You won't believe which PGA Tour pro received a spot in the Arnold Palmer Invitational

Puerto Rico's Rafael Campos cried tears of joy when he learned that he had received a sponsor invitation into the 2025 Arnold Palmer Invitational. But the spot into one of the Tour’s signature events is a double-edged sword because it means he will miss home game, the Puerto Rico Open, which is an opposite event played the same week.

“I was a little teary eyed and I go in and my wife was there, she's like, ‘Hey, are you OK?’ I'm like, ‘Yeah, unfortunately we can't play the Puerto Rico Open.’ She's like, ‘Did you get injured? Did you fall? What happened back there?’ I told her, ‘We got a spot in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.’ ”

Campos claimed the 2024 Bermuda Championship in November, becoming the first Puerto Rican to win on the PGA Tour since Chi Chi Rodriguez. It was a big deal on the island of enchantment among the golf community. It earned him spots in The Sentry, the Players Championship and the Masters.

But he’s still on the outside looking in for most of the signature events. Campos wrote a letter to Drew Donovan, the tournament director of the Arnold Palmer Invitational explaining what it would mean for his career, for golf in Puerto Rico and how it would be an opportunity he's never had.

Campos said he’s written countless letters asking for exemptions and was moved by the positive response this time.

“I've probably gotten into two events out of probably 150 requests I've sent,” he said.

On Feb. 7, Campos received a text message from Donovan asking him to give him a call.

“Of course I'll call you. It's not often you get these calls,” Campos said. “he was extremely kind and all of a sudden said, hey, we want to extend you an invitation basically. I was outside, I started kind of crying a little bit because it means a lot to us, to me, to us, the Puerto Ricans, just being able to go and play in a bigger event, bigger opportunity. Really motivates the younger generations back home to realize that hey, if you put in the work, if you dedicate your time and really work hard, you can move to those bigger and better opportunities.”

Campos, 36, is playing this week at the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld. He has missed the cut in his last four stats and finished T-57 at The Sentry, a no-cut event. Campos had competed in 15 of the last 16 Puerto Rico Opens, missing in 2018 when he was sidelined with a torn lumbardum (lower back). He has a career-best T-3 among three top-10 finishes in Puerto Rico. And while he’ll miss his home game, the difference in purse size made it an easy decision: API plays for $20 million versus $4 million for the PRO.

“That's a blessing,” Campos said. “It's an opportunity obviously we'll always remember. I really want to take advantage of that opportunity and at the same time hopefully it's the start of me gaining the confidence I need to start playing some good golf and hopefully being in that tournament for the future.”

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Rafael Campos to miss the Puerto Rico Open in favor of 2025 API