Stat profiles for 1500 golfers
On a perfect day for scoring, Villegas makes nine birdies and nine pars and is one better than his former Florida teammate Matt Every.
Camilo Villegas has been on the PGA Tour since 2006, but has finally taken things really serious now. He may of been the winner of two FedEx Cup events in 2008 but last year wasn't the best in his view, his attitude wasn't the best with the distractions. So in evaluating his year, he decided to visit with Dr. Gio Valiante, a noted golf psychologist that wrote the book "Fearless Golf". Dr. Valiante provided Villegas with a vision to help him become more focused and committed to each shot and already it's showing dividends.
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On a perfect day for scoring, Villegas took advantage of the perfect conditions in the morning to shot a flawless round of 62. Along with his nine birdies and nine pars, he hit 10 of 14 fairways, 14 of 18 greens and took only 25 putts. On the surface there wasn't any real keys for his good play that created his lowest round in 263 rounds played over the course of 110 starts. Previously he shot 63 on four different occasions, the last being the first round in last year's RBC Canadian Open.
It should be mention that this event has some special memories for Villegas, back in 2006 in his first exempt year on the PGA tour, the folks that run the Phoenix event gave Villegas an exemption and he made the best of it by finishing T2nd which got his season off to a great start. He will always remember the kindness shown him and return back to play in this event which he called afterwards a very special place.
Villegas was a shot better than Matt Every, who played college golf with Villegas at Florida. Every is playing on the PGA Tour as a rookie this year, getting his card through the Nationwide Tour in which he won the season ending Nationwide Tour Championship. Every had about the same type of nonchalance round as Villegas had, Every made eight birdies and ten bogeys, his birdies came in a ten hole stretch which included six in a row. Every hit 9 of 14 fairways, 13 of 18 greens and took 15 putts. Every comes off of a week in Mexico in which he was disqualified for signing a wrong scorecard in the third round.
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Some of the other scores saw Tom Lehman, who had a putting lesson from Howard Twitty which help him shot 66 along with Geoff Ogilvy, Ryan Moore, Zach Johnson, Brandt Snedeker, Joe Durant, Kevin Stadler, Y.E. Yang, Carl Pettersson and Arnold Palmer's grandson Sam Saunders, who had his best round ever on the PGA Tour. Fred Couples, who won two weeks ago in Florida on the Champions Tour, got off to a great start shooting a five under 31, but was stymied on the back shooting a one over 36 for a 67. Tournament favorite Phil Mickelson had a rollar-coaster round of 68 as he played with defending champion Kenny Perry who also shot 68.
The disappointment of the day had to be last week's Accenture champion Ian Poulter. Playing TPC Scottsdale for the first time, Poulter got off to a terrible start as he played his first 12 holes in 3 over and was able to play the remaining holes in 2 under to salvage a 72. But the round played him T95th and he will have to played better on Friday just to make the cut.
As for Villegas a good first round doesn't necessarily spell success since history hasn't been very kind to first round leaders at this event. Since the event moved to the TPC Scottsdale in 1987, the first-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win just three times. (Tommy Armour III in 1990, Steve Jones in 1997 and Tom Lehman in 2000). Last year Lucas Glover had a share of the lead with James Nitties but struggled after his 65 with rounds of 72-75-69 to finish T42nd.
One of the weirdest rounds of the day was turned in by Justin Rose, who started and ended the day with bogeys but had eight birdies in between to shot 65 and T3rd.
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