Camilo Villegas was born on this day in 1982. He is a Colombian professional golfer who play has played on the PGA Tour and the Web.com Tour.
Villegas was born in Medellín, Colombia, and took up golf as a child. After several different National Junior Championships in Colombia in the ages between 8 and 15, at 16 he became the first player in Colombian golf history to win the Amateur’s Grand Slam in the same year: The National Junior Championship (stroke play), the National Junior Championship (match play), the National Amateur Championship, and the Colombian Open in the amateur category.
Villegas won his first PGA Tour title in September 2008, winning the BMW Championship by two shots over Dudley Hart. For the last 44 holes of the tournament, Villegas did not three putt, one-putting 27 of those last 44 holes. This victory took him to a career high of 18th in the Official World Golf Rankings.
Villegas followed his BMW Championship win with a victory in The Tour Championship. He beat Sergio García in a playoff, having trailed by five shots going into the final round. The win took Villegas to number seven in the Official World Golf Rankings and established him as the highest ranked golfer from South America. He finished the season 7th on the PGA Tour money list.
In late 2008 Villegas joined the European Tour, making his first European Tour appearance at the 2008 HSBC Champions, the first tournament of the 2009 season. However he will continue to play predominately in the United States. He had no victories in 2009 but had five top-10 finishes and ended the season ranked 45th on the PGA Tour money list and in the top 30 of the European Tour’s Race to Dubai.
He has spent over 30 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Rankings since 2008. At the 2009 Chevron World Challenge, Villegas made a very rare albatross (double eagle) on a 568 yard par 5, firing a 262 yard second shot into the hole.
In March 2010, Villegas earned his third victory on the PGA Tour, winning The Honda Classic by five strokes over Anthony Kim.
Villegas chose not to maintain his status on the European Tour, and a slump in form in 2012 meant he had to enter the PGA Tour’s Qualifying School at the end of the season. He failed to earn his card and will play 2013 on the Web.com Tour.