Camilo Villegas, Golf's Top 2006 Rookie, Struggles at Q-School LA QUINTA, Calif. - Outside the scorer's trailer at PGA West on Monday, Henrik Norlander stood grinning with a piece of paper in his hand while a friend snapped a photograph with his smartphone camera. Norlander was holding the golf equivalent of a diploma, with an opening sentence that read, "Welcome to the PGA Tour." As Norlander was accepting congratulations for earning his 2013 tour card during the last stage of qualifying, a six-round Rorschach test, one of his final-day playing partners, Camilo Villegas, walked hurriedly by. Villegas, a three-time PGA Tour winner once stamped for superstardom, was in a rush, he said, to catch a flight after failing to regain his playing privileges. The beauty and the beastliness of golf was there to behold in the rounds of Norlander and Villegas, who were tied for 46th when they teed off at 8:30 in the morning on the 10th hole of the Stadium Course. Five hours later, Norlander, 25, made a seven-foot par putt on the final hole for a five-under-par 67 that propelled him into a tie for 22nd. Villegas missed three short putts on the final three holes, for par at No. 7 and birdies at Nos. 8 and 9, on his way to a 69 that left him tied for 32nd. The top 25 and ties secured their tour playing privileges. "It's a little reality check," said Villegas, who will have conditional status for finishing inside the top 150. Given his worldwide appeal, he will probably have no trouble gaining sponsor's exemptions. He can also gain entry into tournaments through top-10 finishes or Monday qualifying. "I don't want to be in this spot," Villegas said. I would like to have my card. I worked hard and gave it my best. Norlander and Villegas could not have taken much more different routes to get here. Norlander is a native of Sweden who played at Augusta State. After failing to qualify for the 2012 European Tour, Norlander played mini-tour events in the United States this year, mostly in the Southeast. He had to play his way into qualifying school and advance through the first two stages to gain a spot in the final stage. Norlander's route was a 17-round odyssey during which he said the highest score he recorded was a 74. Villegas, 30, is a native of Colombia who won most recently on the PGA Tour in 2010. He was the 2006 tour rookie of the year and had three top-20 finishes in 25 starts this year while earning $491,729 to rank 144th on the money list. Villegas finished high enough on the money list to gain a pass into the third and final stage of qualifying. "Of course at first I was a little intimidated playing with Camilo," Norlander said, "but he was really supportive. He made me feel comfortable. He was just a class act. Villegas, who switched club makers, from Cobra to TaylorMade, in 2011, ranked a career-high fourth in greens in regulation on tour this year behind Justin Rose, Bubba Watson and Lee Westwood, and he did not miss many fairways or greens Monday. As has been the case all year, putting was Villegas's undoing, his two-putt from five feet on his third-to-last hole capsulizing his woes. He ranked 172nd on the tour in putting from inside five feet and was 164th in strokes gained putting. Norlander uses a long putter that he anchors to his belly and did not sound worried about the proposed rule, announced last week, to ban an anchoring stroke with any club beginning in 2016. "I've been saying I need to make a lot of birdies before 2016," joked Norlander, who said he did not foresee any problems adapting to a conventional putter. There are more changes on the horizon. Starting next year, the top 25 finishers at qualifying school will not advance to the PGA Tour. They will earn their playing privileges on the Web.com tour, golf's answer to baseball's Class AAA. Mac O'Grady, who earned his PGA Tour card on his 17th visit to qualifying school, was among the handful of spectators who walked with Villegas and Norlander during their final round. "What they're doing to the Q-school is like disfiguring the Mona Lisa," O'Grady, a Palm Springs resident, said. They've turned the Mona Lisa into a Picasso. O'Grady, a two-time PGA Tour winner, came to the course expressly to watch Villegas. "I just wanted to come out and see what happened to this guy," he said, adding, "Probably even he doesn't know what happened. That's the mystery of golf. Villegas said he has no answer for his putting problems. If he did, he said, he would not be in this position. "It's just about having fun," he said, adding, "Today I felt really good over the putter." Norlander said he went into the final round feeling pretty relaxed because he was in a comfortable position to earn his Web.com tour card, awarded to the players who missed qualifying for the PGA Tour but were in the top 50. "Then I started making birdies," he said. I played really well. One of Norlander's playing partners in Sunday's fifth round was Paul Stankowski, a two-time tour winner who pumped Norlander's hand enthusiastically when he tracked him down after signing his own scorecard. "Take a deep breath," said Stankowski, who finished tied for 49th at minus-13. Enjoy it. Soak it in. One of the questions on a biography sheet the players were asked to fill out at the start of the week was, "If they played an entrance song at the first tee, what would yours be?" Norlander put down Journey's "Don't Stop Believin.""