Florida favorites Villegas, Hart qualify for Doral

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With his victory at the BMW Championship, Camilo Villegas solidified his position alongside 29 of the PGA TOUR's hottest players in the field for THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola. In doing so, Villegas also guaranteed a return in 2009 to one of his favorite stops of the year at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship at Doral Golf Resort & Spa, a Marriott Resort, on March 10-15, 2009.

Badz/PGA TOUR

University of Florida alum Camilo Villegas will return to Florida in March.

Other players now qualified for the second World Golf Championships event of the 2009 season include Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia, Jim Furyk, Justin Leonard, K.J. Choi, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Kenny Perry, Anthony Kim, Mike Weir, Ben Curtis, Steve Stricker, Miami native Briny Baird, Dudley Hart, Stewart Cink, Hunter Mahan, Carl Pettersson, Tim Clark, Stuart Appleby, Robert Allenby, Trevor Immelman, Ken Duke, D.J. Trahan, Ryuji Imada, Kevin Sutherland, Chad Campbell, Andres Romero, Billy Mayfair and Bubba Watson.

Singh and Furyk were part of a three-way tie along with Retief Goosen for second-place at last year's event. Singh went on to win the final World Golf Championships event at the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club. The win sparked the 45-year-old Hall of Famer, as the big Fijian got hot at the perfect time and carried the momentum into the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. He recorded impressive back-to-back victories at The Barclays and the Deutsche Bank Championship and his tie for 44th at the BMW Championship essentially guaranteed that he will be this year's FedExCup Champion.

As Villegas, who has been embraced in South Florida after a tie for second at the 2006 Ford Championship at Doral, approached the end of his third full season, the 26-year-old was still in search of his first PGA TOUR win. Entering the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup ranked No. 42 in the standings, a missed cut at The Barclays moved him back to No. 68 and left Villegas with plenty of work to do to have a chance at making the field for THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola. A tie for third at the Deutsche Bank Championship moved him up to No. 25 and put East Lake Golf Club back on his radar. All of the hard work finally paid off for Villegas at the third playoff event, the BMW Championship, where the Colombian star won his first PGA TOUR event by two strokes over Dudley Hart. Villegas now heads to THE TOUR Championship No. 2 in the FedExCup standings.

When you talk about overcoming adversity and rising to the occasion, few are tougher than Dudley Hart. The two-time PGA TOUR winner was limited to 12 starts in 2007 due to the illness of his wife, Suzanne, who was diagnosed with a non-smoking related tumor in her lungs. Hart did not play after the 2007 Wachovia Championship so he could tend to his wife and the couple's triplets. Playing on a Major Medical Exemption in 2008, with 15 events to earn more than $485,000 and retain fully-exempt status for the remainder of the season, Hart needed just his first six events to eclipse the necessary earnings. He followed a tie for third at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in February with top-15 finishes in two of his next three events, The Honda Classic and Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Hart followed a tie for seventh at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship with a tie for fifth a week later at the Wachovia Championship in Charlotte. His most impressive performance, however, came at the third event in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, the BMW Championship. Once again rising to the occasion, Hart needed to birdie one of the last two holes to earn a spot in THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola. He did more than that, making birdie on both 17 and 18, earning solo second-place honors behind Camilo Villegas in the process. It will be Hart's first trip to Doral as a World Golf Championships event.

"The World Golf Championships-CA Championship will once again have one of the strongest and most international fields in golf," said Executive Director Eddie Carbone. "The return of Camilo Villegas, and fellow Florida Gator Dudley Hart, will certainly help energize South Florida sports fans. We are happy to see that all of Camilo's hard work paid off and we congratulate him on his win."

Tickets to the 2009 CA Championship can be purchased at www.worldgolfchampionships.com or by calling 1-866-4WGC-TIX (866-494-2849)