BAG TO WORSE TALE
CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — Jhonattan Vegas took “Planes, Trains and Automobiles’’ to the extreme en route to his 10:31 a.m. (Scotland time) opening-round tee time of the British Open on Thursday at Carnoustie.
Vegas, from Venezuela, had visa problems, faced several road blocks getting to Scotland and ended up arriving to Carnoustie about 9 a.m. Thursday to register and get to the first tee. His clubs, however, did not arrive with him, forcing him to play with a hastily culled-together set.
Vegas, ranked 80th in the world and playing in his second British Open, played with a mixed set of clubs that were assembled for him just before his tee time. Though he plays Titleist irons, he ended up using Mizuno irons, TaylorMade woods and a TaylorMade putter.
“I literally called my caddie 2 ¹/2 hours before my tee time to start scrambling some clubs together,’’ Vegas said.
After sleeping two hours on his 14-hour trek, Vegas ended up shooting a 5-overpar 76.
“Not ideal,’’ Vegas said. “But it was fun. Even though the journey seemed really crazy and frustrating at times … I just thought that somebody was really playing a joke on me. I mean, it couldn’t be that way, just how everything just got interrupted on the way.’’
Vegas was scheduled to fly to Scotland on July 12, but realized his visa to travel there was expiring that day. After it took some time to get his visa sorted out, Vegas’ route to Carnoustie was a flight from Houston to Toronto, then Toronto to Glasgow and then a helicopter Thursday morning to Carnoustie, about an hour before his tee time.
“To me, it almost seemed like it was a horror movie happening for the past week,’’ Vegas said.
“I don’t know how he even made contact with the ball the first couple holes,’’ said Tony Finau, who played with Vegas. “Everything that he’s been through is crazy. It’s tough to hear everything that he’s been through for the last week.’’
After noticing his visa expired, Vegas applied for a renewal the next day but didn’t hear back from the consulate until Monday.
“We fixed it on Monday, and I was supposed to be in Houston on Tuesday morning to get our flight and be here Wednesday, which still gives me a day to at least see the golf course,’’ Vegas said.
“But that didn’t happen. I got the reply, but that day something happened with UPS in New York that the whole UPS shut down. So the visa never left New York until late that day. I lit- erally waited in a car in front of the consulate in Houston for seven hours, hoping for that visa to show up that day and it never did.
“So I went Wednesday morning, got it, got on a flight from Houston here through Toronto, and I got my agents to give me a helicopter ride from Glasgow to here. But my clubs decided not to show up [Thursday]. The only bag that didn’t show up was my golf clubs. I called my caddie and said, ‘Man, scramble some clubs, whatever you can find. Go ask.’
“But at the end of the day, I gave it a try. I wouldn’t do it every single day. It’s fun playing here. I wouldn’t really miss it for anything.’’
Vegas said his clubs never left Toronto.
“Hopefully, they’ll show up [Friday] morning [for Round 2],’’ he said.