A year ago, Camilo Villegas was mired in a slump, ranked No. 223 in the FedEx Cup standings and in danger of losing his job on the PGA Tour. Before flying to Mexico last November to compete in the World Wide Technology Championship, he prepped to go to second stage of PGA Tour Q-School, playing two practice rounds at the host course for his qualifier and spent time working on his yardage book ahead of trying to win back full status on the PGA Tour.
“But I wasn’t worried. I had my back against the wall and I don’t know why, I just wasn’t worried,” Villegas said recently.
He would go on to finish tied for second in Mexico and then fly to the western edge of Great Britain’s territory in the Atlantic Ocean where he’d notch his fifth Tour title at Port Royal Golf Course in Southhampton, Bermuda, and earn a much-appreciated two-year Tour exemption.
“Boom, it clicked. I played great (in Mexico), I fricking threw away my Tesoro yardage book for second stage of Q-School. I thought I was going to go to finals after that and then I go and win and no Q-School, so here we are,” Villegas said.
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What was it that clicked for Villegas, 42, in that two-week fever dream when he rediscovered the old magic?
“I wish I knew, to be honest,” he said. “You know, I think that was very interesting because I gambled big time and I started working with Jose Campra from Argentina and he told me, ‘This is going to take a lot of time, this is going to be tough, I need you to be patient because there’s going to be times where you’re going to want to quit on me just because it is some drastic changes and you’ve been swinging the way you swing for a long time.’
“He’s a good friend. We played junior golf together, South American tournaments, great caddie, great teacher. And I believed in him, I trusted him and I was very patient throughout the year. We were doing a lot of things that didn’t make too much sense to me and then eventually they started clicking.”
Last September, during that test of his patience, he was competing at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Simmons Bank Open in Knoxville, Tennessee, and in the middle of breakfast Campra looked at him and said, “You know we’re going to play Augusta again?”
Villegas’s brain started working overtime running through the various scenarios of what needed to happen to get him back to the Masters. He processed his options and replied, “Bro, I guess the only way for me to play Augusta is to win.”
Campra’s response was perfect: “Well, I guess you know what you need to do?”
Villegas smiles a conspiratorial smile as he recalls that line and added, “I remember it like yesterday.”
He shot a 6-under 65 in the final round in Bermuda, finishing at 24-under 260 and clipping Alex Noren by two shots for his first victory in more than nine years, booking a trip back to the Masters thanks to his first win since the death of his 22-month-old daughter, Mia, from brain cancer in 2020. He dedicated the win to Mia and said, “I’ve got my little one up there watching.”
“Different wins are special for different reasons. It’s so hard. I mean, winning on the PGA Tour is almost a fluke, to be honest,” he said. “But after going through all those tears, the ups and downs, and then the family tragedy of losing my daughter, you kind of get shaken up, man. You freaking go and say like what are the real things in life? What are the more important things in life? And then I saw the support of everybody. (He had over 900+ text messages alone to respond to.) To be honest, the messages and the energy from everybody. I mean, when you see your peers pulling for you, that kind of got me emotional, and it was pretty touching.”
Villegas hasn’t been able to carry that good mojo into this season. His best result in 24 starts is a T-35 at the Masters and he has missed 13 of his last 15 cuts. To Villegas, it’s another test of his patience. He’s learned to weather the highs and lows during a career spanning two decades and knows that the status of his game can change as fast as the weather in Bermuda this week.
“At 22 when you win a golf tournament, you kind of keep pushing, pushing, pushing,” he said. “At 42, I feel like winning last year bought me time to keep working on my game. It’s kind of bit me in the (rear) a bit where I need to be a little bit stronger and keep going.”
But Villegas said he would slow down and take a moment at Port Royal, the shortest course on the PGA Tour at 6,828 yards, to soak in the memories of an inspirational win that made grown men cry.
“Usually, I’m trying to be in the present, trying to freaking focus on the job at hand. But I’m gonna say, ‘Screw it, man.’ My mind wants to go back to the past and enjoy the memories and the good stuff that happened last year there. Just gonna let it flow. When it’s time to play, I want to have a good week.”
