Villegas holds on at Bellerive for first Tour win
Camilo Villegas lines up a putt on the 15th green at the Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis on Saturday during the BMW Championship. Villegas held first place the entire weekend, earning his first PGA Tour victory.
Camilo Villegas of Colombia won the BMW Championship at the Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis this weekend, shooting 15-under par. The victory was Villegas' first on the PGA Tour in his three years of competition.
Despite Villegas' win in the penultimate tournament of the FedEx Cup, the Cup championship is all but guaranteed for Vijay Singh. Although Singh finished 44th at Bellerive, simply making an appearance at the Tour Championship in Atlanta in three weeks will earn him a $10 million payout.
St. Louis has been consistently plagued by bad luck when it comes to hosting major golf events, and the BMW Championship barely averted yet another disaster. The last two times the city has been slated to hold tournaments, uncontrollable setbacks affected them both. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks postponed a World Golf Championship event in 2001, and heavy rains flooded Bellerive and prevented spectators from watching the 2004 U.S. Senior Open. This time, opening round play on Thursday was canceled due to the heavy rain from the remnants of Hurricane Gustav. To make up for the lost day, 36 holes were played on Saturday, although play was delayed yet again due to excessive fog on the course Saturday morning.
Jim Furyk tees off on the seventh hole at the Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis during the BMW Championship on Saturday. Furyk finished the tournament tied for third place at 12-under par.
