Sahith Theegala leads by one at WM Phoenix Open

Editor’s Note: Camilo Villegas is tied for the lead in The RSM Classic after Round 1. This profile details how the Villegas family has been coping with the loss of their 2-year-old daughter, Mia. She didn't like to say the word. Cancer. Or the other words. Tumor. Chemotherapy. Those are scary words for anyone. But when you're talking about the health of your daughter, the little girl who had yet to celebrate her second birthday, the words are too much to even fathom. So, the IVs and the pills and the drugs coursing through little Mia's veins were all part of what Maria Ochoa called simply the "healing treatment" that she and her husband, Camilo Villegas, hoped would give their only child a chance at a longer, healthy life. And that's what she'd tell friends and family when they called or texted words of love and support: The healing treatment had begun. Alas, the best efforts of the doctors at the Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami couldn't save Mia, who was diagnosed with high-grade glioneuronal tumors on her brain and on her spine in March. Neither could the prayers that Maria and Camilo - along with the many people who care for them — offered up. Mia died on July 26. Her parents, though, are determined that Mia's life will have meaning beyond the 22 short months and two hours that the toddler spent on this earth. The couple have recast their foundation as Mia's Miracles and focused it on helping children and families in similar situations both in the United States and Colombia, where Camilo and Maria were both born. The bright colors their little girl loved so much are reflected in the rainbow in the logo. And with this, another kind of healing has begun. "I’m so proud of my family, and I’m so honored that Mia chose us to be her parents," Maria said. "Sometimes people call me and they’re like, ‘This is so unfair. Why did it happen to you guys? You guys are so nice,' or ‘Why to a child?'" "People have all these questions, and I have never questioned God on the why, nor will I. I have a very clear spiritual certainty about our souls and their mission, and if I ask why it’s pointless because I’m never going to understand. I’m never going to know. … "Life is not fair. Life is not about being fair. Life happens, and we all come to this world with a very specific mission, and Mia came to this world with a very specific mission. She came here to teach, not to learn, and God has been with us the whole time, and he will continue to be with us the whole time." Maria and Camilo met in Medellin, Colombia, when they were 12 years old. At the time, he was dating the older sister of one of Maria's neighbors. "I used to be like, ‘Oh, Camilo, he’s so cute. He’s so cute,'" Maria recalled. "His girlfriend’s sister, every time he would go visit her on his bike, she would call me, and she would be like, ‘Oh, Camilo’s here,' so I would go to their house. And we became friends." Romance blossomed in 2005. Maria, who by then was in law school in Colombia, had broken up with the young man she'd been dating for six years. Camilo, who had graduated from the University of Florida and was embarking on life as a pro golfer, heard the news and decided to ask her out. "We went out that Friday," Maria said, "and we've been together since then." The couple eventually married in 2014, and Mia was born four years later on Sept. 26. She was an "easy" baby, remembers Maria, with a strong personality and intense brown eyes. "From the moment she was born I knew she was an old soul, and people would always tell me, ‘Oh my God, the way she looks at everyone,'" Maria recalled. "It’s very deep. She was just full of joy." Mia's happy place was in the gym with her father, a four-time PGA TOUR champion. The man who earned the nickname Spiderman — for his distinctive low-to-the-ground way of reading putts — would come home from a bike ride or paddle boarding and Mia would follow him everywhere. "She would grab my golf club, she’ll grab everything, and she was being like a monkey," Camilo said. "So, if I started doing squats, all of a sudden, I would look to my side and there she was going up and down squatting with me and I’m like, ‘Man, this is pretty unique.' So yeah, that was probably our kind of alone time, which was awesome." "It's the cutest thing," Maria added. Camilo describes his daughter as "very loving, but at the same time with a strong attitude." The player who was once ranked as high as seventh in the world injured his right shoulder a few months before Mia was born and played sparingly the next two years, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. "It’s tough to describe, obviously, the love you feel as a parent," Camilo said. "And then when you started interacting with her and she’s just giving you so much love and energy, it’s awesome. "That’s why I’m actually so thankful about not playing golf during those months. You know, my shoulder happened for a reason. ... It's not what we wanted, but, hey, I got to enjoy Mia for 22 months. If I would have been playing golf, you know how our schedules are, busy and crazy." Camilo, Maria and Mia had just returned from an extended trip to Colombia - where he capped off the visit by tying for fourth at the Country Club de Bogata Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour in a rare competitive appearance — when they noticed something was wrong. It was the week of The Honda Classic, a tournament Camilo won in 2010. Maria noticed that Mia wasn't feeling well, but she thought maybe her daughter had picked up some kind of bug from one of the other kids at the mommy-and-me gymnastics class they attended that week. "She was crying a little bit more than normal and there was certain things that were like, ‘Man, what’s going on?'" Camilo recalled. "So, Maria took her to the pediatrician, and we thought she was teething." Mia eventually got to the point where she wasn't sleeping through the night. She threw up several times, and she didn't have the energy to play with her father while he worked out. Sometimes when she cried, Mia would hold her forehead or her cheek. There were also times, though, when Mia acted like a normal 18-month-old. She'd play and her appetite was good. The pediatrician said she probably was just holding her head due to the pain from teething. The Friday night after THE PLAYERS Championship was canceled due to COVID-19, Mia didn't sleep at all. Camilo and Maria were worried, so she called their doctor in Colombia, whom she had been keeping in the loop. While the doctor agreed that teething was probably the explanation, he made a suggestion. "Why don't you take her to a neurologist," he told the worried parents. "I don't think it's anything like that - but just to be sure." Maria knew that it might take weeks to get an appointment with a specialist. But there was a "light bulb in my mind," and she thought about their friends, Jack and Barbara Nicklaus, and all the work they do with the Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami. Maybe they could help. Camilo called their son, Gary Nicklaus. "I need to talk to your mom," Camilo remembers telling his friend, and in less than 30 minutes, everything had been set up. The neurologist and his team were waiting when Camilo, Maria and Mia arrived around 5 p.m. that Saturday. The following day, Mia had her first MRI. "I thought it was nothing, to be honest," Camilo said. "But when 10 people walk into the room to give you news, you know it’s not good news. That’s where it all started." Maria called it "the moment our lives changed." The doctors told them that Mia had a mass in her brain with metastases in her cerebellum and spine. She would need surgery on Tuesday. While most people in the country were dealing with the reality of a pandemic, Maria and Camilo — who said he cried for three days after getting the news - began a fight for their daughter's life. The surgery was successful in removing the main mass. Mia would have to have "treatment" - there's that word again - to take care of the sites where the cancer had metastasized. The family stayed at the hospital for 10 days, and then was able to go home for three before returning to have the stitches removed. Once they got back to the hospital and had another MRI, though, the news was not good. The tumor, which was nearly the size of a golf ball, was already growing back - just two weeks after it had been removed. "They told us, ‘This is a very aggressive type of cancer, and you guys cannot go back home. You guys have to stay because we have to start treatment ASAP,'" Maria recalled. Mia had five brain surgeries and was in ICU for a month. Then she was moved to a room on the oncology floor. Maria spent nearly every night there, although the family rented a house about two minutes from the hospital so Camilo, who struggled seeing his daughter so sick, had a place to go where he could work out and clear his head. Room 6017 was home for the next three months. Maria decorated the walls with rainbows and photos and pictures drawn by her nieces and nephews and children of the couple's friends. She put an oil diffuser in the room to make it seem cozy and more like home. "Energy is very important to me, and I know to create a healthy environment," said Maria, who describes herself as a spiritual person who tries to live a holistic lifestyle. "I wanted to fill our room with happy energy. … And I told Camilo … ‘OK, we’re not going to cry here. We’re not going to be sad here. "If any of us needs to have a pity party, we’ll go outside, but here we’re happy. We’re smiling." On the door was a sign: Welcome to the land of make believe. Welcome to Mia's room. Smile and be happy. Maria wanted the doctors and nurses, many of whom remain her friends, to understand the energy in her daughter's room. "Because oncology floor, it’s tough. It’s very tough," Maria said. "You see children of different ages going through really, really hard stuff, and it’s sad. I mean, it can be sad, but my main goal had been to transform sadness into happiness, joy and hope. "I wanted people to know that was the energy, and it was so funny now because all the nurses and doctors they said that they loved going into our room, and they would come just to talk to us and play with Mia all the time." While her daughter was sick, Maria made it a point not to Google the kind of tumor Mia had. But she does remember asking the oncologist, Dr. Ossama Maher, whom she calls the "most amazing guy ever," what kind of outcome he was hoping for Mia. "He told me since day one because I did ask him, I was like, ‘What’s your goal? Is your goal to improve qualities of lifestyle? Is your goal to buy time?'" Maria said. "And he was always like, ‘No. My goal is to cure your daughter.' "And that was all I needed to know, and that’s what our focus was, and I’m happy I did that because that gave me hope during this whole process." On July 20, though, their hope faded. Mia had endured one round of the mild "treatment," Maria said, and two rounds of a stronger type, but an MRI showed it wasn't working. Maria prayed for God to show them the way, but she feels Mia did instead. "She knew. I mean, she knew," Maria said. "She came out of that MRI and she was a different child. She was kind of sad, but it’s very hard to explain. Her spirit knew. Her soul knew that it was time, that she had accomplished her mission and that it was time, and then from then on it was just a really, really hard week. "But it was quick. So we’re thankful for that." As much as he would love to hug his daughter again, Camilo agrees. "The one thing that gives us peace is after she passed, really talking with the doctors and finding out the severity of the situation and where things were going and us seeing the deterioration and she wasn’t going to have a good life if she happened to be here with us," he said. "And I don’t think she deserved that. She’s definitely in a better place." About a month before Mia died, Camilo drove to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, to play in the Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass. At the time the doctors were still hopeful, and his brother Manny was going to caddie for him. The week began with an emotional interview where he detailed for the first time in public the family's private pain. He was buoyed by the support he felt both at that event and on the PGA TOUR where players started wearing rainbow ribbons for his daughter. Some caddies even wrote Mia's name on their caps. "I wasn’t expecting anything out of my game," Camilo said. "I just wanted to just walk the fairways with my brother, see some people and just kind of breathe a little bit of some energy." The TOUR wives were supporting Maria, as well. Tiva Lovemark, Jamie's wife, served as a conduit for information since Maria couldn't respond to every message. The situation hits home for Tiva more than most since she was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor in 2002. The Lovemarks' foundation supports patients at Yale New Haven Hospital where she was treated. Tiva and Dianne Donald, Luke's wife, helped organize a meal train for the family that stretched well into September. So many wives sent flowers and cards and drawings for Mia's room that Maria lost count. "They made a beautiful video that if I see again, I’ll be crying like crazy again," Maria said. "… Very uplifting, and then at the end, the kids have a song for Mia, and when she saw it, she was clapping and dancing with them. It was like their own version of ‘Baby Shark,' but it was their version of ‘Get well, Mia.' … "Our PGA TOUR family is amazing. The quality of people on the PGA TOUR, it’s mind-blowing." Not too long ago, Camilo saw Jack Nicklaus for the first time since Mia entered the hospital back in March. The legendary golfer had suffered a similarly heart-wrenching tragedy when his 17-month-old grandson Jake died in a hot tub accident in 2005. "Jack comes, gives me a big hug and tells me a little bit of story about Jake," Camilo recalled. "And obviously I’d been playing The Jake (pro-am) for many years, trying to help him raise funds with this. And we had a good chat, man. We had a good chat. "And it’s what I told him. I've got two options. I mean, I either have good attitude or become the victim, and if I become the victim it’s going to go into a dark place. That’s definitely not where I want to be. That’s definitely not where Mia wants us to be. "So, we’re opting for the good. We’re opting to give back, turn the negative into a positive." That's what Camilo and Maria did on Sept. 26, which would have been Mia's second birthday. They held the first of five Mia's Morning Walks on successive Saturdays at their Jupiter home - and virtually around the world — that raised nearly $84,000 for their foundation. They walked because Mia had always enjoyed her daily outings on the beach with her mom and her nanny and the family's 130-pound Great Dane with the rather ironic name of Pixie. People were encouraged to create their own teams to walk whatever distance they chose, or they could contribute to an existing team, many of which were formed by wives of players Camilo competed with on TOUR. Maria would be walking anyway. She feels close to Mia when she does. "We always talk, pray and send her positive vibes, and we tell her we’re fine and we know she’s happy where she is," Maria said. "It’s been a great healing moment of my day." There's that word again. Healing. Mia's spirit lives on, a daily reminder for Camilo and Maria to fight through the pain of heartbreaking tragedy and help others who need it most. The little monkey may be gone, but through her short life comes an enormous impact. "I’m sad, of course," Maria said. "I have days where it’s so hard and I miss her physical presence all the time, but I know I’ll be OK. I know we’ll be fine, and I know we’ll just honor her name. "That’s our mission now."

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Here are nine tidbits from the final round of the THE PLAYERS Championship that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. THE PLAYERS Stadium Course TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, has been the host since 1982 and plays 7,189 yards to a Par-72. Winner Webb For the first time in 107 starts on TOUR Webb Simpson is back in the winner’s circle. His final round 73 saw him post 18-under-par 270 to defeat a trio of chasers by four shots. The 2012 U.S. Open champion becomes the ninth player to win THE PLAYERS Championship and the national championship. Simpson’s record-setting seven-shot lead after 54 holes was never sliced to less than four as he meticulously navigated Pete Dye’s house of horrors. His worst golf of the day came on a three-hole stretch (Nos. 8-10) that saw him square two bogeys and give the field hope that a collapse just might be on the cards. Nope. He birdied both of the Par-5 holes on the back and not even a water ball on the last could make this interesting for the peloton. Simpson played the Par-5 holes in 13-under for the week and led the field in driving accuracy (46 of 56) and SG: putting. He holed just over 455 feet of putts on the week to claim his first top-10 in nine PLAYERS starts. His previous best finish was T16 last year so to say he’s figuring it out here is a huge understatement. In 11 starts in 2018 he’s now cashed T5 or better in five of them, including three of his last six. He held the 54-hole lead at Colonial last year, collected T8 at the Travelers and hit the podium at the Wyndham Championship in third alone. One of his daughter’s names is Wyndham in case you’re wondering where you might use him next. PGA TOUR Fantasy Game presented by SERVPRO top selections: Gamers watched in horror in the final round as Stenson couldn’t keep up, Spieth closed with a quad and Johnson couldn’t break par on a course with four Par-5 holes playing 7,013 yards. Nobody said this would be easy and this week never is. PGA TOUR One & Done presented by SERVPRO top selections: The only thing worse in this game besides a MC is burning a guy in a big event and he doesn’t fire. The brilliant front-runner Day continues to reinforce that winning fuels his fire instead of satisfying the need. He closed with bogey-free 68 and those who piled on this week were rewarded and will move up. Wrong Newcomer There wasn’t any argument that Bryson DeChambeau entered the week on fire with three top-four finishes in his last four starts and should have commanded attention in his maiden voyage. Instead it was Xander Schauffele who took home the honor, and major cash payment, as the best newcomer this week (T2). He’s collected top-10 finishes at Erin Hills, TPC Old White, East Lake GC, Riviera and now TPC Sawgrass in not even two full years on TOUR. He led the field in SG: tee to green and sand saves. Dy-No-Mite Gamers were leery entering the 2017-18 season as they saw Jimmy Walker deal with Lyme disease last year. The season-long and weekly investors have both been rewarded for their patience as he’s now rattled off nine of his last 10 weekends. On top of that he’s cashed four top-25 checks in a row with a pair of top 10’s. His T2 included a bogey-free 68 in the final round is his best finish at THE PLAYERS. #Play72 All eyes were on Tiger Woods-Jordan Spieth pairing Sunday after they both shot 65 in Round 3 to break into the top 10. Woods played his first 13 holes on Saturday in eight-under. He played his first 13 holes on Sunday six-under and was on the prowl. For the second round in a row he bogeyed No. 14 and the momentum died. He fell out of the top 10 with a double on No. 17, his first ball in the water in his last 13 events on that hole. There were plenty of positives to take but he’s not the finished article. … Charl Schwartzel rebounded from a tough 73 in Round 3 as he stormed home in 32 to T2. He only made six bogeys on the week and that play as resulted in three top-10 finishes on the bounce. Noted. Not yet. But it’s coming. New No. 1 Justin Thomas posted 68-66 on the weekend with the only blemish on the card to finish T11 and take over the No. 1 spot in the OWGR. He’ll never be happy with T11 but not too many guys have been No. 1 in the world so I think he’ll survive. Thomas will be bummed this event is moving to March as eight of his 15 rounds have been in red figures and his stroke average is 70.73. Johnson, who needed to beat Thomas and end up in the top 10, achieved neither as he ended T17. This season Johnson has a win, two seconds and two other top-10 paydays and is NO LONGER NO. 1?!?!?!?! Defending Champ Curse For the 36th time at TPC Sawgrass the defending champ went quietly into the good night. Only Adam Scott (T8, 2005) posted a top-10 finish in defending this century. Si Woo Kim opened with the best score of a defender with 67 on Thursday but faded playing his final three rounds three-over for T63. Sunday Silence I could have stuck Jordan Spieth in #Play72 above since his quad on the final hole knocked him from T17 to T41. I’m not sure which rounds I’ll remember most from the week, the 75 to open and 74 to close or 68-65 in the middle two rounds. … World No. 14 Tommy Fleetwood stuck all four rounds under-par for the week and finished T7. I don’t think I saw one shot of his on Sunday as he crept up the leaderboard while others faded away. Study Hall The final round scoring average was the lowest of the week at 70.014 as TPC Sawgrass played just 7,013 yards. The scoring average for the week was 71.275, almost a full shot under-par for the last May event, as the course was in all-time best condition according to many of the pros. … Brooks Koepka tied the course record (63) but couldn’t crack the top 10 (T11). His bogey-free round was one of four on Sunday. … Charles Howell III collected T17 for his first top 25 in 16 tries. … Bubba Watson’s form couldn’t carry through four rounds this week. His 68-71 was followed by 73-73 for T57.

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ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) — The stage at St. Andrews was all set for Rory McIlroy. The show belonged to Cameron Smith, and so did that silver Claret Jug he won in a Sunday stunner at The Open Championship with the best closing round the Old Course had ever seen. RELATED: What’s in his bag? Smith was four shots behind at the start as a record crowd was eager to see McIlroy cap off a week of celebrations at the 150th Open in style. He was three behind when he made the turn. And then the plucky Australian with his magical putter ran off five straight birdies to take the lead, stared down a nervy putt around the edge of the nefarious Road Hole bunker to save par and finished with two putts from 80 feet for birdie for an 8-under 64. “To win an Open Championship in itself is probably going to be a golfer’s highlight in their career,” Smith said. “To do it around St. Andrews I think is just unbelievable.” So was his golf. In the 29 previous times golf’s oldest championship was held at St. Andrews, no winner had ever closed with a 64. Smith finished at 20-under 268, a record score for the Old Course and matching the lowest score to par in any major. “I got beaten by the better player this week. To go out and shoot 64 to win the Open Championship at St. Andrews is a hell of a showing. Hats off to Cam,” McIlroy said. McIlroy hit every green in regulation and two-putted all of them — two were birdies, the rest were pars — for a 70 that left him in third place and having to wait nearly nine months before he can try to end his drought in the majors that now is at eight full years. Smith won by one shot over Cameron Young, who holed a 15-foot eagle putt on the final hole to ever-so-briefly tie for the lead. It wasn’t enough, and neither was anything McIlroy could muster. McIlroy couldn’t make a putt early. He couldn’t hit it close enough late. His last good chance was a 15-foot birdie attempt on the dangerous Road Hole at No. 17, and it narrowly missed to the left. McIlroy needed eagle to tie him, and his chip through the Valley of Sin had no chance. Smith won for the third time this year, all on entirely different courses — the generous fairways of Kapalua, the visual intimidation of water on the TPC Sawgrass and the oldest links in the world with its double greens and pot bunkers. He beat the No. 1 player in the world (Jon Rahm) at Kapalua. He beat the best field in golf at THE PLAYERS Championship. And he had to overcome a four-shot deficit against a heavy crowd favorite to capture his first major. Even with the silver Claret Jug in his hands, it was hard to believe. “All the names on there, every player that’s been at the top of their game has won this championship,” Smith said. “It’s pretty cool to be on there. It really hasn’t sunk in yet. I don’t think it will for a few weeks. Yeah, it’s just unreal.” Smith is the first Australian to win at St. Andrews since Kel Nagle in 1960, when he topped a rising American star named Arnold Palmer, the people’s choice. That’s what McIlroy is now. He moved into the void left when Tiger Woods missed the cut in what might be his final Open at St. Andrews. He had support that carried him to the cusp of winning at the home of golf. “The Holy Grail,” McIlroy had called it earlier in the week. All day there was an energy along the humps and hollows of the Old Course, all of them waiting to celebrate McIlroy as an Open champion at St. Andrews. He gave them little to cheer. “The putter went cold on me,” McIlroy said. “When both Camerons — especially Smith — went on that run on the back nine, I had to dig deep to make birdies. And I just couldn’t.” That left Smith, the 28-year-old Aussie known for his grit and his putting stroke, on the 18th green to be introduced as the “champion golfer of the year.” McIlroy was playing controlled golf, his only birdie a two-putt from 18 feet on the par-5 fifth. Viktor Hovland, who started the final round tied with McIlroy, was never a factor. He didn’t make his first birdie until the 12th hole and closed with a 74. That run by Smith on the back nine is now part of Open lore. He hit a nifty pitch to 5 feet for birdie on the short 10th. He was bold to a back pin on the par-3 11th and holed a 15-foot birdie, and he birdied the next two holes from about that length. His fifth in a row was a putt from 90 feet on the par-5 14th, over a huge mound and down the slope to tap-in range that gave him the lead for the first time. McIlroy couldn’t catch up. His lag putting was terrific. That wasn’t what he needed. And he got no help from Smith, whose one missed shot set up his biggest challenge. The Road Hole bunker was between him and the flag on the 17th. He used his putter to ride over the right edge of the bunker and onto the green, 10 feet away, and he poured in another putt, this one for par to stay in front. Young had his chances in his Open debut. He left short a 6-foot putt with about a foot of break on the 15th. He came up short with a wedge on the next hole. He drilled his drive and approach to the 17th, only to leave another birdie chance short. He finally delivered, but all that got him was a 65 and the silver medal. In two majors this year, the PGA TOUR rookie missed a playoff by one shot at the PGA Championship and made his best putt too late at St. Andrews. Smith made his last birdie and the engraver went to work on the Claret Jug, a prize first awarded to the 1873 champion at St. Andrews. There’s a lot of history around this gray, old town, and Smith became part of it in a big way.

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