Villegas voted new chairman of PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council

Five-time PGA Tour winner Camilo Villegas has been voted new chairman of the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council (PAC).

Villegas will chair a committee of 16 players, including Ireland’s Seamus Power.

As we well know from events outside the ropes these past two years, the PAC advises and consults with the PGA Tour Policy Board and commissioner Jay Monahan on issues affecting the tour.

The Tour also advised that the 42-year-old Colombian-born Villegas will serve in that role for the remainder of 2024 and then at the 1st January, 2025 Villegas will step-up to replace Jordan Spieth as a player director on the policy board, and serve in that role for a customary three-year term (2025-27).

It will mean Villegas joining five other player directors in Tiger Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson and Peter Malnati.

The now Jupiter, Florida-based Villegas first won the PGA Tour at the 2008 BMW Championship and then doubled-down a fortnight later in capturing the Tour Championship. He then captured the 2010 Honda Classic and a long four years later secured victory at the 2014 Wyndham Championship.

In 2020, there was terrible heartache when Villegas’ 22-month-old daughter Mía died after battling tumours on her brain and spine. Following her death, the PGA Tour paid tribute to her in tournaments, including the PGA and Wyndham Championships, by giving players small rainbow pins for their caps, as Camilo revealed Mia’s immense love for rainbows. Many players continued wearing the pins on their caps for the rest of the season, and Villegas received tremendous support within the PGA community, the sporting world, and his fans in Colombia.

A month after her death, Villegas made a return to competitive golf; making starts in Korn Ferry Tour tournaments, to the acclaim of his fellow competitors.

There was then joy and tears all round in November last when Villegas ended a more than nine-year winless drought in capturing the Butterfield Bermuda Championship – a win that also earned him a 2024 Masters invitation in what will not just be first visit to Augusta National in nine years, but also a first major championship appearance since 2015.

As winner of the 2010 Honda Classic, he is among 10 former champs teeing-up this week at PGA National.