CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Jhonattan Vegas has come a long way from his humble beginnings hitting a rock with a broomstick as a kid. On Thursday, his opening round came nearly as far – from a sluggish start to the top of the leaderboard at the 107th PGA Championship.
Vegas birdied five of the last six holes at Quail Hollow Club, including a 27-foot putt at his final hole to shoot 7-under 64 and grab a two-stroke lead over Ryan Gerard and Cam Davis.
“With the conditions yesterday, I didn’t really see that score coming,” said Vegas, referring to more than 4 inches of rain that had fallen this week. “But I think I got lucky that I was able to tee off very late and the course obviously is drying very quick.”
Vegas, who started on the back nine, bogeyed No. 10 and the difficult par-3 17th but would birdie half the holes on a warm, sunny day that helped dry out the course. One of the keys to his round was holing a 16-foot par putt at No. 11, his second hole of the day.
“I didn’t really want to start bogey-bogey out here because it could get out of hand,” he said.
Instead, the 40-year-old Vegas found his groove. He ranked second in the field in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green and fourth in SG: putting.
“I made a great up-and-down on 2, which is my 11th hole. And made a great par save on 3, and then obviously that kind of opened the gate for some of the scoring holes and I was able to do it,” he said. “It was one of those rounds that kept building, and it came all together at the end.”
Vegas, a four-time winner, most recently at the 3M Open in July, is the only player from Venezuela to win a tournament on the PGA Tour. He also became the first player from Venezuela to lead or co-lead at the end of any major championship round. When asked after his round to recount his origin story in the game, Vegas said, “that’s a long story. I don’t think we have a lot of time for that.” He graciously proceeded to give the Cliff’s Notes version.
“It was one of those things that my dad grew up near a golf course, and he kind of grew up caddying at that place as a little kid,” Vegas recalled. “He picked up the game that way. When he had us, we grew up near a nine-hole golf course owned by the oil companies, and we had access to a course and plus the love of my dad for the game, put it together and we started playing. Obviously Venezuelans, we’re not known for being golfers. But like I said, I’ve been blessed, and here I am.”
And atop the leaderboard after the first round of a major.
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