Golf-Villegas will be focus of festa at Doral (Reuters)
March 10, 2010
By Simon Evans
MIAMI, March 10 (Reuters) – Colombian Camilo Villegas isthe fans’ favourite at Doral this week but he is keen to keephis focus on the course and not on the legions of Spanishspeaking supporters who follow him.
Villegas heads into Thursday’s WGC-CA Championship,featuring an elite 30-man field, in excellent shape aftervictory in last week’s Honda Classic at Palm Beach Gardens.
At that triumph he was, as always in Florida, accompaniedby fans decked out in the Colombian colours of yellow, red andblue and he expects the large Hispanic community in Miami to bevocal in their support of him.
“It’s awesome to see the Colombian flags and the guys withthe shirts and all that good stuff, but you’ve got to becareful because it can distract you a little bit,” he toldreporters on Wednesday.
“You know they are there. You know they are supporting you.But it’s one shot at a time. You’ve got to be focused, lookforward, and just focus on playing good golf.
“If you play good golf, they are going to have a good time,and it will be a win/win situation.”
Villegas, never shy to express pride in his origins, hasbeen in particularly patriotic mood of late having beeninvolved in bringing last week’s Nationwide Tour event toBogota.
The Bogota Open was the first time a PGA endorsedtournament has been held in Villegas’ homeland and has beenkeen to get feedback on the event.
“I had a chance to talk with a lot of the American playersand the guys that organised the tournament, caddies andeverything, and I haven’t heard anything bad yet,” he said.
“They seemed to really enjoy it. The golf course was ingood shape. The people were very friendly and they had a goodtime down there.
“That’s the main thing, to get people down there, to showthem reality, and just like every country in the world, we haveour own problems.
“But it’s a great place. I love it.”
(Editing by Greg Stutchbury; To query or comment on thisstory email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
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