[PHOTOS: Maddie Meyer/PGA of America]
It was two holes played during 45 minutes of the second round that all but defined Jhonattan Vegas’ 14 years on the PGA Tour.
The 40-year-old Venezuelan was poised to hold a huge lead heading into the weekend in the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, instead of the reality of his two-shot margin. Playing out of his head and on scant sleep in a late-early draw, Vegas was the first and only man to get to double-digits under par, standing at 10-under and four shots ahead as he prepared to hit his tee shot on the dangerous and watery par-3 17th in the middle of the Green Mile.
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His ball flew and then – click! – it caromed off a rake beside the front bunker. The ricochet could have gone anywhere – sand, rough, (gulp) water – but the ball took a soft, low trajectory and ended up on the green for what would be a no-fuss par.
That would be the parallel to a journey that seemed charmed from the beginning – a poor Venezuelan kid comes to America, excels at the University of Texas and wins the fifth PGA Tour event he ever played in the 2011 Bob Hope Classic.
Powerful, personable, with a dynamite smile and a name everybody loves to shout – “Johnny Vegas!” – he seemed to have all the tools to be a star. Three more tour wins, including last year in the 3M Open, have affirmed his talent, and Vegas has twice been honoured to represent his homeland in the Olympics.
But his life and career life have hardly been without pain and disappointment, and that’s how we arrive at Quail Hollow’s stern 18th. Vegas smartly chose a fairway wood to find the short grass on the course’s toughest hole, but after that, everything was a mess. His approach found the right greenside bunker – and following an interminable wait for another player’s ruling – Vegas’ sand blast caught the false front near the pin and rolled off the green. From there, he coaxed a tricky chip to three feet but lipped out for a nightmare double-bogey.
The 6 that Vegas wrote down gave him a one-under 70 for the day and eight-under 134 total, two strokes better at the time than France’s Matthieu Pavon (65) as the afternoon wave played on (Matt Fitzpatrick and Si Woo Kim would also reach six-under). It marked the first time that Vegas has scored back-to-back under-par rounds in a major, but that also highlights the reality of the could-have-beens in his golf.
Much like his second round, it seems like there could have been so much more.
Sidelined for lengthy stretches a couple of times by serious golf injuries, Vegas owns the almost unbelievable distinction of being a four-time winner who has qualified for only 17 majors in 14 years. Compare that to another 40-year-old, Gary Woodland, also a four-time winner (and US Open champion), who has 52 major starts.
It’s not as if Vegas hasn’t been a tour regular; it’s just that his victories have been well-timed during periods when his full-time status was in doubt. There’s no better example than when he had to play the 2015-2016 season on past champion status and won the Canadian Open to find safety again. Vegas scored a repeat at the Canadian in ’17 and was the first Venezuelan to make the Presidents Cup that year.
There were three runner-up finishes in the 2020-2021 season, but a string of injuries sidelined him for much of 2022-2023. Vegas first had surgery to remove a broken piece of bone lodged in his elbow joint, and when issues with his shoulder flared up, there was more surgery in May 2023. Told he’d have to live with some pain, Vegas soldiered on to a slow start in ’24 before catching fire at the 3M Open and the TPC Twin Cities course he’d come to love.
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“I’m out of my head right now, so it’s incredible,” Vegas said in the immediate aftermath of the victory. “It hasn’t been easy, that’s for sure. It’s been a lot of grinding, a lot of dealing with injuries, a lot of headaches, but these are the moments that you get up every day and you work hard, you do all the right things because nothing feels better than this.”
Imagine, then, Vegas somehow lifting the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday? It would be quite the feat for a player who has never finished better than T-22 in any major and played the weekend only six times. Already, Vegas, ranked 70th in the world, is one of only four players ranked 50 or higher to hold the outright lead after two rounds of a major championship.
“It’s been very, very annoying, especially knowing I have the game to compete in these big events,” Vegas said on Friday. “I feel like my game is very complete, but I just haven’t been able to put it all together in a major.
“I think I’ve been patient enough to not really get too down on myself for not playing well at majors. I’ve played good at the Players [two top-7s]; I’ve played good at some good, big tournaments, but never a major, right?
“It’s just kind of one of those things that you’ve just got to keep learning about yourself and what it takes to play good here. Unfortunately, it’s taking me a little bit longer than usual, but I’m glad that I’m in this position right now.”
