MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2024

Camilo Villegas

Quick Quotes

Q. How did it feel to be back out there?

CAMILO VILLEGAS: Oh, great. Nine years, it's been a while. Happy to be here. Such a special place. Such a special golf course. Such a special event.

Looking forward to playing Augusta again after nine years.

Q. What's the feeling like when you get back on property for the first time? Is it noticeable in the chest and the heart?

CAMILO VILLEGAS: Yeah, I came last Monday, Tuesday. I really wanted to come back and just kind of see some of the changes they've done. Like I said, I haven't played since 2015.

I had two great days here with Rory. Missed the cut last week, which gave me a little extra nine yesterday afternoon, which is nice too.

The weather is looking great. Let's hope Thursday doesn't get too bad, and we have a great week.

The golf course is starting to firm up. I can tell you from last Monday, Tuesday that I came, everything was really green. We started seeing a little bit of yellow, and it's only Monday. So come Thursday, it will be interesting.

Q. What do you remember about the first time that you played in this thing? You were quite a bit younger obviously, but what do you remember about that?

CAMILO VILLEGAS: Yeah, 2007 was my first year. The golf course has changed for sure, but it's very interesting. It's very interesting because you can't take things for granted, and you play your first year, you play your second year, you start going on, and it feels normal.

Maybe you don't enjoy it as much as you should, but if you -- if you were too focused on enjoying it, maybe you weren't focused on what you needed to be focused. I don't know if I can explain what I'm trying to say.

What I mean is, when you're playing really good you've got to be so focused, and you've got to put your emotions aside, and you've got to really keep plugging, and that's the best way to perform.

No different than when you win a golf tournament, you wish you would have enjoyed the win a little bit more. But come Thursday of next week, everybody starts from zero, so you've got to go and go.

So now that it's been so long since I've been here, it's pretty cool. I think the emotions this first couple days, it's nice to feel them. I'm a little older. I feel like I can do that.

Then come Thursday, it's again just get serious and try to perform.

Q. Did you have any doubts that you would get back?

CAMILO VILLEGAS: Let me tell you, as a golfer, you always have doubts. I don't care if you're No. 1 in the world, at some point you're going to be doubting something.

But of course. After several years of not playing good, a couple years of injury, then going through my family situation and losing my daughter, you don't know what's going to happen.

One thing I learned from that experience is that life goes in circles. I've always been kind of rigid, very disciplined guy. I'm still very disciplined, but I just don't -- I try not to control what I can't control.

With that being said, whatever comes comes.

It was nice to do the swing changes and everything I was doing last year and to get that win at the end of the year and to be back.

Q. What do you read into the fact that the year you got back is the same year as an eclipse? I don't know if there's a sign for that.

CAMILO VILLEGAS: I don't know. I don't really pay too much attention to that, but I was on the 18th green just now with Vijay and Emiliano Grillo, and we got some of the glasses from some of the spectators and we were looking up. It's pretty cool. It looks pretty cool. But, yeah, I don't know.

Q. Correct me if I'm wrong, I think's it's going to be going hard like around Jupiter. You must have a passion for that as well. Can you describe that passion compared to golf, and if it helped you get back to where you are here?

CAMILO VILLEGAS: Yeah, I think it's pretty tough when you only focus your life in one thing. Obviously I got a family, but cycling and working out and trying to be healthy is another passion that I really enjoy.

It gets my mind away from the golf. It gives me a great feeling every time I work out, being on the bike and trying to kill myself is actually -- I was talking with some of the cycling guys, and I'm like, I don't know why we like pain so much, but we do.

Yeah, it's fun.

Q. How far do you go?

CAMILO VILLEGAS: It depends. When I had a bad shoulder, I was doing 25 hours a week, and that was way too much. I was good for cycling, and that's about it. Now I try to balance, and weeks off I ride about 10 hours.

You can still go workout and practice and spend time with the family. You can function with 10 hours a week. You can't really function with 25.

Q. What's the most painful part of golf?

CAMILO VILLEGAS: I don't know. I don't know if the word is painful. I think it gets a little frustrating because it's a game that's different than cycling. It's not how much time you put in. Different than cycling, the more time you put in, the better you get. Golf, not necessarily.

Sometimes it gets frustrating when you put so much time and effort and dedication and your heart in it and you don't see the results. But that's when you're going to kind of question yourself if the process is being the right one, and if it is, you've got to be patient because things will change.

I've always said you're never as good as you think you are and you're never as bad as you think you are. Just got to keep putting one step in front of the other and enjoy the process.

Q. People always talk about this being a second-shot golf course and they talk about the greens and how difficult they are to putt on. But what's the challenge of the shots around the green? I think 11 of the last 12 champions here have been top seven in scrambling for the week.

CAMILO VILLEGAS: Really? That's a cool stat. The golf course keeps getting longer and longer. I think you've got to drive the ball. We can talk about second shot and around the greens and putting, but I don't think anybody's won around here without doing most of them pretty good.

Yeah, so it's a great challenge.

Q. You want to borrow these and take another look?

CAMILO VILLEGAS: Let me see. Is it getting better? Oh, yeah, about a quarter. It looks pretty good.