Camilo Villegas Has A Piece Of The First Round Lead At The Wyndham

By Les Bailey | Aug 15, 2014

May 31, 2014; Dublin, OH, USA; Camilo Villegas tees off on the first hole during the third round of The Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports

I’m always intrigued when Camilo Villegas fires a first-round score in the low 60’s like he did on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship. Usually when the 32 year-old, former Florida Gator plays that well on Thursday, he isn’t able to follow-up with a good round on Friday. Villegas fired a bogey-free, seven under par 63 at The Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro yesterday and we will see how he does today.

Fresh off of a one-week vacation and going home to Columbia for a visit with family and some serious biking, Villegas told PGATour.com that after playing in 25 tournaments in 2014 already, he needed to get away from the clubs and enjoy some down-time.

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"“I was a little recharging, little cycling, no golf clubs and just get away from the game,” Villegas said with a smile."

Villegas got in the clubhouse on Thursday with a one-shot lead over Webb Simpson, and William McGirt, but will have to change his M.O. if he wants to play on the weekend.

"“It was nice to go without bogeys and I think it probably showed it was a consistent round,” Villegas said. “Kept it in the fairway, kept it on the greens and just made the putts when I hit it close. … I just hit the ball nicely today.”"

Everyone knows that the key to playing a Donald Ross designed golf course, is to keep the ball in the fairway, don’t go past the pin on the undulating greens and putt well.

Villegas needed only 29 putts to get around Sedgefield, hitting 12 of 14 fairways and ranked first in GIR. He made a three-foot putt on the par five fifth hole for eagle.

Twice in the last year, Camilo has went to the first tee on Friday with the lead in a tournament, and missed the cut at the Honda Classic, and finished 71st at The John Deere.

"“Just the nature of the game,” he said. “Ups, downs, good years, average years, bad years. And if you ask any player out in the field everybody wants to play better. The game has been good to me. I have no complaints.“Do I want to play better? Yes. Do I feel like I have played to my potential the last two and a half years? No. But again, it’s not everything about golf. You got to be little bit easy on yourself and just enjoy life.”"

I keep rooting for this youngster from Medellin, Columbia to make a come-back on the PGA Tour, but to date, it hasn’t happened.

His last win was the 2010 Honda Classic where he beat another comer who’s star has went out, Anthony Kim. Villegas also beat Sergio Garcia at the Tour Championship in a playoff at the end of the 2008 season. He won the BMW Championship that year and has won over $13 Million Dollars on the tour.

Anthony Kim has faded due to injuries, but Villegas just lost his game. He had to go back through the Qualifying school in 2012, but was able to play on numerous events through sponsors exemptions. He looks good one day, and horrible the next.

I used to enjoy his commercials where he performs the spider to line up his putts. As he is getting longer in the tooth, that move looks to be more difficult, and he is reading putts in a more traditional style.

Source: PGATour.com