FBR Open round three: Big day looms for Camilo Villegas

The top of the leaderboard is a lot more confused than it ought to be. By rights Camilo Villegas should be peering down at his rivals as he prepares to tee off in the third round Saturday.

Fate has not been kind to the Spiderman, with six holes from round two still to finish because of the frost delays. Saturday is going to be a big test for the Colombian, who showed enough in the FedEx playoffs at the end of last season to suggest his rookie year could be the foundation for some big results. At the start Friday it looked as though he had blown it with a couple of nasty bogeys, but he is made of sterner stuff, coming right back with a string of four birdies over the next six holes.

Villegas’s problem is three-fold. Almost a round and a half of competitive golf in one day is a lot even for someone as young and fit as he is, and the final stretch of his second round yielded only one birdie on Thursday. Then he will still be chased by a pretty strong lineup on moving day, from former winner J B Holmes down to K J Choi, just three strokes back, Justin Leonard four off the pace, and Phil Mickelson, a similar distance behind but with four holes of round two still to go.

Thirdly comes the stat that only eight half-way leaders have gone on to win in 21 years. If there’s one thing in Villegas’s favour, it’s that he is playing the best all round game of the lot. It’s certainly stacking up better than his fellow ‘07 rookie Doug LaBelle II, who is a bit of a surprise package at the top of the leaderboard.