Camilo Villegas liked winning so much he won the Tour Championship in a playoff with Sergio Garcia. “Winning is awesome,” Villegas said after closing with a 4-under 66. In his first tournament since his initial victory at the Western Open, err sorry, BMW Championship, Mr.Villegas doubled his victory total. Coming back from a 5 shot deficit using 6 birdies on his last 11 holes in regulation was highlighted by his 7 iron from 184 yards to 12 feet. “Probably the shot of the tournament there,” Villegas said. “There’s a great chance the ball is going to plug if it comes up short in that bunker, and a yard long and it’s in the water. So it’s just hit and beg. It happened to be just fine.” I find "hit and beg" to be more appropriate from my own game than that of a back to back tournament winner, but hey if you can hit that shot with a 7 iron, you can describe it anyway you wish.
Anthony Kim and Phil Mickelson shot 69 Sunday and both had an opportunity to join the playoff on the final hole. Mr. Kim missed a birdie from 30 feet, and Mr. Mickelson from 20 feet. “Fun way to finish the year, have it come down to the last shot,” Mickelson said. Sergio Garcia might not agree with that sentiment, considering for the third time in his career he managed to boot a 3 shot 54 hole lead with all the grace and agility of Bill Buckner in game 6 of the 1986 World Series letting Mookie Wilson’s ground ball roll under his glove and between his legs. Not a pretty sight. Not very good for the psyche either.
Vijay Singh won the FedEx Cup, a conclusion so foregone I got better odds on gravity not working tomorrow. Sigh, so much hype so little drama. I’m surprised Mr. Singh could stay awake during his rounds.
This tournament was one of the best of the year for drama. Four players, Mr. Garcia, Mr. Mickelson, Mr. Kim, and Mr. Villegas battled all day. In fact the only hole not birdied by one of them on Sunday was the 18th. When Mr. Villegas hit the water on the par 3 sixth hole, then bogeyed the seventh hole, I had him buried and forgotten. Silly me. “My caddie looked at me straight in the eyes and he goes, ‘You ain’t going to give up on me. We can still do it.’ He was probably the only one believing that at that point,” Villegas said. Had I heard caddie Gary Matthews say that I’d have wondered what he’d been drinking. What followed was three straight birdies. Apparently he hadn’t been drinking.
Mr. Garcia, who lost a playoff to Mr. Singh at The Barclays, didn’t make a birdie until the 12th hole. Mr. Mickelson missed several putts inside 12 feet, as if he needed further reminders that his putting can crush his chances of winning at any time, on any course. Mr. Kim had the outright lead after he birdied the 11th hole, but couldn’t get another birdie onto the scorecard the rest of the way.
The 17th hole, with Mr. Garcia a stroke ahead, was where Mr. Villegas had planned to play to the center of the green all week. His caddie told him to follow that strategy. “Sometimes I’m a little stubborn,” Villegas said. “I wasn’t sure if it was going to jump a little bit or not, but when my caddie looked at me, he goes, ‘Trust it. It’s not going to jump.’ I changed my target, looked straight at the pin, and went at it.” A 12 foot birdie putt later he was tied with Mr. Garcia. A little later he had the trophy and the thought that had he not missed the cut at The Barclays in the first round of the playoffs he might have been about $10 million richer. The consolation, winning your first two PGA titles back to back is probably good enough to carry Mr. Villegas into next year on a very very high note.
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bobsuruncle
Oct 2, 2008 at 12:09 am
Congrats to Camilio. It’s just great to see some of the good young players breaking through and winning. That builds their confidence and as the pool of players grow, it’ll will give us golf fans more tightly contested final round matches for the future.