Camilo Villegas used a hot start to claim the 75th anniversary Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina. Villegas, who played his first six holes at -5 today, posted a final round 63 to finish -17, 263. It is his first win on TOUR since the 2010 Honda Classic.
With an eagle and four birdies, Villegas posted a career low front nine score and tied the tournament record for low front nine score at Sedgefield C.C. with 29. He is tied with nine others for the record. Villegas finished with rounds of 63-69-68-63=263. He held the lead after the first round and is just the fifth first round leader to win the event since 1976, and first since 2010.
Freddie Jacobson and Bill Haas finished tied for second at -16. Jacobson, 68-64-66-66, posted an eagle on #5 and birdies on #12, #15 and #16 to share the lead with Villegas at -17, but bogeyed #18 to miss forcing a playoff.
Haas, 68-66-66-64, shot a bogey-free final round and needed a birdie on #18 to tie the leader, but finished with a par. He played the 18th at +3 for the tournament, including a double bogey during round two when his tee shot bounced off a spectator’s foot out of bounds.
Heath Slocum, 65-65-68-67, finished alone in fourth place at -15, despite two eagles in his final round. He also had four birdies, but those were offset by five bogeys, including four on the back nine holes. His last six holes were played birdie, bogey, eagle, birdie, bogey and bogey.
Third round leader Nick Watney entered the final round with only one bogey for the week, but saw two bogeys, and a double bogey on #18, offset four birdies to finish the round even. He ended the event at -14, 266 and tied for 5th with former champions Webb Simpson and Brandt Snedeker.
FedExCup Impact
With the win, Villegas moved up to 37th in points, a jump of 68 places from 105th. Sang-Moon Bae, who finished -4, T14, jumped from 126th to 120th to gain entry to next week’s The Barclays. Nicholas Thompson, who finished E, T70, fell from 123rd to 126th to have his season end at the Wyndham.
Divots
Defending Champion Patrick Reed finished -9, T24. Other former champions’ results: Webb Simpson (2011) -14, T5; Carl Pettersson (2008) -10, T18; and Brandt Snedeker (2007) -14, T5.
The finishing hole proved to be the hardest hole of the tournament. Only 39 birdies were yielded at #18, along with 293 pars and 133 bogeys or worse.
Four of the five hardest holes were on the back nine this week, including the hardest (#18), second hardest (#11), fourth hardest (#14) and fifth hardest (#10).
Six players, including Villegas, carded two eagles during the tournament. Haas and Andres Romero led the tournament in birdies, each posting 22 for the week.
The longest drive of the day belongs to Ryo Ishikawa, who recorded a 370-yarder on Hole #8.
