Deep thoughts with Camilo Villegas after his first win in nine years

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Camilo Villegas admits it was growing old to ask for sponsor exemptions into PGA Tournament fields but it wasn’t hard to phone World Wide Technology Championship tournament director Joe Mazzeo and tell him, “Joe, seriously, no B.S., I’m close.”

Heading into the tournament, Villegas was ranked No. 223 in the FedEx Cup standings, had missed the cut in seven of 10 starts and hadn’t recorded a top-10 finish since the 2021 Honda Classic. But the 41-year-old Colombian’s self-belief remained intact.

Mazzeo gave him a spot in the field and Villegas finished T-2, earning him a place in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, where he won for the fifth time in his career and for the first time in nine years.

What a difference a few weeks make. Villegas had made a similar call to RSM Classic tournament director Todd Thompson asking for a spot in this week’s event.

“I was supposed to tee it up in second stage of Q-School, so I wasn’t going to be able to be here, but my wife was going to be here Monday night. She was going to do a little event. She was going to speak about our foundation and she was going to tell the story of how RSM Birdies Fore Love has impacted and benefited our foundation and the people that we help,” Villegas recounted. “Things changed in Mexico after I moved up to 147 in the FedExCup points list, I didn’t have to go to second stage of Q-School.”

Of the phone call to Thompson, Villegas said, “No bullshit, I’m calling you because I don’t want to be there, I need to be there. So I don’t know how your sponsor exemptions are looking, but I don’t know what you’re going to do, but I need to be there.”

Villegas went from thinking he was going to play second stage of Q-School to begging for a sponsor invite to being in the field as a Tour winner of the past two years.

“That’s pretty cool,” he said.

Indeed, it is. He said he received more than 900 messages on his phone and he plans to answer them all at some point.

The last two weeks for Villegas have been a microcosm of his journey from the golfer nicknamed Spider-Man that won some big events quickly to the player who dealt with injuries and had to return to the Korn Ferry Tour, and most of all, suffered the loss of his 22-month-old daughter, Mia, who had tumors in her brain.

“Life is a journey and it goes up and down,” he said. “Sort of kind of go back to that Colombian kid that came here with a dream,…