Double delight for Venezuela’s Vegas
montreal — Venezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas birdied the first playoff hole on Sunday to win the US PGA Tour’s Canadian Open for the second straight year.
Vegas edged American Charley Hoffman after both finished 72 holes on 21-under par 267.
Vegas was in a bunker and off the green as the playoff opened at the par-five 18th at Glen Abbey in Oakville, Ontario.
But Vegas chipped his third shot inches from the hole and tapped in for the win. “I knew I had to stay aggressive,” Vegas said of the neardisaster out of the bunker. “I knew I could pull off the shot. A little lucky, to be honest,” he added. “Sometimes you need that to win.”
Vegas, one of the longest drivers on tour, arrived in Canada having missed five straight cuts, but Glen Abbey again proved hospitable.
“It’s magic, to be honest,” he said after capturing his third PGA Tour title.
“I knew that I had to shoot a good round today to have a chance to win again. I just came out with an aggressive mentality, just feeling really good about my game.
“When I started making a few birdies, especially the putt for birdie on seven, I started feeling the same chills that I felt last year when I won, and I just knew that something good could happen if I kept that going.”
In the midst of his title defence, Vegas said he’d been keeping an eye on the turmoil in Venezuela, where deadly violence marred elections to choose members of a powerful assembly that President Nicolas Maduro has tasked with writing a new constitution.
“It’s always on my mind,” the US-based golfer said. “I have family that live there. It’s my country of birth. It hurts a lot, seeing the country the way it is, seeing a government that treats people that way when they don’t deserve it.” —