Tom Kim and Brian Campbell each took a two-stroke penalty at the VidantaWorld Mexico Open after playing each other’s ball from the same bunker. The mix-up came Friday on their final hole of the second round at Vidanta Vallarta.
Kim and Campbell were in the same threesome and started on the back nine. Both were 9 under for the tournament when their approach shots found the front greenside bunker on the par-4 ninth hole.
Each played the other’s ball out of the sand. The pair discovered the mistake on the green and consulted a rules official.
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Rule 6.3c(1) covers a stroke at a wrong ball in stroke play. The penalty is two strokes, and the shot played with the wrong ball does not count. The player must then correct the mistake by playing his original ball.
Kim and Campbell returned to the bunker and replayed their shots. Both got up and down for a double-bogey 6 and signed for 68s, leaving each at 7 under through 36 holes.
“It’s blame on both guys here,” Brendon de Jonge said on the Golf Channel broadcast. “You’re looking down at the lie; you’ve got to figure it out. Which golf ball is yours? It’s really a mistake you cannot afford to make.”
The correction kept both players in the tournament. A player who fails to correct a wrong-ball mistake on the final hole before returning his scorecard is disqualified.
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Campbell is the defending champion after winning the 2025 Mexico Open in a sudden-death playoff over Aldrich Potgieter. This week is his first start since the Wyndham Championship in August, where he missed his ninth cut in 11 events.
Kim, a four-time PGA Tour winner, won the Genesis Scottish Open this summer and entered the week at No. 30 in the world. Both players made the cut comfortably.
