBELL: Yeah, it's been a heck of a year. Really proud of everything. But we've had a crazy year. We had flu, sickness issues, couple WDs because of injuries.

So just overall really pleased to get myself back in contention and hopefully keep it going this weekend.

Q. Zach talked about this being a hometown event for him; Doug Ghim, we were talking to him yesterday. I know you're not born in Illinois but you're from Illinois. Just being back in the Midwest, does it relax you a little bit when you come back to this area?

BRIAN CAMPBELL: Oh, yeah. It's just something about the atmosphere, the people, even the grass. Just putting on it and hitting off it, reminds me of the college days.

So yeah, I always love coming to this tournament. It's really a good tournament.

Q. You talked about you couldn't quite pinpoint what switch flipped. You were giving yourself good birdie looks. What was the mentality or was the wedge game working well? The approach shots working well?

BRIAN CAMPBELL: I was getting off the tee pretty well so I was -- knew I was going to be in the fairway and could attack some of the pins.

I think I just kind of adjusted my speed on my putting a little bit towards the end. You know, I was like, well, they're not going in right now so we need to adjust something.

I think just tuning in the speed a little bit better helped.

Q. How do you carry this into the weekend?

BRIAN CAMPBELL: Keep hopefully doing the same thing we're doing and giving yourself as many looks as you can. This is a course that guys can open the floodgates on and go really deep depending on the weather.

Got to stay aggressive.

Q. Seemed like yesterday afternoon the course wasn't scoring very well. A lot of guys were having trouble scoring. What was it like this morning for you?

BRIAN CAMPBELL: Yeah, it's very scorable. Greens were still soft and gettable to some of the pins. Greens were just so pure in the morning that if you don't hit your line you're going to barely miss it. That kind of snuck in there I think.

Yeah, it's usually a little bit more gettable in the mornings, but we'll see what happens.

Q. I think you were 1-over through 7 today. Sounds like you still thought you were playing good golf; you weren't worried at that point?

BRIAN CAMPBELL: Yeah, missed a four-footer for birdie on the first; 12-footer for birdie on the second; and then two more in a row, missed some short birdies.

So I knew I was right there. I just had to get it going kind of. And then made a stupid three-putt to get 1-over through 7.

So yeah, didn't get it discourage me.

Q. Was that a matter of the greens playing different today or just didn't hit it right?

BRIAN CAMPBELL: I think it was just me. Didn't hit it right. I think there might have been a bug in my backswing or something. You know, that's going to happen.

Q. And compared to yesterday, did you lean on other areas of your game? Yesterday you were pleased with your putting.

BRIAN CAMPBELL: Yeah, I probably hit it a little bit better today than yesterday and putted worse, so that's what you get.

It's hard to be consistent out here, so that's what -- going forward just try to be a little more consistent.