Jhonattan Vegas has already surpassed even the wildest of expectations he may have had for himself coming into the PGA Championship.
Nobody would have predicted the 40-year-old Venezuelan would be leading after the first round. Nobody thought he’d still be there after round two.
But, as the sharks began to circle around the top of the leaderboard on Saturday, Vegas finally showed signs of nerves and paid a costly price.
Walking onto the 15th hole, having birdied the short par-four 14th, he showed no sign of wilting away and must have felt like he had a chance to become an unlikely major champion.
But then he found the water with his tee shot. A costly mistake that led to a bogey with the notorious ‘Green Mile’ still to come.
Vegas managed to steady the ship with back-to-back pars and walked up the 18th fairway knowing he had two putts from 45 feet to be within four shots of Scottie Scheffler going into Sunday’s final round.
Jhonattan Vegas fell away at the PGA Championship after two bogeys in his final four holes
His tee shot on the 15th found the water before he missed his par putt on the 18th hole
He left himself five feet for par but then disaster struck. Vegas pulled it left and a second bogey in four holes has probably ended his hopes of winning.
After three rounds of consistent and nerveless golf, it is easy to forget just how unheralded Vegas’ career has been.
A four-time winner on the PGA Tour, he has never finished in the top 20 at a major and missed the cut in nine of his last 13 appearances. He hadn’t qualified for this one in three years.
But Vegas stormed up the leaderboard on day one with five birdies over his final six holes and was doing everything he can to hang around the likes of Scheffler, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau.
To compound Vegas’ misery, he had recovered brilliantly from the kind of start to a round that could have ruined his confidence. His overnight lead vanished after a bogey-bogey start early on Saturday
He left his approach shot at the first near the lip of a greenside bunker from where he hit to within 24 feet with his heels hanging over edge of the hazard and then two-putted for bogey.
At the par-four second, Vegas again hit an errant tee shot and was forced to chip out from the trees en route to another bogey but he refused to back down.
Vegas steadied himself with four-straight pars before finally getting a shot back with a birdie on the par-five 7th.
Vegas is now five shots behind overnight leader Scottie Scheffler going into the final round
He then had a glorious chance to reclaim the outright lead after driving the par-four eighth hole but was unable to cash in after he three-putted from 26 feet.
As Scheffler began to gain momentum and produced four birdies and an eagle on the back nine, Vegas was hanging in there five-straight pars before the birdie on 14.
Chasing a third career major, Scheffler moved to 11-under for the tournament after offsetting three bogeys with seven birdies and an eagle on the short par-4 14th hole.
Late in the day, Swede Alex Noren became Scheffler’s closest pursuer, three back of the world No.1 following a third-round 66 featuring four birdies in his last five holes.
