Munoz part of new wave of South American stars

There always has been a few of them. The first really prominent one was Argentina’s Roberto De Vicenzo, who won the 1967 British Open and claimed six victories on the PGA Tour.

Mexico’s Victor Regalado won twice on Tour, including the 1978 Ed McMahon-Jaycees Quad Cities Open.

Many of those early players struggled as much with culture shock as they did with greens and fairways. Very often they were poor kids who worked their way up as caddies and sometimes lacked the financial backing to achieve big success.

Those days are over. South American players have become much more prevalent and comfortable on golf’s biggest stage.

And a few of them have been really comfortable through the first two rounds of the 50th John Deere Classic.

Sebastian Munoz of Colombia was the first-round leader and enters Saturday’s third round just one stroke behind Luke List.

Venezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas shot 5-under 66 Friday to make the turn at 9-under. Colombia’s Camillo Villegas stumbled somewhat Friday following a first-round 64 but still is in position for a nice paycheck. Chile’s Mito Pereira also made the cut.

More and more South Americans are showing up very high on PGA Tour leaderboards these days.

Villegas was the co-leader for a long time during Thursday’s opening round before being bumped from the top spot by Munoz.

They are the only two players from Colombia to win PGA Tour events and Munoz, who is 11 years younger, admitted he wouldn’t be where he is without Villegas.

"Camilo has been the Colombian golfer forever since I was a kid," Munoz said. "He's someone that helped me a lot when I came on Tour first. He's always someone I can call and he'll pick up the phone and give me his best advice. It's someone I care about. I like him and he's a good buddy."

Munoz said Villegas has encouraged him to "do things my own style."

"Don't try to emulate some other players, mind my own business, keep my head down, keep going," he added. "Things get tough, ups and downs. You've got to keep moving forward and stay in the present."

While earlier Latin players such as Regalado, De Vicenzo, fellow Argentinians Angel Cabrera and Jose Coceres and Paraguay’s Carlos Franco sometimes struggled to adjust to life on Tour, some of the more recent players have eased the transition by attending college in the United States.

Villegas played at Florida, Vegas at Texas and Munoz at North Texas.

Three up-and-coming Tour stars, all of whom are in the top 31 on the current FedExCup standings — Chile’s Joaquin Niemann and Mexico’s Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz — also went the college route. Niemann played at South Florida, Ancer at Oklahoma and Ortiz was a teammate of Munoz at North Texas.

"College really helps," Villegas said. "I didn’t help (Munoz) much in college. But then when you get on the PGA Tour, it’s tough out here, man. You don’t have coaches and teammates to rely on. You’re just out here by yourself."

He said he felt it was his duty as a fellow Colombian to help Munoz navigate those first few years on Tour.

"He’s a nice guy and he’s from Colombia so I played a few practice rounds with him and tried to help him," Villegas said.

It clearly helped. Munoz is 67th on the latest FedExCup list and sure to rise higher after this weekend. And he already has achieved one of his goals by making Colombia’s team for the upcoming Olympics.

Munoz said he thinks PGA Tour Latinoamérica, a developmental tour now in its 10th year, has helped get youngsters ready for the pro ranks but he said there are other factors, too.

"I feel like a lot of technology also has come our way," he said. "We have a little more instruction. The kids are getting better. Instead of kind of waiting all the way to college, they start getting better. I feel like that's helped.

"The Tour has helped. Having players out here has helped a lot. Abe, Joako, Carlos, me, the Argentinians. It's starting to pop up a little more, and hopefully it continues."