CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Of course a guy with the last name “Vegas” gets the lucky breaks.
Friday afternoon at the PGA Championship, Jhonattan Vegas stood on the tee at the 17th, deep in Quail Hollow’s Green Mile. At 10-under, he held a four-stroke lead on the rest of the field. His tee shot arced high but short, and pinged directly off a rake. The ball could have easily ricocheted into the nearby water, but instead, it leaped forward in the direction of the flag. Vegas two-putted from 33 feet to salvage the hole and avoid what could have been disaster.
“It was one of those things that happens in this sport,” he said after his round. “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. It’s just part of the game, and you’ve just got to enjoy it all.”
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In other words, what happens to Vegas, doesn’t stay with Vegas. (Sorry. But it was right there.)
But sometimes Vegas wins, and sometimes Vegas busts. (OK, we’ll stop. Promise.) On the very next hole, Vegas put his tee shot in the fairway, but dumped his approach into a sand trap and his chip out rolled back off the green en route to a double bogey. Suddenly Vegas’ four-stroke lead on the field was halved to two. Not an ideal situation, but he still goes into the weekend with the clubhouse lead.
Vegas, 40, is in rare territory; according to Elias Sports, he has the potential to be just the fourth player ranked 50th or higher in the world — Vegas is currently No. 70 — to hold the outright lead in the first two rounds of a major. The others: Justin Rose at the 2024 Masters, Chris DiMarco at the 2001 Masters, and Gil Morgan at the 1992 U.S. Open. (Vegas probably shouldn’t research the tournament fates of those three; they finished T22, T10 and T13, respectively.)
The more favorable Elias stat, for Vegas’ purposes: prior to 2025, 15 players have held the outright lead at the end of the first two rounds of the PGA Championship. Of those 15, six went on to claim the Wanamaker Trophy, including Xander Schauffele last year at Valhalla.
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The simple fact that Vegas is in this position at all is a testament to his work ethic and more than a little good fortune. Vegas’ life story deserves a book or movie; he’s no country-club kid. He grew up loving golf in Venezuela, not a traditional golf incubator. His father was one of many who ran afoul of dictatorial President Hugo Chàvez. In the early 2000s, Vegas’ father signed a petition calling for a recall of Chàvez, and when the recall failed and the petition leaked, Chàvez took revenge on his critics.
Chàvez had already begun shutting down golf courses, calling the sport an elitist pursuit. When Vegas’ father lost his job, there was nowhere for young Jhonattan to play and no money to support his game, so his family sent him to live and learn in Houston. Vegas attended the University of Texas, turned pro in 2008, and won his first PGA Tour event in January 2011.
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(Writer Alan Shipnuck penned the definitive profile of Vegas to date, and it’s well worth a read this weekend.)
Vegas’ Wikipedia majors page is also worth a look, but for very different reasons. On Wikipedia, yellow boxes mean top-10 finishes and green boxes mean wins. Vegas has none of either:
(Wikipedia)
Since first reaching the Masters in 2011, Vegas has played in 16 majors and missed the cut in 10 of them, with no finish higher than T22. It goes without saying that this is, by far, his best performance to date.
“This is kind of what we put all those hours for,” he said Friday. “Unfortunately I haven’t been able to do it throughout my career, but like I said, you never know. You got to keep the pedal down, keep your head down, and keep working hard. You never know when things are going to turn your way.”
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Vegas has won four times on the PGA Tour, most recently last summer at the 3M Open. But a combination of injuries, bad breaks and hard luck have kept him from more sustained success in majors… which makes this week that much more meaningful.
“I have the game to compete in these big events. I feel like my game is very complete, but I just haven’t been able to put it all together in a major,” he said. “I’ve played good at some good, big tournaments, but never a major, right? … Unfortunately, it’s [taken] me a little bit longer than usual, but I’m glad that I’m in this position right now.”
Vegas will roll into the weekend in the top reaches of the leaderboard, and perhaps those scars will help him weather the rough times that are certain to come. The double-bogey on 18 stings, without a doubt, but Vegas has been through enough that he can shake it off and focus on the positive.
“Even though it’s never easy to give two shots away right at the end,” Vegas said, “a lot of golf left, so got to keep remembering the good stuff.”
Starting with that rake.
This news was originally published on this post .
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