Jul 28, 2024; Blaine, Minnesota, USA; Jhonattan Vegas poses with the trophy after profitable the 3M Open golf event. Obligatory Credit score: Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports activities By profitable the 3M Open two weeks in the past, Jhonattan Vegas modified his FedEx Cup equation.
The PGA Tour veteran from Venezuela rocketed into the highest 70 of the FedEx Cup standings by pulling out his first win in seven years. He isn’t completely secure, although, as he enters the regular-season finale, the Wyndham Championship, at No. 67 within the official standings.
The highest 70 after the Wyndham qualify for the primary leg of the playoffs.
Vegas is considering climbing towards the subsequent threshold, the highest 50, as he prepares for this week’s event in Greensboro, N.C.
“Clearly, the win modified the entire focus for me,” Vegas mentioned Tuesday. “Clearly, I used to be on an enormous main medical (extension) and was simply attempting — tried to construct up and get higher as each week went on. … Particularly as you get nearer to that high 50, which is the magic quantity proper now. If you may get into these, I imply, it simply makes the next yr so much simpler.”
Ending the season inside the highest 50 will qualify Vegas for the entire PGA Tour’s big-money signature occasions in 2025.
Vegas adopted up a third-round 63 on the 3M Open with a final-round 70, sufficient to carry off the sphere and lock up a win proper earlier than the PGA Tour’s temporary break for the Olympics.
It was his first victory since lacking practically the entire 2022-23 season as he handled elbow and shoulder accidents and their corresponding surgical procedures.
However when requested how he celebrated in Minnesota, Vegas’ response put his spouse and youngsters entrance and heart.
“You understand what, it was extra of a household celebration,” Vegas mentioned. “It wasn’t about me, it was in regards to the household form of coming collectively, all the things we have been via for the previous few years with me and the restoration and all of that. So I truly loved extra watching my children benefit from the second, watching them actually embrace it. Clearly, they’re sufficiently old now the place they perceive form of what is going on on and so they begin to really feel a bit bit nervous as a result of they begin to perceive what it means within the second that we’re dwelling via.”
Now on the point of 40 years outdated, Vegas could also be turning a nook. He made three straight top-30 finishes in his three begins earlier than the 3M, and he carded a 64 in the course of the John Deere Basic.
Final yr’s Wyndham Championship winner, Lucas Glover, was 43 years outdated and solely certified for the playoffs on the power of that victory. He proceeded to exit the subsequent week and win the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
“Clearly you consider all of it, proper, the massive image, however on the finish of the day you need to keep within the one week at a time,” Vegas mentioned. “I used to be positively taking it one week at a time.
“Fortunately, (his ache is) not there anymore and we will deal with this week and, hopefully, a fairly good run via the playoffs. It is a good drawback to have.”
–Discipline Stage Media
