Vegas lives weeklong ‘horror movie’
Expired visa nearly keeps him from making tee time
CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — Never mind the challenge of working your way around a British Open course.
For Jhonattan Vegas, merely getting to Scotland was a wild adventure.
“It almost seemed like it was a horror movie happening for the past week,” said the Venezuelan golfer, who barely made it to Carnoustie for his 10:30 a.m. tee time Thursday.
He was supposed to arrive last Friday, giving him plenty of time to rest and prepare. But at the last minute, he discovered his visa was set to expire the day he was traveling, so he went to the consulate in New York last Thursday and applied for another. He didn’t get an immediate response, so he waited through the weekend.
On Monday morning, he learned he had applied for the wrong kind of visa. He quickly reapplied, and because of bad weather in New York, he planned to fly to Houston to take a roundabout route to Scotland. He was scheduled to arrive Wednesday, the day before the tournament. At least he could get a look at the course.
He went to Houston but missed that Tuesday flight because his visa was still being processed.
“I got the reply, but that (Tuesday) something happened with UPS in New York that the whole UPS shut down,” he said. “So the visa never left New York until late that day. I literally waited in a car in front of Jhonattan Vegas, driving at the 10th tee, endured an eventful week before the first round. the consulate in Houston for seven hours, hoping for that visa to show up that day. It never did.”
Now he was getting really nervous. But he was able to get his visa Wednesday morning and caught a flight to Toronto, then Glasgow, where he landed early Thursday, four hours before his tee time.
The good news: “I got my agents to give me a helicopter ride from Glasgow. So it opened up for me to be here at least two hours before tee time, which at least gives a little time to settle down and go play.”
The bad news: His clubs never made it.
His club sponsor was able to cobble together an emergency set, and Vegas had enough time to hit about 20 practice balls.
He was 1 over par through eight holes, but then he started to spray his driver and the round slipped away from him a bit. He wound up shooting a 76 on a very trying day.
“I gave it a try,” he said. “I wouldn’t do it every single day. It’s fun playing here. It’s fun playing majors, fun playing the Open. This is my second one, so I wouldn’t really miss it for anything.”
That much is clear. First-round leader Kevin Kisner isn’t intimidated by sharing a house with Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler and others.
“They’re all great people,” he said. “We’re out there playing soccer at night and hanging out. Everybody is just really chill, and it’s a lot of fun to be around those guys. There’s a lot of great players. It’s really cool what they have to say.”
He said they’re all pretty good athletes, including Spieth … “until he sends it over the goal four houses over, and we have to knock on the neighbor’s door for the soccer ball.”
The first player off the tee was 60year-old Sandy Lyle, whose exemption for winning the 1985 Open expires after this year. It’s his 43rd appearance in this event, and he had the honor of striking the first ball at 6:30 a.m.
“I was nervous last night, never mind this morning,” said Lyle, who was 1 under at the turn but shot a 40 on the back to finish with a 75. “I woke up about 1 this morning with one eye on the alarm clock, thinking. Then your mind starts thinking about the opening shots and things.”
The turnout in the grandstands at the first tee was better than he expected.
“I was hoping to get away with maybe 20 people out there, and 15 of them (were) family,” he said. “I think it was probably about 80 percent full on that first hole. Very impressed.”