Golf:Venezuelan Jhonattan Vegas is up from 187th to 86th in the world after producing the third shock result in a row on the PGA Tour this season. Following the wins by Jonathan Byrd and Mark Wilson 26-year-old rookie Vegas beat Americans Bill Haas and Gary Woodland on the second extra hole of the Bob Hope Classic.
It was only the fifth PGA Tour event Vegas had played in his career and in addition to the €660,000 prize he earns a US Masters debut at Augusta. Vegas became the first player from Venezuela to win on tour after a three-man play-off with defending champion Haas and fellow rookie Woodland.
The trio had finished tied on 27 under after Haas closed with a 66 to catch the overnight joint-leaders, who both carded 69s. Haas thought he had missed out after three-putting the par-five 18th for par, but after Woodland did make birdie Vegas also three-putted for bogey when par would have given him the title.
The trio returned to the 18th for the first play-off hole and Haas was eliminated after again only managing a par five, his opponents both holing from around five feet for birdie.
Vegas had almost snatched victory in dramatic fashion when his eagle chip from well right of the green caught the edge of the hole, but his chances looked to have disappeared on the second extra hole. On the par-four 10th he pulled his tee shot into the water left of the fairway, but Woodland, having found the fairway, pushed his approach to the green into a bunker.
After taking a penalty drop, Vegas hit a superb recovery to 15ft and looked on as Woodland thinned his bunker shot across the green and then charged his par putt well past the hole. That left Vegas with a putt to win and he made no mistake this time.
“This is a dream come true, just making it happen is something else,” an emotional Vegas said.
Latest world rankings
1 Lee Westwood 8.69pts, 2 Martin Kaymer 8.09, 3 Tiger Woods 7.12, 4 Graeme McDowell 6.41,5 Steve Stricker 6.02, 6 Phil Mickelson 5.99, 7 Rory McIlroy 5.92,8 Jim Furyk 5.64, 9 Paul Casey 5.63, 10 Luke Donald 5.42, 11 Ernie Els 5.31, 12 Ian Poulter 5.21, 13 Matt Kuchar 4.84, 14 Retief Goosen 4.57, 15 Francesco Molinari 4.42, 16 Dustin Johnson 4.42, 17 Robert Karlsson 4.25, 18 Louis Oosthuizen 3.97, 19 Edoardo Molinari 3.89, 20 Tim Clark 3.84
Other leading Europeans:
24 Miguel Angel Jimenez, 28 Padraig Harrington,29 Justin Rose, 34 Ross Fisher, 39 Peter Hanson, 47 Martin Laird, 49 Alvaro Quiros, 55 Henrik Stenson, 60 Matteo Manassero, 66 Simon Dyson, 68 Anders Hansen, 72 Rhys Davies, 74 Danny Willett, 75 Fredrik Anderrson Hed, 76 Brian Davis, 80 Sergio Garcia, 87 Soren Kjeldsen, 88 Carl Pettersson, 89 Stephen Gallacher, 90 Chris Wood, 93 Oliver Wilson, 96 Joost Luiten, 99 Jamie Donaldson, 100 David Horsey, 106 Gareth Maybin, 112 Darren Clarke, 117 Peter Lawrie, 126 Damien McGrane, 170 Shane Lowry
