Felipe Aguilar back in Duval to play in PGA Tour Champions Furyk & Friends

Aguilar got his start in golf at Westside High, Titleist Junior Tour, and went on to win twice on the DP World Tour

Felipe Aguilar is the first University of North Florida graduate to play on the PGA Tour Champions.
After a long career on the DP World Tour, Aguilar is now in his first season on the senior tour.
Aguilar credits his ball-striking as a strength but believes his putting needs to improve to win.

Felipe Aguilar is back in Duval to play a little golf.

It’s been a long time for the globe-trotting native of Chile, who earlier this year became the first University of North Florida graduate (and the first from Westside High and Florida State College-Jacksonville, for that matter) to play on the PGA Tour Champions.

“I’ve been lucky enough to be in good places,” Aguilar said on Oct. 1 at the Timuquana Country Club practice range, before he continued his preparations for the Constellation Furyk & Friends (Oct. 3-5, Golf Channel). “The fact that I came to Jacksonville, my soccer coach [at Westside] was also my golf coach, then I got helped out by [former FSC] coach Ed Burney and [former UNF coach] John Brooks … I’m very grateful to all of them.”

Aguilar is making his 16th Champions Tour start his week. He’s 66th on the Charles Schwab Cup points list and has earned $228,012 on the strength of five top-20 finishes. His best was a tie for 12th at the Chubb Classic, and a pair of ties for 16th in the Mitsubishi Electric Classic and the Dick’s Open.

That’s after a long DP World Tour career in which Aguilar made 309 starts and won $5.6 million (Euros converted to U.S. dollars). He won the 2008 Indonesian Open and the 2014 Laguna National in South Korea, won DP Challenge Tour events in Germany and Spain and captured 14 Chilean PGA Tour titles.

“Europe treated me really, really well,” Aguilar said. “I visited the whole world, made a lot of friends.”

He also won the Chilean Amateur three times and the Chilean Open.

The COVID-19 pandemic curtailed Aguilar’s ability to travel and play around the world but he was 45 years old and set on a plan to qualify for the PGA Tour Champions.

“I lost my full status, and I could still play on the past champions category,” he said. “But I played a couple of events and realized that the kids were playing a different golf game. So I decided to stop and prepare for the Senior Tour.”

He tied for third in last year’s Champions Tour qualifier to earn enough status to grab some early starts, then began making enough money to play in all but five tournaments on the schedule.

Felipe Aguilar eager for his putter to heat up

A couple of things haven’t changed about Aguilar’s game since college. He drives the ball well, both from a distance (26th on the Champions Tour) and accuracy (21st) standpoint, and is 38th in greens in regulation.

He said the putter is all that’s holding him back.

“I think I’m a good putter,” he said. “But out here, you have to be an exceptional putter.”

Both of his college coaches had no doubt that Aguilar, who has collected professional victories in seven countries, would find the formula to win in America.

“I can still picture his golf swing and the way he played,” Brooks said. “He drove the ball particularly well, with equipment that isn’t quite up to the standards they’re using now. Long and straight. He knew how to prepare, how to practice and he was a very confident player. He was not afraid to win.”

Burney said Aguilar was “wise beyond his age” on the golf course.

“He was long, yes,” Burney said. “I was really captivated by how long he was at his size [Aguilar is 5 feet 7]. But he knew how to manage himself around the golf course.”

Felipe Aguilar received a helping hand from Bob Duval

It almost didn’t happen for Aguilar — until veteran Jacksonville club professional Bob Duval stepped in.

Aguilar was sent to the U.S. by his father on an international exchange student program with Duval County Public Schools, and he enrolled at Westside. After playing golf for the Wolverines (he also was on the soccer team} and Jacksonville’s Titleist Junior Tour, Aguilar was stuck for his next move.

But Duval, who had seen him play in junior events, was impressed enough by his game to seek Aguilar out and ask him to call Georgia Tech coach Puggy Blackmon, who coached Duval’s son David.

Duval also put in a call to Blackmon and Aguilar made an official visit. But Aguilar’s SAT scores fell just a few points short of what was required for Georgia Tech, and Blackmon suggested junior college golf.

At the time, JUCO golf in Florida was highly competitive, and Aguilar enrolled at FSC-Jacksonville, where he played with a team that included two other future UNF stars, Matt Borchert and Garrett Morrison, and finished second in the national tournament.

By that time, Brooks was hot on Aguilar’s trail and convinced him to play for the Ospreys for his final two years.

More success: Aguilar was an NCAA Division II All-American and the Sunshine State Conference Player of the Year in 1998.

“John treated me very well, gave me a good scholarship and I decided to stay in town,” Aguilar said.

Professional success came slowly for Aguilar

Aguilar nearly gave up golf for good after failing to latch on with a pro golf tour following his graduation from UNF and turning pro in 1999.

“I Monday-qualified for a couple of Nike Tour events but I just couldn’t break the egg,” he said.

Aguilar put his international business degree from UNF to good use to start a factory with his father in their native country that made windows and doors.

Business was good, but he still didn’t get golf out of his system. His wife Loreto sensed it and encouraged her husband to give pro golf another try.

“I stopped playing for three years,” he said. “She was after me … ‘you’ve got to play golf again. We’ll figure it out.’”

Aguilar set out a five-year plan with a coach, physical therapist and sponsorships, turned operation of his factory over to his father and began practicing and playing in earnest.

It took him three years to get his DP World Card through the qualifier and Aguilar averaged 22 starts per season over the next 14 years and climbed as high as 99th in the world.

Does Aguilar have the game for Timuquana?

Aguilar has confidence in his ball-striking ability to put himself in position this week at the Furyk & Friends.

“Some shots you can take risk on … hit a driver over certain areas or cut drivers over a corner,” Aguilar season. “But the most important thing is to not get the ball past the pin. The greens are very small and if you miss just a little bit, it slopes away from the greens.”

But Aguilar said he’s learned something over the years in golf.

“One of my biggest strengths is knowing what’s my weakness,” he said. “I know what I can do and what I shouldn’t be doing and I try to avoid the risky shots.”

His two former college coaches like his chances.

“I think he has a terrific chance,” Brooks said. “Timuquana is all about having the right angles into those Donald Ross greens and leaving the ball in good places. I think Felipe can have a great week.”

“There’s no question he can compete there,” Burney said. “It’s a ball-strikers golf course and Felipe is a ball striker. It’s a matter of making the putts.”

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