Jhonattan Vegas wins Canadian Open again to become the top ranked South American golfer

Glen Abbey is supposed to be the favored home turf for the PGA Tour’s Canucks. Instead, it’s become that for the Tour’s lone Venezuelan.

After a final-round Sunday 65 to come from behind, 32-year-old Jhonattan Vegas became the second player of the 2017 season to successfully defend his 2016 title. Vegas took down Charley Hoffman with a birdie on the first playoff hole to take home his second straight RBC Canadian Open title.

After picking up his second PGA Tour win and first in five seasons at last year’s event, it’d be hard to say Vegas had burned up the world of tournament golf in 2017. Heading into his title defense at Glen Abbey, the Venezuelan had missed his last five cuts dating to mid-May and seven of his last nine overall. Hardly the track record one might like to see heading into an event if betting on the reigning champion to retain the trophy. Golf’s a weird game.

Still, each time Vegas wins on the PGA Tour, it’s perhaps necessary to discuss the long odds he’s overcome in getting this far. Golf isn’t played in Venezuela, largely. If you perceive a War on Golf here in the United States, Venezuela perhaps attempted to wage it in the preceding decade. Dictator Hugo Chavez shuttered courses across the country during his reign, proclaiming the sport one for the upper-class only and a last vestige of the U.S.-installed capitalist structure.

Perhaps that’s a not-unfair assessment in the eyes of some, but Vegas would be the counter to such an argument. The son of a Venezuelan shopkeeper grew up with little and learned the game with improvised equipment. Now he’s a three-time PGA Tour winner, and inside the OWGR’s top 50 for the first time in his career. If golf is to truly grow in a way envisioned in the Tiger Woods years, perhaps the sport’s best bets are in the Jhonattan Vegases, Haotong Lis, Siddikur Rahmans, and Anirban Lahiris.

Does Vegas’ second straight win at the Canadian Open mean the sport’s set to take off in his homeland? Probably — or even absolutely — not. There are far more important issues on the minds of those in Venezuela than golf at the moment, with violence breaking out amid a national political and economic crisis. Heck, there’s more on the mind of Vegas than golf.

“It’s always on my mind,” Vegas told GolfWorld’s Brian Wacker. “It hurts a lot, seeing the country the way it is, seeing a government that treats people that way when they don’t deserve it, just to remain in power, and all the suffering that even my family and friends that are having right now. It’s just not fair.”

But, now, after his second straight win at the PGA Tour’s lone Canadian stop, Vegas is the world’s top South American player — likely the first time in history that honor’s ever gone to a Venezuelan. Perhaps it’s the start of the trend. Perhaps it’s not at all. It’s still one of golf’s best stories of 2017 regardless.

Sorry, Canada. Here’s your headline across the golf world this morning: Rory McIlroy and JP Fitzgerald are parting ways, according to a report from Reuters.

Certain things make too much sense. Rory and Bones are one of those things.

Likely unknown to most American fans, 24-year-old Englishman Jordan Smith held off France’s Alex Levy on the second playoff hole to take home the title at the European Open in Germany. A former Walker Cupper, Smith had bounced around the lower Europro and Challenge Tours in recent seasons, before gaining European Tour status for 2017. He’ll enter the Top 100 in the world rankings for the first time with the win.

Other finishes of note? Patrick Reed! Captain American registered an ALBATROSS on his finishing hole in Germany on Sunday, propelling him inside the Top-20 to conclude his overseas trip.

Fresh off mocking LeBron James’ corny self alongside Kyrie Irving, Steph’s next move will be teeing it up as an actual member of the field at the Web.com Tour’s Ellie Mae Classic this week at TPC Stonebrae in California. Is this good? Is this bad? I don’t know, pick your place on the GLOWING BRAIN CHART I made last month.

It’s important to remember that Curry’s not Jerry Rice. He’s a good player, a former high school No. 1 at a formidable Charlotte program — though that was some 10 years ago. Still, he’s got some game. He threw down a 68 on the final day of the Tahoe Celebrity event and reportedly plays at around a 2-handicap. Good enough to win a club championship somewhere? Sure! Good enough to play on the Web Tour? No! Is this a Web Tour event that’s already extremely diluted by playing third fiddle to a WGC and the Reno-Tahoe Open in American golf this week? Yes! It’s fine Curry’s playing here.

It’s also important to remember: This is not North Carolina high school golf, or a celebrity event in Tahoe. Curry’s gonna tee it in a real professional golf event. This will probably not go well. Could he make the cut? That’d be a stretch and maybe a less than 5% proposition, but Steph’s a good enough player where it might be theoretically, in a vacuum, possible. (OK, it won’t happen. But still worth keeping an eye on!)