Panama set to resume its strong golf history  PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents The names read like a who's who of golf: Arnold Palmer. Sam Snead. Roberto De Vicenzo. Chi Chi Rodriguez. Curtis Strange. Each of those World Golf Hall of Famers won tournaments at the Panama Club de Golf when the unofficial "winter tour" made its way to the Central American nation in the 1950s, '60s, '70s and '80s.
Golf enthusiasts in Panama, Jamaica, Venezuela, Colombia and Puerto Rico put together the series of five tournaments in hopes of attracting TOUR pros -- whose participation, in turn, would increase awareness in the U.S. of what each country has to offer. The last Panama Open was held in 1982. But a whole new generation of potential Hall of Famers returns this week as the Nationwide Tour makes its now-annual stop at the venerable club for the Movistar Panama Championship. The Nationwide Tour's season opener features a $550,000 purse and has provided a springboard to the PGA TOUR for its three champions -- Jimmy Walker, Vance Veazey and Tripp Isenhour. Will Sunday's winner be the next? One of the PGA TOUR's budding superstars, Camilo Villegas, made his Nationwide Tour debut in Panama in 2005. He had just missed the second stage of q-school, and the talented young Colombian had no status to play on any tour. The former University of Florida standout made the most of his sponsor's exemption, though. Villegas led by one at the midway point of the tournament and ended up tied for second with Shane Bertsch, Jim McGovern and Jon Mills. Villegas went on to earn temporary membership on the Nationwide Tour and finish 13th on the money list that season. A year later, he was a Rookie of the Year candidate on the PGA TOUR after winning more than $1.7 million. "It was a great opportunity for me to play," Villegas recalled in a phone call recently. "Obviously Panama is close to Colombia, and the fans were great. I was fortunate enough to play well and finish second. "It was my first Nationwide Tour event and I knew I had to play well. My goal was to finish in the top 25 so I could get into the next tournament. I tied for second, and it made everything clear for that year. I was going to play a bunch of Monday qualifiers and when I got in the tournaments, try to finish top 25. And hopefully some sponsors would be kind enough to give me exemptions. "That's exactly what happened. I played well enough to get my temporary status and then I got my TOUR card at the end of the year." Villegas likened his reception in Panama in 2005 to the one he got in Miami at the Ford Championship at Doral last year. It was the sixth event of his rookie season, and Villegas came to south Florida on the heels of a second-place finish at the FBR Open. His GQ good looks brought the female population out, and his Hispanic heritage was a big hit with Miami's Spanish community. "The people there made me feel at home," said Villegas, who makes his 2007 PGA TOUR debut this week at the Buick Invitational. "It was only an hour's flight from my house to Panama City. The people there were great to me. It was similar to Doral but on a different scale. I really felt at home there." Villegas eventually played in 26 events Nationwide Tour events in 2005, making the cut in all but four and earning $233,218. He says the year he spent on the Nationwide Tour "made me a better player and it made me a better person. "It's just like the PGA TOUR. You learn to travel. You play against great players. It was a great learning process for me, and I was fortunate enough to play well enough that I got my TOUR card." Villegas says his success on the Nationwide Tour also gave him confidence as he moved to the PGA TOUR the following season. "It just showed me that everything is possible because you don't know what you'll experience from one level to the next," he said. "It's like when I went from Colombia to college and from college to the mini-tours and from the mini-tours to the Nationwide Tour and the Nationwide Tour to the PGA TOUR. "You have to work for it, and that's exactly what I did. That year, I worked very, very hard, and it paid off." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
