PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 15, 2025

Jhonattan Vegas

Quail Hollow Club

Flash Quotes

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THE MODERATOR: Jhonattan Vegas joins us now at the 107th PGA Championship.

A heck of a start for you today. How would you summarize your first round?

JHONATTAN VEGAS: Incredible, obviously. Any chance you get to shoot 64 at a major championship is always great, right.

Obviously with the conditions yesterday, I didn't really see that score coming. But I think I got lucky that I was able to tee off very late and the course obviously is drying very quick.

So I was able to take advantage a little bit of those conditions at the end of the day today. But obviously a solid round from beginning to end. Good way to start.

Q. It looks like you've been digging and exploring for a while, and finally you've found a steady supply of oil in your game.

JHONATTAN VEGAS: Yeah, the game has always been there. Obviously I've gone through a lot of injuries and that type of stuff and hasn't been easy the past few years, but the game has always been there. It's about putting it together and playing your best when it's time to play.

Obviously haven't been able to do it at the bigger events, at the majors. So it's a goal that I have in mind to put myself in these type of positions. We started the right way.

Q. Can you tell us about your last six holes, like 4 to 9?

JHONATTAN VEGAS: Obviously we know that this course, those are some of the scorable holes here. 4, obviously you got a shorter wedge on 5, 7 and 8 are scorable holes. They're not easy but they're scorable. You know you can take advantage of that.

Obviously I felt like I was playing well, and it's kind of one of those things staying patient through the round. I made a great up-and-down on 2, which is my 11th hole. And made a great par save on 3, and then obviously that kind of opened the gate for some of the scoring holes and I was able to do it.

It was one of those rounds that kept building, and it came all together at the end.

Q. Take us back to your homeland when you were a young kid. How did you get started in the game of golf? How did you actually learn to play golf?

JHONATTAN VEGAS: Well, that's a long story. I don't think we have a lot of time for that.

But it was one of those things that my dad grew up near a golf course, and he kind of grew up caddying at that place as a little kid. He picked up the game that way.

When he had us, we grew up near a nine-hole golf course owned by the oil companies, and we had access to a course and plus the love of my dad for the game, put it together and we started playing.

Obviously Venezuelans, we're not known for being golfers. But like I said, I've been blessed, and here I am.

Q. Is it true, I read you were with a broomstick and a rock, is that part of the story?

JHONATTAN VEGAS: Yeah, I feel like as a kid, I would hit anything that I could find. Rocks, broomstick, everything. I would grab anything that I could swing and I would do it. Feel like I was a good athlete as a young kid, so that's kind of how things started.

Q. If you could go back in time, what would you say to your young self then? Could you ever imagine this moment?

JHONATTAN VEGAS: Yeah, for sure, just keep dreaming. That's all you can tell yourself if you had to go back. Keep dreaming because that's the only thing that can keep you going. I've been doing this long enough and I've had some good -- some ups and some downs.

Obviously believing and dreaming is what keeps you going. That's what I would do.

Q. Can you talk about obviously the first hole you bogeyed which is the only blemish on the card. What were you thinking after the first hole?

JHONATTAN VEGAS: Yeah, you definitely don't want to start with a bogey on 10 when it's one of the somewhat few scorable holes out here. Just hit a tee shot right, didn't really have much of a chance to advance it forward, so kind of left myself about 200 yards for my third shot. Hit a good one but just kind of skipped all the way to the back of the green and three-putted.

It was one of those things that, yeah, I made bogey, but just kind of hit a little bit of a bad tee shot, which is going to happen here. I don't think you can really get caught up -- too caught up on making bogeys. You've just got to not try to make that many.

But it wasn't a good start, but I knew that I'd be playing good golf, and it's a course that kind of suits my game, so I didn't really want to get too caught up on that bogey.

But it wasn't fun starting that way for sure.

Q. The rest of the holes, is there a hole that you look at and say that kind of got my round going?

JHONATTAN VEGAS: To be honest, the next hole, 11. I hit a great shot. A really good tee shot.

Hit a good second shot but the wind kind of picked up in my face and I left it short in the bunker and I hit a bunker shot to about 12 to 15 feet and I made it for par.

Obviously making that par was key. I didn't really want to start bogey-bogey out here because it could get out of hand.

So making that putt, gave myself a great chance on 12, didn't make it, and then made a good one on 13 and birdied 14 and 15, which just definitely changed the whole momentum of the round.

Q. There was a hole where you almost holed the bunker shot.

JHONATTAN VEGAS: On 14.

Q. You did make it?

JHONATTAN VEGAS: I didn't hole it. It hit the hole but I made birdie.

Q. Lastly, how lucky did you feel -- you looked a little tired walking up 9. How lucky did you feel where the ball didn't go into the bunker?

JHONATTAN VEGAS: That would have been a lot harder of a shot. Obviously I had 230 into that hole. It would have been a lot harder to get it where I got it. Yeah, definitely one that came my way.