CNN
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If you look at the PGA Championship Leaderboard, you’ll see lots of familiar names. Scotty Schaeffler is tied to fifth place and Matt Fitzpatrick is tied to second place. Further down is Bryson DeDanbaud, tied to 17th place. Tommy Fleetwood and John Larm are in 27th place, while Rory McIlroy is struggling with a tie in 62nd place.
But above that, there is a name that is not familiar to Jonattan Vegas, who holds a two-shot lead at the halfway point of the PGA Championship.
Ranked 70th in the world, the 40-year-old Venezuelan enjoys the start of his tournament’s dream, finishing an eight-under par on his first 36 holes. Along the way, Vegas made history and became the first Venezuelan to take a lead in the majors.
And it was a long journey to the top – he was already playing golf by the time he was two years old. His father raised a caddy near a golf course and conveyed his love for sports to his son.
“As a kid, I’d hit anything I could find. The rocks, the brooms, everything,” Vegas told reporters after Thursday’s opening round. “I’d grab anything I could swing and do that. I feel like I was a good athlete as a young child.
“We grew up near a nine-hole golf course owned by an oil company. We accessed the course and added it to my dad’s love for the game and started playing it all together.”
After becoming one of Venezuela’s best junior players, the teenager Vegas promoted his fledgling career, learning English and eventually moved to the United States to study at University in Texas.
Early in his professional career he made more history and became the first Venezuelan to win a PGA Tour event when he won the Bob Hope Classic in 2011.
Golf itself was also tied to Venezuelan politics. Former President Hugo Chavez has closed several of the country’s golf courses belonging to the state-owned enterprise PDVSA, and has dismissed the sport as “bourgeois” on a Reuters basis.
Recently, a string of injuries have threatened to derail Vegas’ carriers. He barely played golf during the 2022-23 season and underwent two surgeries to treat elbow and shoulder injuries.
First, a piece of bone broke and caught in the elbow joint, forcing surgery. The doctor told him that his elbow never healed completely and the complications of the injury caused shoulder problems that he underwent another surgery.
Such an injury contributed to a long spell in the seven years that Vegas failed to win. However, in July 2024 he returned to winning ways at the 3M Open, allowing him, most importantly, his young son, Louis, to experience his father’s first trophy.
And now Vegas is enjoying his best performance in the majors. He tracked the first round of 64 in 70 rounds, bringing together two consecutive Pallu rounds for the first time in the 17 major championship start.