Upstart Vegas has risen from PGA depths

Now among 30 players in Tour Championship

ATLANTA — Jhonattan Vegas doesn’t have a realistic chance of claiming the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus even if he wins the Tour Championship.

It’s having any chance at all that makes this season so remarkable.

“Best year of my career so far,” Vegas said Wednesday with as broad a smile as could be found at East Lake. “It’s just crazy to think of this from where we started.”

Still vivid are memories of how uncertain his career felt a year ago.

Vegas failed to keep his card, and then his season got even worse. With a chance to regain his card in the Web.com Tour Finals, he missed the cut in the final event. That left the 32-year-old from Venezuela with limited status.

“I remember sitting down Friday afternoon after I missed the cut, not knowing where I could play,” Vegas said.

He received a sponsor’s exemption to the Frys.com Open to start the season, opened with a 64 and tied for 10th to get into the next tournament in Las Vegas, Nev. In an opposite-field event in Mississippi, he tied for fourth.

And then he broke through in a big way by winning the RBC Canadian Open in July, and he played well enough in the FedEx Cup playoffs to finish at No. 29 and get into the Tour Championship by a mere four points.

All he wanted to do this year was finish in the top 125 and keep his card.

Now, he is playing the Tour Championship and is assured of playing at least three majors next year, along with World Golf Championships in Mexico and Firestone.

“One of the biggest accomplishments of my career,” Vegas said.

For others, there is so much more to accomplish.

The Tour Championship, which starts today, is the final stop of the FedEx Cup season that pays out $10 million to the winner in a finale that is up for grabs among the 30 players who made it to East Lake.

Everyone has a mathematical chance to win the FedEx Cup, though it’s unlikely for Vegas. He would have to win, and Dustin Johnson would have to finish 28th.

The focus is more on Johnson, the No. 1 seed, and the next four players behind him — Patrick Reed, Adam Scott, Jason Day and Paul Casey. They only have to win the Tour Championship to claim the prize no matter what anyone else does.

Bill Haas at No. 25 in 2011 was the lowest seed to win the FedEx Cup. The last player to win the Tour Championship without claiming the FedEx Cup was Phil Mickelson in 2009. He wound up second in the FedEx Cup to Tiger Woods.