Insider: Late blooming Vegas ready for challenge of TOUR

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Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

Vegas notched a win on the Nationwide Tour this season at the Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open.

The longest hitter among the Nationwide Tour graduates, Jhonattan Vegas, has also come far to reach his dream of playing on the PGA TOUR.

Vegas, a 26-year-old from Venezuela, can remember when he first came to Houston as a wide-eyed 17-year-old not knowing a word of English.

Stats: Driving distance
Stats: Longest drive

"That was a tough time but I just worked at it very hard and like anything else I eventually improved," said Vegas, who played at the University of Texas and graduated in 2008.

Vegas was one of the many big hitters on the Nationwide Tour in 2010, and he wound up tying for third at 312.9 yards a drive. He said that distance off the tee was a big asset but he knows it can't all be about the long ball.

"Definitely, it gave me an advantage, but you really have to work a lot on your short game and putting," said Vegas, who was seventh on the Nationwide Tour money list in 2010.

Vegas, the first Venezuelan-born player to earn a PGA TOUR card, said that the long season on the Nationwide Tour was great preparation. At 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds he's built like an NFL safety, but he was third on the Nationwide Tour in eagles made this past season.

"The Nationwide Tour makes you improve your short game and that's what I needed if I wanted to be successful out there," said Vegas, who first got interested in the game as he watched his parents play in Venezuela. He was hitting plastic balls, rocks and whatever else he could find as early as the age of 2.

Now that Vegas will get a chance to play with the best of the best on the PGA TOUR he is thankful for the help he received along the way. Franci Betancourt, a Venezuelan golf pro who was also a three-time World Cup participant, taught Vegas as a boy. Kevin Kirk and Dick Kemp, a real-estate developer in Austin who became Vegas' guardian after Vegas moved there from Houston to begin his career at Texas, all were instrumental in his development.

Vegas hasn't forgotten his roots and spent some time in Venezuela earlier this month seeing family and friends. He doesn't see it as pressure as he represents Venezuela on the PGA TOUR.

"I don't mind that at all," he said. "I want to represent my country in a positive way and my goal is to go out and try and win on the PGA TOUR. That's the goal I've had for a long time."

Vegas knows that just because he will play on the PGA TOUR in 2011 doesn't mean he's arrived just yet. "Hopefully I can do more," he said.

What he did this past season on the Nationwide Tour was establish a consistent pattern that paid off with a victory at Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open in August. That was his lone win on Tour, but it went a long way in helping him gain confidence for the rest of the year.

Vegas also had ties for second and third in September that pretty much secured his PGA TOUR status for 2011. Even when he missed two straight cuts in the final two regular-season tournaments he came back in the Nationwide Tour Championship and tied for 16th.

While he hasn't had much experience playing on the PGA TOUR he knows that looking at the big picture will help him in 2011.

"I'll be playing against the best players with bigger crowds -- so how good is that?" he asked. "I'm starting to realize that and I'm going to go out and enjoy myself, work hard and see what I can do out there."

Vegas' brother, Julio, is a sophomore at Texas this season and is trying to follow in his brother's footsteps. "He's doing well," Vegas said, "and Coach (John) Fields has been encouraged in how Julio has come along."

Fields, who is in his 17th season at Texas, said that when Jhonattan was being recruited he didn't know much about him. Jhonattan was a late signee only because at the last minute Casey Wittenberg decided to go to Oklahoma instead of Texas.

"On that very day that Casey decided to go to Oklahoma I received a VHS tape of Jhonattan in the mail and I was sitting there in my office and another player and I watched it," Fields said. "And he was such a physical specimen and was doing everything right so we decided to sign him."

Fields said that Jhonattan was a late bloomer, who had his best season in his senior year in the spring of 2008. He needed 21 hours that last semester to get his degree but Jhonattan was undaunted.

"So what did he do? He took the 21 hours and everybody told him you can't do that and play golf," Fields said. "But he did it in impressive fashion and helped us to a high finish that season at the NCAAs."

Fields said that because Vegas came from humble beginnings he appreciates everything about his life as a pro golfer.

"You can't help but cheer for somebody like Jhonattan because he never complains, works hard all the time and is just one of those guys who have come such a long way," Fields said.

During Vegas' first tournament as a freshman he was given new golf shoes that didn't fit just right. Fields remembers that by No. 18 Vegas was walking down the fairway with only one golf shoe on.

"We asked Jhonattan about it and he said he had blisters that were pretty bad, but he didn't complain about it and just kept playing," Fields said.

The Longhorns' coach said that when Vegas first arrived at Texas he struggled with the language and the culture.

"He told me it was like me going to live in China," Field said. "So to see how he's developed through these many years it's been fun to watch. And I think PGA TOUR fans are going to have fun watching him next year."

John Dell has covered golf for the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina for the last 17 years. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.