Jhonattan Vegas relishes drought-busting win for family’s sake

By winning the 3M Open two weeks ago, Jhonattan Vegas changed his FedEx Cup equation.

The PGA Tour veteran from Venezuela rocketed into the top 70 of the FedEx Cup standings by pulling out his first win in seven years. He's not entirely safe, though, as he enters the regular-season finale, the Wyndham Championship, at No. 67 in the official standings.

The top 70 after the Wyndham qualify for the first leg of the playoffs.

Vegas is thinking about climbing toward the next threshold, the top 50, as he prepares for this week's tournament in Greensboro, N.C.

"Obviously, the win changed the whole focus for me," Vegas said Tuesday. "Obviously, I was on a big major medical (extension) and was just trying -- tried to build up and get better as every week went on. ... Especially as you get closer to that top 50, which is the magic number right now. If you can get into those, I mean, it just makes the following year a lot easier."

Finishing the season inside the top 50 will qualify Vegas for all of the PGA Tour's big-money signature events in 2025.

Vegas followed up a third-round 63 at the 3M Open with a final-round 70, enough to hold off the field and lock up a win right before the PGA Tour's brief break for the Olympics.

It was his first victory since missing nearly all of the 2022-23 season as he dealt with elbow and shoulder injuries and their corresponding surgeries.

But when asked how he celebrated in Minnesota, Vegas' response put his wife and children front and center.

"You know what, it was more of a family celebration," Vegas said. "It wasn't about me, it was about the family kind of coming together, everything we've been through for the past few years with me and the recovery and all of that. So I actually enjoyed more watching my kids enjoy the moment, watching them really embrace it. Obviously, they're old enough now where they understand kind of what's going on and they start to feel a little bit nervous because they start to understand what it means in the moment that we're living through."

Now on the brink of 40 years old, Vegas may be turning a corner. He made three straight top-30 finishes in his three starts before the 3M, and he carded a 64 during the John Deere Classic.

Last year's Wyndham Championship winner, Lucas Glover, was 43 years old and only qualified for the playoffs on the strength of that victory. He proceeded to go out the next week and win the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

"Obviously you think about all of it, right, the big picture, but at the end of the day you have to stay in the one week at a time," Vegas said. "I was definitely taking it one week at a time.

"Luckily, (his pain is) not there anymore and we can focus on this week and, hopefully, a pretty good run through the playoffs. It's a good problem to have."

--Field Level Media