Game On

To get there Kim has started working with strength coach Craig Davies, while Villegas rides up Jupiter Island and along the Florida coast on one of his four road bikes. Even in mid-December, he was still all-work, traveling across the country after the Merrill Lynch Shootout -- where he and Greg Norman shot 57 in the final-round scramble format to finish third -- to play in Tiger's event.

Just before that two-week tournament stretch, Villegas had been in Colombia, where he was proud of riding 17½ hours along the mountains with a group of cyclists that included Santiago Botero, a Tour de France stage winner. Experts at Villegas' cycling club in Jupiter, Fla., say if he dedicated himself, he could make the Colombian National Team. But he wants to represent his country in golf, playing for Norman at the Presidents Cup in 2009 and perhaps the Olympics in 2016.

After arriving at Sherwood CC for the Chevron, Villegas played nine holes as soon as the event's pro-am concluded, finishing in the dark. After almost every shot, Villegas asked caddie Gary Matthews to check his shoulder alignment. Everything was done with a meticulous purpose, but that is Villegas, famous at the University of Florida not only for his golf but also for numbering his socks.

"He always has been like that," says Matthews. "His detail for everything is phenomenal. You just look at his yardage book to see that. Every time he plays a hole, he'll go to the back of the green and look at a hole to see where to miss it and where the [proper] side is. When he's playing well, he's not short siding himself. He knows what he's trying to do."

Finally, the elevator door at the Four Seasons opened and Kim's entourage burst out. Kim is told that Villegas is a little disturbed at his tardiness. Kim immediately goes street and starts barking about how Villegas "doesn't want to mess with The Kid," and "that's a fight he doesn't want to get into," but it's all in a playful tone. When told that the previous week in Florida, Villegas jokingly said Kim couldn't get down in his famous Spiderman putt-reading pose because of Kim's just-as-famous belt buckle, Kim shot back, "That's the best he's got?"

Kim proudly states he can out-smack even the great trash talker, Tiger Woods, as he did in a recent commercial shoot for Nike in Fort Worth. ("I'm way funnier than Tiger," he says.) And Phil Mickelson wasn't in Kim's league during practice rounds at the Ryder Cup. A.K. owned him, and actually it was Phil who got more out of their pairing than Kim.

"I'm glad I got the workout in because I'm feeling sexy," Kim says to the beat going off in his head.

This is what close friend and mentor Sterling Ball calls "the electric Anthony," the urban free spirit who appears on Jim Rome's radio show and who still has the folks in Charlotte talking about the way he wore their blue blazer everywhere after his Wachovia victory. When A.K. turns it on, he turns it on like a younger version of Muhammad Ali.

Villegas turns it on, too, but in a subtler way -- a way that appeals not only to the young ladies, but the corporate sponsors that adorn his clothes. As Kim turned a corner in the lobby, he spied Villegas working his iPhone while sitting on a couch with his legs up on a coffee table. Out of the corner of his eye, Villegas could see Kim coming. There was a quick glance, a shake of the head, and a smile.

"Excuse me," said Kim, purposely bumping Villegas.

"You know who you've got on Thursday," Villegas said, already knowing the Chevron tee times.

Kim shook his head to indicate he didn't know. A.K. is stumped.

"Me," Villegas said.

Kim took off his T-shirt and replaced it with a blue one Nike had sent to the hotel. "This is a good look for me," he says. "I'm trying to look professional these days."

Waiting until the camera was rolling, Camilo planted the parting shot with the cool that he showed on the 17th hole at the Tour Championship, when he had no option but to go at the pin. It was not just the way he said it, but more the timing of it, and the way the chord was struck, that was brilliant and fearless.