Camilo Villegas is one of the younger players upon whom so much of the Tour’s future rests, but who unfortunately stumbled a bit in 2011. Villegas in fact missed the cut in a third of his starts last year. He’s starting out the year in fine fashion, though, carding a -9 in the first round of the Bob Hope Bill Clinton. He was matched in that effort by David Toms, who has been in renaissance mode for a year now.
Headliner Phil Mickelson, on the other hand, had a bad day, shooting a 74. Not a good way to start the season.
In truth, though, I don’t put much stock in either the Clinton, or the Crosby Clam Bake AT&T National as an indicator of future performance. I can’t imagine how players can concentrate on their games with all of the celebrity silliness. While watching the tv coverage, for example, I saw one caddy intercept the high velocity roll of a celeb’s bunker to green shot and prevent it from rolling into the pond. The tv talking heads laughed it off as having saved a ball, but its the kind of bush league stuff you see with four drunk friends on a weekend jaunt. And I’m not sure who was in Morgan Freeman’s group, but they were certainly standing around uselessly while he completed his extended banter with a reporterette.
I’ll be watching more of the Clinton, however, if only for the chance to see one of my faves, Greg Norman, back in action.
