Jhonny Be Good
Meet Jhonattan Vegas, One Of The PGA Tour's Hot Young Guns
With a chance to win his first-ever PGA TOUR title at January’s Bob Hope Classic, Venezuelan-born PGA Tour rookie Jhonattan Vegas found himself in a familiar position—with his back against the wall. Fellow competitor Gary Woodland was in good shape to make birdie on the first hole of a sudden death playoff, and Vegas faced an intimidating pitch shot over a yawning sand trap that had to land cashmere-soft to have any chance of stopping near the hole and extending the playoff.
Staring down that shot, Vegas knew winning would mark more than just the culmination of a lifelong dream. His improbable journey—that had brought him from a modest childhood in an oil-drilling camp in Maturin, Venezuela, to a horizonbroadening career at the University of Texas, and now into the highest tier of competitive golf on the planet—would be validated in ways only Vegas and those in his inner circle could fully appreciate.
In 2003, after guiding Jhonattan to a promising junior golf career, hard-working caterer Carlos Vegas—Jhonnatan's father— made an excruciating leap of faith and deployed his 17-year-old son 2,500 miles north from his home to Texas. There, Jhonattan would have the chance to work on three things: 1) Developing his golf game with trusted professionals Franci Betancourt—a Venezuelan playing and teaching pro who had worked with Vegas from an early age—and Kevin Kirk, himself an oil camp brat who met and learned golf from Betancourt in the 1970s; 2) Earning admittance into college; 3) Learning to speak and write in English.
“When Jhonattan arrived in Houston, he had his golf bag, one sack of clothes and he spoke maybe 10 words of English,” says Kirk, who still coaches Vegas along with Betancourt. “He had about a yearand- a-half to prepare for the SAT and the TOEFL (which evaluates one’s ability to use and understand English in an academic setting) before he could enroll at the University of Texas. Most kids couldn’t have done it.”
Lonely but determined, Vegas moved into Betancourt’s home in suburban Houston and became part of his family. He learned English at a local community college and enrolled at Texas in time for the 2004 golf season. Men’s golf coach John Fields remembers the first time Longhorns head football coach Mack Brown saw the six-foot-three, 230-pound Vegas on campus. “Coach Brown thought he was watching a new tight end recruit walk in. I had to explain twice that Jhonattan was here to play golf, not football,” Fields says.
Fields had first noticed Vegas at the World Junior Golf Championships in San Diego, where Vegas tied for sixth while displaying disarming distance and ballstriking. “His length off the tee was incredible. He was like the pitcher who could throw the 102-mile-an-hour fastball but without much control,” Fields jokes.“He got better every year he was here, though, and helped our team a lot.”
While balancing a full course load, collegiate golf and a mild case of culture shock, Vegas received troubling news from back home. Many of the three million Venezuelans who had signed a petition in favor of a recall referendum (which would determine whether president Hugo Chavez should be removed from office) in 2004, were beginning to face catastrophic consequences. Carlos Vegas lost his job, was taxed heavily and faced numerous hardships trying to complete routine banking and business transactions. The financial turmoil his family was facing back in Maturin had a profound impact on Vegas.
“I remember sitting in my dorm by myself, just thinking ‘What am I doing here? How am I going to get through this?’” he says. “But I always found that motivation and energy to keep working and to keep trying to get better.”
Kirk says the pressure to help his family drove Vegas to focus like no pupil he’s ever seen. “Jhonattan had the goal of being able to create a better life for his family for a long time,” Kirk says. “You see a lot of golfers who desperately want to play well. How many do you know that have to succeed? Jhonattan had to get this right.”
Around that same time, Austin real estate executive Dick Kemp entered Vegas’ life, becoming his legal guardian and helping provide some much needed stability for the young golfer. “We loved his spirit and engaging personality immediately,” Kemp says. “When you see him on TV, focused but always smiling, that’s Jhonattan.”
Vegas received sound advice from Kemp along with his first laptop and first car, enabling him to enjoy many of the trappings of normal college life. That 2000 Chevrolet Cavalier, now with 226,000 miles on the odometer, has been passed down to Jhonattan’s brothers Julio (a sophomore on the University of Texas golf team) and now to Billy (a freshman on the St. Edwards University golf squad).
Vegas ended his amateur golf run with a semi-finals appearance in the 2007 U.S. Amateur Championship. He earned his kinesiology from Texas in 2008 and, after an unsuccessful shot at the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament in 2008, he found his footing on the Nationwide Tour where he collected a half-dozen top-five finishes and won the Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open in 2010. He finished 2010 seventh on the Nationwide Tour’s official money list, earning full playing privileges on the PGA Tour for 2011 and won the Argentina Open in December.
“Jhonattan’s progression as a player is exciting because he’s been able to get a little better every year, adding a piece to his arsenal here and there and really becoming a complete player,” Kirk says.
The playoff at the Bob Hope (at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif.) With Woodland And Bill Haas came in Vegas’ second appearance as a PGA Tour member, his fifth appearance in a Tour event overall. As the rookie made a full, swift cut at the 30- yard flop shot that would make or break his playoff chances, Carlos and Maritza Vegas stood breathlessly next to Melissa and Dick Kemp (Jhonattan’s “American Mom and Dad”). The ball soared over the high-lipped trap, took a hop in the rough and began to track toward the hole. For a moment, the ball peeked into the hole. It grazed the edge and settled three feet away.
“I thought he was going to hole it,” Fields says. “I’ve always known he was a great bunker player. He has tremendous speed in his arms. Jhonattan has all the earmarks of a really good short game player...freakishly good hand-eye coordination.”
Woodland and Vegas converted their birdies. Haas didn’t. On the second playoff hole, Vegas found the water with his tee shot. Once more, he would have to Summon the resiliency that has defined his career and his life. With everything on the line, Vegas drilled a 9-iron 160 yards, leaving him a 13-foot par try. Woodland stumbled to a bogey. The 13-footer was now for the win.
First prize at the Bob Hope is $900,000, a life-changing amount of money for almost anyone. For a family that has lived most of the last decade separated by circumstance and the Gulf of Mexico, it could mean a lot. “The Vegas family is salt of the earth, ” says Kirk. “They’re hardworking, middle-class folks who love and genuinely enjoy each other’s company. They’re beyond close.”
When that 13-footer curled into the cup, a dream that was born in Venezuela’s Orinoco River Valley—when a small boy picked up a stick and a rock and began mirroring his former-caddie father’s golf swing—came to life. To the golf media and marketing machines, Jhonattan Vegas became “Jhonny Vegas” in a blink. More than 1,000 voice mails flooded his phone. Invites to play at clubs he’d never heard of came his way. He received offers to endorse products he’d never seen. Hundreds of requests for interviews poured in.
Through it all, Vegas smiles and stays grounded. “I’ve had to fight for so many things to try to achieve my goals,” he says. “It’s a great time, and to be able to share the win with my family means everything.”
The following week, Vegas tied for third at the Farmer’s Insurance Open and had a chance to win until an approach on the final hole found the water. Vegas was paired with Tiger Woods in the third round and says he learned a lot from the 14-time Major jor winner. “He kept fighting even through the bad moments and he turned a round that could have gone bad into a pretty okay round,” Vegas says. “That’s something as a young player you want to see. You want to see what the best players do in tough moments. Just to see him keep fighting, I learned a lot from that guy.”
Fields says Vegas has a lot more to show the golf world. “People are going to discover he’s got a phenomenal work ethic, similar to Vijay Singh’s,” Fields says. “Jhonattan’s a throwback to self-made guys like Lee Trevino or Calvin Peete, guys who came from nothing and aren’t scared of anything. He’s got a fight and burning desire in him to be successful.”
After his victory at the Hope, what motivates Vegas? “With winning, some pressure is off, sure,” he says. “But there’s a new kind of pressure to find a way to have multiple wins and to play better against the top players, to contend in Major championships. Even if I reach the goal of getting to be number one, I still have to look for ways to keep improving.”
Vegas will play in his first Major in April at The Masters, an event most professionals associate with having truly “arrived” in the pro ranks. “It’s going to be a special week," he says. “There’s going to be a lot of emotions running around. Just to be part of a tradition that involves the best players in the world on one of the best courses in the world is going to be really exciting.”
Many think Vegas’ impact on the game could become global. Kemp keeps a letter from PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem that applauds Vegas’ “consistent play,” “resiliency,” “continuous smile” and “the gracious manner in which you handled yourself on the course and off.”
In other words, Vegas can be the kind of player that can carry the torch for the Tour for years to come. The success of Colombian Tour star Camilo Villegas has ignited a golf craze in his native country. Vegas hopes his achievements can help bring a similar national pride to Venezuela, where a half dozen courses have closed in recent years by government mandate.
With clear goals and a solid support team, Vegas remains focused on playing well. “I want to work hard and finish in the top 30 on the money list,” he says. “I have a great opportunity, but it’s important to keep those big goals in front of me.I’ve just gotta keep fighting.”