OAKVILLE, Ont. – They call him Johnny Vegas and he hopes to be an inspiration for his fellow Venezuelans. Everything certainly seems to keep coming up aces for him in Canada.
A year ago, Jhonattan Vegas stormed back from five strokes down at the RBC Canadian Open to win his second PGA Tour title. After his final-round 64 a year ago he spent the late afternoon watching one competitor after another fail to knock him off his perch.
This time he only had to worry about one: third-round leader Charley Hoffman, who joined Vegas in a playoff Sunday evening. But Vegas didn’t waste any time in earning his third PGA Tour win and second straight north of the U.S. border, making a birdie from a fairway bunker on the first extra hole to take home the $1.08-million winner’s share.
Fittingly, he won it on an apparent gamble. With an uphill lie from the right-hand fairway bunker on the 18th hole and dangerously close to the lip, it seemed Vegas would be hard-pressed to get his ball high enough to clear the bunker and still make the green. Laying up seemed the sensible play, particularly since Hoffman had just laid up from a fairway bunker of his own.
But in golf, as in cards, it’s often better to be lucky than good, and fortune favours the brave.
Vegas took a mighty swipe with an 8-iron from 191 yards and sure enough his ball hit the grassy edge of the bunker, but with such force it kept carrying, leaving him with a flag-high chip for eagle.
“When the club hit the ball I knew I had hit it as solid as I could hit it,” he said. “Obviously when I heard it hit the lip – I didn’t see it – I knew it was probably going to go in the water. But then when I saw the ball in the air it was going really high and forward and it was going to be close. But obviously a little bit of luck — the ball could have gone anywhere from there — but sometimes you have to be aggressive and when you’re that aggressive sometimes things go your way.”
The result was an almost identical chip to the one he had in his final hole of regulation that he ran well past on his way to a par that opened the door for Hoffman, who birdied the par-five 16th and 18th holes to shoot a four-under-par 68 and force extras. This time Vegas was clinical with the gallery watching, nearly holing out, leaving a tap-in birdie. When Hoffman couldn’t make birdie out of a green-side bunker, Vegas became the first repeat winner at Glen Abbey in the 29 national championships held here.
“It’s always tough after you don’t close the deal after having the lead,” said Hoffman who started the day with a two-shot lead on the field and most regretted missing an uphill look at eagle on the 16th he left in the jaws. “… I just didn’t get the putts to the hole when they counted, unfortunately, and they all looked good and none of them got to the hole, unfortunately.”
It was another comeback for Vegas in Canada after starting the final round three strokes back and tied for fifth. He clambered up the leaderboard with a five-under-par front nine on his way to a final-round 65. He took the lead for good with a birdie at the par-five 13th and never relinquished it.
“I started feeling the same chills as I felt last year when I won and I just knew that something good could happen if I kept that going,” Vegas said after making his fourth straight birdie at the par-three 7th. He averaged 321 yards off the tee and needed just 25 putts on Sunday.
Standing on the 18th tee the first time, it was his tournament to lose with a one-shot lead and he almost did just that. Vegas ripped his downwind tee shot 388 yards. It was his longest tee shot of the season but in this case too long. It settled in some deep rough and Vegas couldn’t keep his approach on the 524-yard hole close.
Hoffman took advantage with a two-putt birdie to force the playoff, although an eagle putt in regulation would have won it.
After the win, Vegas snuggled his daughter, hugged his wife and kissed the trophy. It was a contrast to how he started the day.
The first thing he did when he woke up was follow the election day unrest in his native Venezuela as President Nicolás Maduro fights to maintain power in the face of popular protests.
“It’s always on my mind,” said Vegas. “It hurts a lot, seeing the country the way it is, seeing a government that treats people that way … it’s not fair. I get up early and check Twitter to see what is happening. It makes me angry, obviously, and it’s something I use as motivation to raise a voice against the government we have right now and me winning and the exposure can inspire other people in my country to revolt against the government. We need change.”
It’s a cause that’s difficult to make an impact on, but credit to Vegas to use his platform to be heard.
But it’s not the only one on his mind.
With the playoff win, Vegas became the first to defend his Open title since Jim Furyk won consecutive Canadian championships in 2006 and 2007, although Furyk’s wins were at Hamilton Golf and Country Club and Angus Glen Golf Club, respectively.
Count Vegas as among the foremost members of the coalition to save Glen Abbey from residential development as course owner ClubLink Corporation has planned, a theme that will be an undercurrent at the Canadian Open until the situation is resolved finally, one way or the other.
“I’m going to be one of the biggest boosters to keep this course open, especially if I keep winning here,” said Vegas. “So I’ll definitely make a statement to keep Glen Abbey going.”
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