Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Colombia's Camilo Villegas celebrated his third PGA Tour title with victory at the Honda Classic in Florida.
The up-and-coming 28-year-old and friend of us here in Bahrain, overcame a late wobble at Palm Beach Gardens to clinch what in the end turned out to be a comfortable five-shot victory over American Anthony Kim.
Villegas was checking his phone constantly on the driving range, barely bothering to hit any balls and instead seeking updates on how his brother was doing at a Nationwide Tour event in their native Colombia.
As Villegas showed all week, practice can be overrated. The Colombian shot a final-round 68 to win the Honda Classic by five shots Sunday over Anthony Kim, his third PGA Tour victory and a perfect way to cap a week that began with one celebration and ended with another.
He finished at 13-under 267, the lowest 72-hole score since the Honda moved to PGA National in 2007, four shots better than Y E Yang's winning total a year ago. And Villegas made it look easy most of the way, too, capping his day with a 20-footer for birdie, then raising both hands skywards.
Good thing he had that cushion, because the putter stopped working after that. Fortunately for Villegas, no one made much of a run.
Villegas didn't even play a practice round at PGA National this week, after a travel schedule that he somehow found exhilarating.
After finishing tied for eighth at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Villegas headed back to his native Colombia on Monday for a slew of events - sponsors dinner, youth clinic, pre-tournament party, all within about a 36-hour window - to help open the Nationwide Tour's Bogot‡ Open, the first PGA Tour-sanctioned event in South America.
He showed up in South Florida on Wednesday, rolled out of bed to start the tournament on Thursday, and just kept rolling. An opening-round 66 had him tied for second, another 66 on Friday earned him a share of the lead, and he left the course on Saturday night up by three after shooting 67.
Villegas is now the fourth player who's still under 30 with at least three PGA Tour wins, joining Adam Scott (six) and Dustin Johnson and Sean O'Hair (three each).
Noh Seung-yul hopes to follow in the footsteps of childhood hero KJ Choi after his triumph in the Maybank Malaysian Open on Sunday. The South Korean teenager, playing his 13th European Tour event, edged out his veteran compatriot by a single shot to lift the title at the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club.
At just 18 years and nine months, the victory saw him become the second youngest winner in European Tour history. He is second only to Korean-born New Zealand amateur Danny Lee, who took last year's Johnnie Walker Classic in Australia at 18 years and six months.
Noh will now move his attention to the Open Championship's Asian qualifier starting in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday before weighing up his options between Japan, Asia and Europe. Whichever route he chooses though, the world number 266 knows that America must be the ultimate goal if he is to pursue his dream of emulating seven-time PGA Tour winner Choi.
Phil Mickelson is set to defend his title at this week's World Golf Championships-CA Championship. The field was finalised on Friday afternoon, with 64 of the world's best players from 19 countries ready to compete at TPC Blue Monster at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa.
Those committed to the event include 48 of the top 50 players from the official world golf rankings released on March 1, including second-ranked Steve Stricker; No. 3 Mickelson; a trio of Englishmen ranked numbers 4-6 in Lee Westwood (No. 4), Ian Poulter, who won the first World Golf Championships event of the year (No. 5) and Paul Casey (No. 6), who was runner up to Poulter at the Accenture Match Play Championship. Of those who qualified for the CA Championship, only Tiger Woods and Ryo Ishikawa are not competing.
Ishikawa, who won his first Japan Golf Tour event as a 15-year-old amateur, graduated from his high school, Suginami Gakuin, in Japan, last week.
It must be nice to be that good!
