Camilo Villegas in 2nd Place at British Open, Leader Among 'Young Guns'

Camilo Villegas is currently 4-under, good for second place at the Open Championship, one shot behind 59-year-old Tom Watson. It's early in Round 1 (at least on the East Coast; it's mid-afternoon in Scotland), but Villegas' Thursday 66 is noteworthy because, well, I picked him to win this week.

Actually, Camilo was my non-Tiger choice, but that's only because I'm not contrarian enough to pick against the best player in the galaxy when he's in the field. Whatever, as far as I'm concerned, it counts.

While Tiger Woods struggled his way around Turnberry, Villegas is in the clubhouse after an impressive round that started slowly -- a bogey on No. 1 -- and then got rolling. He went out in even par, but closed with three consecutive birdies, four in his final five holes.

In post-round comments, Camilo made his 66 sound like a Saturday stroll at the local muni. "I played well. The weather conditions were perfect out there. But still, you're playing the British Open, it's a major, and it's tough. The rough is high, but my main focus was to not hit it in the pot bunkers off the tee and I did a good job with that. I didn't hit in them today and got just a little hot towards the end."

Yes, just a little. Nothing like going from 25th on the leaderboard to T2 in a half-hour. Maybe more impressive: Villegas is Colombian and hasn't played much links golf; last year's British Open was his first (he T39 at Royal Birkdale).

There are 54 holes to go, so a lot can change between now and Sunday afternoon. But for now, Villegas, on the long list of "players who will challenge Tiger", is in second place, one back of Watson and five clear of Woods. (Rory McIlroy and Anthony Kim, also on the list, just started their rounds.)

For now, though, my guy is in contention, which, I can safely say, has never been the case this late in a tournament.