How Jhonattan Vegas has come out of nowhere to lead the PGA Championship

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Considering he was leading a major for the first time in his career, Jhonattan Vegas woke up a little grumpy Friday morning after a short night of sleep.

Already one of the last groups off in Thursday’s first round of the PGA Championship, Vegas had extra media obligations after shooting a 7-under-par 64 to take the opening-day lead. By the time he cleaned up and ate dinner, Vegas slept only a few hours before getting up for Friday’s 9:01 a.m. tee time.

“It felt like three hours, but I probably got a little bit more than that,” Vegas said. “It was just hard, right? Especially finishing the way I finished and having to do the media, you kind of stay a little bit wired for a little too long. I got some sleep, but it wasn’t the best.”

Vegas can sleep in later Saturday: The 40-year-old from Venezuela will tee off around 2:45 p.m. in the final twosome as the two-day leader at Quail Hollow.

Far from a who’s who of golf, the PGA Championship leaderboard after two days is more like a who’s he? While Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau are lurking, they’ll begin play Saturday surrounded by names such as Thorbjornsen, Bezuidenhout and Smalley.

If you’re tuning in for the third round, you’ll want to keep Google at the ready.

Vegas is representative of the surprising leaderboard. Injured for most of the 2022-23 season after elbow and shoulder surgeries, Vegas returned last year on a medical exemption. His win at the 3M Open in Minnesota in July solidified his PGA Tour status for two years and earned him exemptions in the PGA Championship and the Masters, where he shot 75s the first two days and wasn’t around for the weekend.

It marked the 10th missed cut for Vegas in 16 majors, a record he characterized as “very, very annoying.”

Vegas had already made history by becoming the first Venezuelan golfer to lead at the end of any major championship round. After firing a 70 on Friday to get to 8 under for the tournament, Vegas holds a two-stroke lead over three players and is in position to write a remarkable underdog story.

Currently 70th in the Official World Golf Ranking, Vegas is just the fourth player ranked 50th or worse to hold the outright lead at the end of each of the first two rounds of a major. The others: Justin Rose at the 2004 Masters, Chris DiMarco at the 2001 Masters and Gil Morgan at the 1992 U.S. Open. Of those three, DiMarco’s tie for 10th was the best finish.

“I feel like my game is very complete, but I just haven’t been able to put it all together in a major,” Vegas said. “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. I’ve played good at some good, big tournaments, but never a major, right?”

Vegas grew up on a 9-hole course in Venezuela, where his father was the groundskeeper. He reportedly used a broomstick to hit rocks while learning the game. At 17, Vegas moved to the U.S. from Venezuela, where then-president Hugo Chavez had suggested that Caracas golf courses could be better used for public housing. Vegas’ father was among those who publicly criticized the decision and the family suffered financially, golf writer Alan Shipnuck, then of Sports Illustrated, reported.

After playing at the University of Texas, Vegas turned pro in 2008 and won his first PGA Tour event three years later. Following Vegas’ victory at the Bob Hope Classic, the late Chavez said in a televised speech he wasn’t an “enemy of golf,” while noting that Vegas “beat all the gringos.”

Vegas has since won three more times on Tour. But he’s been a nonfactor at the majors, with his best finish a 22nd at the 2016 PGA at Baltusrol.

“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,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s taking me a little bit longer than usual, but I’m glad that I’m in this position right now.”

Vegas would have been in an even better position if not for a bad finish at 18, where he made double bogey. Vegas got to 10 under Friday with three birdies during a five-hole stretch to begin the back nine.

He was lucky at the par-3 17th, where his tee shot hit a rake adjacent to the greenside bunker. The ball could have caromed into the water or found the trap. Instead, it bounced onto the green and rolled 30 feet past the cup, setting up a par-saving two-putt from Vegas.

“I saw it went right, and then I see a white thing going left,” said Oscar Ruben Yorio, Vegas’ caddie. “Is that the ball?”

Vegas made no apologies for the kind bounce.

“It was one of those things that happens in this sport. Sometimes you get a sprinkler head that goes out-of-bounds or the cart path that goes out-of-bounds or sometimes you hit a rake that goes on the green,” he said. “It’s just part of the game, and you’ve just got to enjoy it all.”

The 18th hole wasn’t so enjoyable. After a delay while Elvis Smylie had a lengthy discussion with a rules official and his playing partners about where he should drop after going in the creek, Vegas chunked his approach into a bunker. He then hit his sand wedge short of his target and watched the ball roll off the front of the green.

He chipped on but missed a 2-foot gimme and made 6, which threatened to put him in an even lousier mood than how we awoke Friday morning. But given all he’s gone through with his health and poor majors history, Vegas chose to stay positive. He’ll get some extra winks Friday night, then get a shot at history.

“It’s easy to hang your head on that. But there were way too many things to keep fresh in the mind,” he said. “Even though it’s never easy to give two shots away right at the end, a lot of golf left. So got to keep remembering the good stuff.”