PGA Tour veteran Camilo Villegas’ difficult season didn’t get any better at last week’s 2025 World Wide Technology Championship. It got worse. The five-time Tour winner quietly withdrew from Friday’s second round, but not before reaching double figures over par.
The main culprit? El Cardonal’s par-4 4th hole, which Villegas played in 11 over in the first two rounds.
Camilo Villegas WDs after scorecard for one hole tanks
Early in his career, Villegas was one of the top players in the game. He won three times from 2008 to 2010, and then again at the 2014 Wyndham Championship.
In his two-win season in 2008, he finished T9 at the US Open at Torrey Pines (won by Tiger Woods) and T4 at the PGA Championship.
In the following years, Villegas dropped in the world rankings amid on-course struggles and personal tragedy. But he ultimately fought his way back into the winner’s circle, ending a nine-year victory drought at the 2023 Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
Unfortunately, this year was a struggle for the popular professional. He managed just one top 10 finish and dropped to 164th in the FedEx Cup standings. It ranks 166th on the FedEx Fall list.
Villegas was coming off a poor opening round in his last start, the Bank of Utah Championship, but he actually showed promising signs at the World Wide Technology Championship.
Although he opened the first round with a double bogey at the 10th and added another at 17, he also made two birdies and reached the par-3 third hole to return to even par.
But when Villegas reached the 4th hole on Thursday, disaster struck. The long par-4 runs uphill and is surrounded by sandy native areas. It seems that Villegas ran into trouble in the indigenous areas.
According to the play-by-play on PGAtour.comVillegas hit his tee shot at 4 in a native area. He then took his second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth shots from the home zone before ending up back in the fairway.
After reaching the green with his seventh shot, Villegas two-putted for a quintuple bogey 9, dropping his score-to-par to five over. Two additional bogeys followed on 6 and 7, completing a seven-over 79.
With the players going low and the cut projected at five under par, Villegas needed a heroic round on Friday to play the weekend. Starting on the back nine on Friday, he quickly made birdies on 1 and 2 to improve to three over for the tournament.
After a par on 3, Villegas returned to the scene of his swoon in round 1. But Villegas’ second attempt on the 4th hole went even worse than the first.
He lost his first drive and was forced to take a penalty and play again. According to the play-by-play, shots were four through eight “from the fairway.” It appears his eighth shot finally reached the green, where he two-putted for a six-shot bogey 10.
After making par on the 5th, Villegas withdrew from the tournament. The Tour announced its WD, but gave no reason.
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