http://www.cbssports.com/golf/story/14636005/tour-has-exciting-new-headliner-in-jhonny-vegas
By Steve Elling
CBSSports.com Senior Writer
Feb. 2, 2011Still very much a rookie, Jhonattan Vegas, the most en fuego player on the PGA Tour, arrived at yet another new stop in Phoenix this week still soaking up the scenery.
If not chewing it up.
Tiger Woods says he liked what he saw playing with Jhonny Vegas last week at Torrey Pines. (Getty Images) After becoming the first Venezuelan to win in the States, then following up with a third-place finish last week in San Diego, the game's newest global sensation wandered into the massive amphitheater surrounding the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale and was flat blown away.
Stacks of metal bleachers and luxury boxes surround the most infamous hole on tour. Fans, tossing down beers and throwing out jeers, will serenade their favorite players with songs, personalized shout-outs about their careers, and occasionally, a few pointed barbs.
The stands were empty when Vegas rolled past during his Tuesday practice round, but he stopped and snapped a photo, grinning and flashing a thumb's-up sign, and posted it (to his Twitter page, where he's been riffing away in English and Spanish in an attempt to satisfy his growing fan base in two very dissimilar worlds.
It read: "This place rocks. Este lugar se enciende. Que cosa pa' buena."
The look on his face translates in any tongue.
In the frenetic week since he won the Bob Hope Classic, the kid they've dubbed Jhonny Vegas has spoken with the president of his country and spanked Tiger Woods in a head-to-head pairing at the Farmers Insurance Open. In two months, he will play in the Masters.
It's still hard to predict where all this is headed, but Vegas' biographical, geographical tale is the most impressive lesson in personal achievement since Vijay Singh left the jungles of Borneo to become a world star. There's one notable difference -- Vegas, an endearing 26-year-old, has actual charisma.
Venezuela is known mostly in this country for its crude oil production, not its golfing talent pipeline. Although, in this case, there is some intersection.
With his unbelievable fortnight, Jhonny V. Goode has climbed to No. 69 in the world ranking. The next-highest Venezuelan on the list is Raul Sanz at No. 1,170. For the record, this is the first, and darned likely the last, time I have ever typed Sanz's name.
How dry is the Venezuelan pipeline for golf? On the Official World Golf Ranking archives, the country is repeatedly spelled as "Venezuala."
So, from a hardscrabble nine-hole golf course in northeast Venezuela that catered to oilfield workers, where his father ran the food concession, comes a guy who burns so brightly that Red Adair couldn't douse the blaze.
Had Vegas' last-ditch try Sunday to make eagle on the 18th not found the water, this would be tasking on other-worldly air. Not that it hasn't, because compared to the silver-spooners on tour, he came from another world, indeed.
A Nationwide Tour graduate who was promoted after finishing seventh on the developmental circuit's money list in 2010, his parents in '02 sent him to Houston, where he moved in with his Venezuelan swing coach, Franci Betancourt, and his family. Vegas, who arrived with no money, some clothes and a set of clubs, began taking classes in English at a local junior college.
"It was extremely hard," Vegas said. "It took me a year and a half to get decent at it. It was a good learning process. That's one of the things that just kind of makes you realize that life is not as easy as it looks, and you've got to work hard every time to get things done.
"So I got it done, and it was huge. It was a huge confidence booster, and it prepared me for a lot of this."
Impressively, Vegas eventually enrolled at Texas and earned a degree in kinesiology, taking 21 units in his final semester to finish off his course requirements.
"I like to finish what I started," he said.
Fair enough. So let's finish up the story about how he started. Vegas, who has a magnetic personality, has made his simple childhood in Venezuela sound somewhat romantic -- hitting rocks with broomsticks and playing the nine-hole course with kids of other workers after school. But comparatively, they are truly the humblest of beginnings.
The David Leadbetter IMG Academy route, it wasn't.
"He makes it all sound like a great childhood, but I am sure it was way more complicated than that," said Golf Channel analyst Jerry Foltz, who followed Vegas' two seasons on the Nationwide for the network. "But he just kind of has that attitude. He never looks down or overly elated."
For instance, Vegas hit the ball all over the Coachella Valley on the back nine two weekends ago at the Hope, but made a series of brave par putts to stay afloat. He hit a ball in the water in the playoff with Gary Woodland and still saved par. He proven to be largely unflappable, and given the improbable career track he took, probably for good reason.
Two days after he won the Bob Hope Classic on Jan. 23, the president of Venezuela, who has been shutting down golf courses back home because he thinks it's not the most democratic pastime, gushed of the country's newest export:
"He beat all the gringos," Hugo Chavez said.
Last week in San Diego, he beat the Cablinasians, Koreans, Yanks, Brits, Aussies and everybody but the two lefties who finished ahead of him, winner Bubba Watson and runner-up Phil Mickelson.
Saturday, he played at Torrey Pines while paired with Tiger Woods, who practically owns the joint. Vegas drilled him by five strokes and seemed to revel in the mayhem that accompanies the former world No. 1 on the course.
"Jhonny was fun to play with," Woods said. "I had never seen him play golf before. It was neat to play with him. Really nice kid.
"He was grinding out there. He had a couple of loose shots here and there, but he recovered well. So it's awfully nice to see. He had a lot of patience."
Those watching on television had to notice the stark contrast between the swings of Vegas, whose athletic move seems natural, effortless and simplistic compared to the swings of Watson, Mickelson and Woods -- who all seemed to be working mightily to keep the ball on dry land.
Vegas' powerful swing -- he will almost surely rank among the top dozen players in driving distance by year's end -- is fluid and amazingly balanced, given the horsepower he generates. Foltz has watched Betancourt and Vegas working on the range in the past and sees comparisons to players of a different era, reeling off names like Nicklaus and Watson. Tom, not Bubba.
"His teacher has taught him how to hit golf shots, not to emphasize the golf swing," Foltz said. "Unfettered is a word I really like. Those old guys from 20 and 30 years ago were never about 'golf swing.'"
Vegas hails from a town called Maturin. That's exactly what he seems to be doing before our eyes, growin' up and becomin' ever-more confident. At 6-2 and 230 pounds, he resembles Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano, though thankfully, he doesn't have the same anger-management issues. In fact, there's not much machismo in the kid, insane career trajectory or not.
"He is definitely good enough," Foltz said. "He is a raw talent."
Crude oil becomes downright combustible once it's refined, too. If Vegas has his way, he'll convince Chavez that the game, like the nation's stores of black gold, is worth mining.
"He always said golf is for elite people," Vegas said of the president. "I'd like to tell him it is not that way."
After what Vegas has done in a handful of rookie starts, Chavez and everybody else already know.
Tour has exciting new headliner in Jhonny VegasBy Steve Elling
CBSSports.com Senior Writer
Feb. 2, 2011Still very much a rookie, Jhonattan Vegas, the most en fuego player on the PGA Tour, arrived at yet another new stop in Phoenix this week still soaking up the scenery.
If not chewing it up.
Stacks of metal bleachers and luxury boxes surround the most infamous hole on tour. Fans, tossing down beers and throwing out jeers, will serenade their favorite players with songs, personalized shout-outs about their careers, and occasionally, a few pointed barbs.
The stands were empty when Vegas rolled past during his Tuesday practice round, but he stopped and snapped a photo, grinning and flashing a thumb's-up sign, and posted it (to his Twitter page, where he's been riffing away in English and Spanish in an attempt to satisfy his growing fan base in two very dissimilar worlds.
It read: "This place rocks. Este lugar se enciende. Que cosa pa' buena."
The look on his face translates in any tongue.
In the frenetic week since he won the Bob Hope Classic, the kid they've dubbed Jhonny Vegas has spoken with the president of his country and spanked Tiger Woods in a head-to-head pairing at the Farmers Insurance Open. In two months, he will play in the Masters.
It's still hard to predict where all this is headed, but Vegas' biographical, geographical tale is the most impressive lesson in personal achievement since Vijay Singh left the jungles of Borneo to become a world star. There's one notable difference -- Vegas, an endearing 26-year-old, has actual charisma.
Venezuela is known mostly in this country for its crude oil production, not its golfing talent pipeline. Although, in this case, there is some intersection.
With his unbelievable fortnight, Jhonny V. Goode has climbed to No. 69 in the world ranking. The next-highest Venezuelan on the list is Raul Sanz at No. 1,170. For the record, this is the first, and darned likely the last, time I have ever typed Sanz's name.
How dry is the Venezuelan pipeline for golf? On the Official World Golf Ranking archives, the country is repeatedly spelled as "Venezuala."
So, from a hardscrabble nine-hole golf course in northeast Venezuela that catered to oilfield workers, where his father ran the food concession, comes a guy who burns so brightly that Red Adair couldn't douse the blaze.
Had Vegas' last-ditch try Sunday to make eagle on the 18th not found the water, this would be tasking on other-worldly air. Not that it hasn't, because compared to the silver-spooners on tour, he came from another world, indeed.
A Nationwide Tour graduate who was promoted after finishing seventh on the developmental circuit's money list in 2010, his parents in '02 sent him to Houston, where he moved in with his Venezuelan swing coach, Franci Betancourt, and his family. Vegas, who arrived with no money, some clothes and a set of clubs, began taking classes in English at a local junior college.
"It was extremely hard," Vegas said. "It took me a year and a half to get decent at it. It was a good learning process. That's one of the things that just kind of makes you realize that life is not as easy as it looks, and you've got to work hard every time to get things done.
"So I got it done, and it was huge. It was a huge confidence booster, and it prepared me for a lot of this."
Impressively, Vegas eventually enrolled at Texas and earned a degree in kinesiology, taking 21 units in his final semester to finish off his course requirements.
"I like to finish what I started," he said.
Fair enough. So let's finish up the story about how he started. Vegas, who has a magnetic personality, has made his simple childhood in Venezuela sound somewhat romantic -- hitting rocks with broomsticks and playing the nine-hole course with kids of other workers after school. But comparatively, they are truly the humblest of beginnings.
The David Leadbetter IMG Academy route, it wasn't.
"He makes it all sound like a great childhood, but I am sure it was way more complicated than that," said Golf Channel analyst Jerry Foltz, who followed Vegas' two seasons on the Nationwide for the network. "But he just kind of has that attitude. He never looks down or overly elated."
For instance, Vegas hit the ball all over the Coachella Valley on the back nine two weekends ago at the Hope, but made a series of brave par putts to stay afloat. He hit a ball in the water in the playoff with Gary Woodland and still saved par. He proven to be largely unflappable, and given the improbable career track he took, probably for good reason.
Two days after he won the Bob Hope Classic on Jan. 23, the president of Venezuela, who has been shutting down golf courses back home because he thinks it's not the most democratic pastime, gushed of the country's newest export:
"He beat all the gringos," Hugo Chavez said.
Last week in San Diego, he beat the Cablinasians, Koreans, Yanks, Brits, Aussies and everybody but the two lefties who finished ahead of him, winner Bubba Watson and runner-up Phil Mickelson.
Saturday, he played at Torrey Pines while paired with Tiger Woods, who practically owns the joint. Vegas drilled him by five strokes and seemed to revel in the mayhem that accompanies the former world No. 1 on the course.
"Jhonny was fun to play with," Woods said. "I had never seen him play golf before. It was neat to play with him. Really nice kid.
"He was grinding out there. He had a couple of loose shots here and there, but he recovered well. So it's awfully nice to see. He had a lot of patience."
Those watching on television had to notice the stark contrast between the swings of Vegas, whose athletic move seems natural, effortless and simplistic compared to the swings of Watson, Mickelson and Woods -- who all seemed to be working mightily to keep the ball on dry land.
Vegas' powerful swing -- he will almost surely rank among the top dozen players in driving distance by year's end -- is fluid and amazingly balanced, given the horsepower he generates. Foltz has watched Betancourt and Vegas working on the range in the past and sees comparisons to players of a different era, reeling off names like Nicklaus and Watson. Tom, not Bubba.
"His teacher has taught him how to hit golf shots, not to emphasize the golf swing," Foltz said. "Unfettered is a word I really like. Those old guys from 20 and 30 years ago were never about 'golf swing.'"
Vegas hails from a town called Maturin. That's exactly what he seems to be doing before our eyes, growin' up and becomin' ever-more confident. At 6-2 and 230 pounds, he resembles Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano, though thankfully, he doesn't have the same anger-management issues. In fact, there's not much machismo in the kid, insane career trajectory or not.
"He is definitely good enough," Foltz said. "He is a raw talent."
Crude oil becomes downright combustible once it's refined, too. If Vegas has his way, he'll convince Chavez that the game, like the nation's stores of black gold, is worth mining.
"He always said golf is for elite people," Vegas said of the president. "I'd like to tell him it is not that way."
After what Vegas has done in a handful of rookie starts, Chavez and everybody else already know.
