Golf’s sometime pin-up boy, complete with bulging biceps and rock-star looks, became the game’s hottest property following two successive FedEx Cup victories at the back end of 2008. So when Camilo Villegas flew into the Middle East for a Skins Game, Colin Callander went along in his slipstream

It is just after 9.00 a.m. on a warm, windless morning and Camilo Villegas is loosening up on the range ahead of the Skins Game that marked the official opening of the new Riffa Views layout at the Royal Golf Club in the oil-rich Middle Eastern kingdom of Bahrain.

To the Columbian’s left the course’s designer and European Ryder Cup captain elect Colin Montgomerie hits the occasional shot in between chatting with local dignitaries while to his right the other two competitors, former US Open champions Michael Campbell and Retief Goosen, go through their regular pre-round routines with the minimum of fuss and bother.

There is no doubt the Bahrainis have assembled an august group for their inaugural Skins Game, a foursome that boasts almost 100 worldwide Tour victories between them. But it is noticeable that it is Villegas, and not his more storied opponents, who seem to have caught the imagination of the 1,500-strong crowd.

It was the same the day before during the official pro-am when Villegas lived up to his burgeoning reputation as a natural showman, not to mention one of the most talented members of the new breed of young golfers currently challenging Tiger Woods and the other leading players in the game.

The 26 year-old from Bogota is not tall—the media guides say 5ft 9in—but in the flesh he appears a little smaller. However, with long hair, good looks and the physique of a middleweight boxer, he exudes charisma.

“There goes the new sex symbol on the PGA Tour,” Buddy Alexander, his coach at the University of Florida, once said and it’s hard to disagree, particularly now that he has confirmed his rich promise with back-to-back PGA Tour victories at last season’s BMW Championship and Tour Championship presented by Coca Cola.

Villegas reads a put in his familiar “spider-man” pose

Under Alexander’s tutelage, Villegas was a stand-out performer at college, where he won eight collegiate titles and was nominated for the NCAA All-American team on four occasions.

In 2004, after graduating and turning professional, he won the Forest Oaks Championship, a Hooters Tour event, by ten shots. The following year he posted five top-10 finishes in his first ten starts on the Nationwide Tour, eventually claiming 13th place on the money list and earning his card for the 2006 PGA Tour.

Given that degree of success, Villegas was labelled as a golfer to watch long before he reached the big league, so it was something of a surprise that he required 80-odd PGA Tour starts before triggering a sequence of results that saw him end the 2008 season designated as arguably one of the hottest golfers on the planet.

The fine run started last June when Villegas claimed a share of ninth place behind Woods in the US Open at Torrey Pines. He went on to shoot a second-day 65, the low round of the week, at the [British] Open at Royal Birkdale before adding a tie for fourth place in the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills to complete his most successful season in the Majors to date.

Camilo claimed his first PGA Tour victory at last year’s BMW Championship

Fast forward to the season-ending FedEx Cup series and he started inauspiciously, missing the cut in the first of the four events. From that point on, there was no stopping him. After tying for third in the Deutsche Bank Championship, he went on to win both the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship.

It was a run that catapulted Villegas up to seventh place on the PGA Tour money list (with official earnings of $4,422,641) and also up to No.7 in the official World Rankings. It also instigated a cascade of praise from some of the leading figures in the game.

“He has all the shots. He reminds me of me,” 1973 US Open and 1976 [British] Open champion, Johnny Miller, said, with customary modesty, while fellow TV commentator David Feherty was no less effusive.

“Sergio [Garcia] will win a Major, but Camilo might just get there first,” said the former Ryder Cup player from Northern Ireland who is now a popular roving reporter for CBS. “He has that Latin bravado that Seve had. He has the swing and he wants to be there in the big moments. He welcomes it.

“He’s not content with just making a few million dollars, which could be said about a lot of the players out there. He’s got that ego you need to be great. He reminds me of Tiger. They have both got that hunger.”

That is strong praise indeed but it is inappropriate for a man who exudes an almost superhuman desire to succeed at his chosen profession.
Villegas might look like the archetypal rock star, but it would be a grave mistake to suggest he has ever lived his life like one.

“He sacrificed things like hanging around friends and parties because he wanted to be a great golfer,” Manuel De La Rosa, a former president of the Columbian Golf Federation, said. “He never fooled around. I’ve never even seen him with a beer.”

Villegas admits that he is incredibly disciplined, a trait that manifests itself in many different ways.

“The word ‘good’ is not good enough for him,” explained his brother, Manny, another University of Florida graduate who last year turned professional and promptly won the Venezuelan Open. “He wants ‘perfect’. Even when it comes to folding his clothes…

“At home we call him ‘Grandpa’ because he’s so set in his ways. He numbers his socks. If he buys ten pairs of white socks, he’ll number each pair one to ten because he wants the ones with the ones, the twos with the twos, etc. He can’t get a seven get mixed up with a three.

“He hangs his shirts in color-coordinated rows with all the hangers pointing in the same direction. When he cooks dinner, he has to clean the pan before he eats what he cooks. He’s weird like that.”

The Columbian is also intensely competitive, as shown on the eve of the aforementioned Skins Game in Bahrain when he was asked to take part in the final of a shoot-out against an 18-handicap local member at an evening reception.

The idea was to see who could hit a wedge closest to a hole cut 50-yards away. It was meant to be a light-hearted event, and that was how the Columbian treated it until the amateur hit one of his shots to 6-feet. Then, all of a sudden, Villegas’ demeanour was transformed. His smile vanished. He tucked his hair behind his ears and, after a studied gaze towards his target, hit his next shot to within a foot of the hole. That, of course, was that. A potential crisis had been averted and the Columbian went back to laughing and joking with the party guests.

Villegas talked about that finely-tuned competitive streak the following morning. “I’m very competitive and I want to win,” he admitted without hesitation. “It was great to win [the BMW and Tour Championships] but that’s just the start.

“I’ve worked too hard to settle for what I’ve got. I’ve put myself in some of the other guys’ shoes, say a guy like Tiger Woods, and I’ve decided I want what they’ve got.

“I’ve got a lot to do to catch Woods but, yes, you’ve got to say that’s one of my goals.”

Villegas headed into 2009 looking to edge closer to the world No.1 and the good news for golf, as a branch of the entertainment industry, is that he is far from a dull automaton. Indeed, he has more than enough charisma to exert a big influence over the popularization of the game wherever he happens to play.

Villegas always attracts crowds with his aggressive style

It is no exaggeration to suggest that Villegas is reminiscent of a young Arnold Palmer, and those similarities are there for all to see both in the aggressive manner he plays the game and in the effortless way he creates a rapport with his galleries.

In Bahrain, he dropped out of two holes after hitting errant shots into water but that did not deflect him from firing the ball at the flags for the rest of the round, and he was rewarded with two skins worth $17,000 for a nominated charity that helps homeless children back in his native Colombia.

It was the same during the second round of the Open at Royal Birkdale when he carded his 65 in horrendous weather conditions and was also apparent as he closed with a stunning 66 to outlast Garcia, Anthony Kim and Mickelson at the Tour Championship at East Lakes.

The Columbian is reticent about discussing his resemblance to Palmer but there is little doubt his exploits have provided golf in Columbia with a massive shot in the arm, just as Palmer did in ‘blue collar’ America back in the 1950s and ‘60s.

When Villegas closed the season with his victory at East Lake, the PGA Tour’s website was inundated with congratulatory messages from his homeland. “You did it again, CONGRATULATIONS…QUE VIVA COLUMBIA,” wrote Alexis, while compatriot Juan put into perspective what Villegas’ victories meant to his country. “Way to go, Camilo. You make Columbians very proud,” he wrote. “Everyone was watching you on TV in Columbia. You are the best.”

Villegas himself is keenly aware of the effect his exploits are having at home but that is unlikely to distract him from his lifelong goal of reaching the top of the game. After all, he has a simple philosophy for life, one that has worked well to date and most of us would do well to learn from, irrespective of our chosen careers.

“I try to get up every morning with a good attitude,” he said. “If I can do that, I believe the rest will take care of itself.”