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Jhonattan Vegas will enjoy a home game this week at the Shell Houston Open, a 20-minute drive from his house.
Mar. 30, 2011
By Jhonattan Vegas, Special to PGATOUR.COM
Jhonattan Vegas will write a blog for PGATOUR.COM periodically during the 2011 season. By Jhonattan Vegas, Special to PGATOUR.COM
March 29, 2011
It is so much fun to come back to Redstone and the Shell Houston Open, the place where I got to experience my first PGA TOUR event. Just to be able to come back and relive the memories when I played here in 2003, because that's when I pretty much decided this is what I wanted to do for a living.
We played the other course at Redstone then, when I got into the tournament as a Monday qualifier, but I was still here with my teachers, Franci Bettencourt and Kevin Kirk and my dad, meeting the guys and having a good time. We didn't play that good, but we made the decision to work on the things we had to do to get here.
I live here in The Woodlands, a 20-minute drive from the course. This week, my Mom and Dad are flying in from Venezuela and my brother Julio, who is playing at Texas and having a good time, is coming over. It should be a lot of fun.
It's different since won the Bob Hope Classic. I get a little more attention here at home in The Woodlands than I used to. It's nice, but totally different. I'm not used to going to a store like HEB or Kroger and having someone come up to me and say, "hey, Jhonny Vegas." We're going to get used to it.
I feel my game is headed the right way, been playing good. Some up and down weeks, but still have the confidence and playing great. Only God knows what's going to happen, but I'm going to try and win this week.
I am excited about playing Augusta. I went over and played two practice rounds and it was super exciting. I was there as a spectator in 2009 when Angel Cabrera won, so I was able to see the course that way. But I was never able to experience the whole Augusta National like I did playing a practice round. It was really exciting.
I took a friend with me. I played Monday, then on Tuesday I was able to play with Dustin Johnson and Charley Hoffman. We played a quick practice round and that was super fun because Dustin has been there quite a few times and told me a few little things you have to know about the course. It's always good to hang around with people who can teach you about Augusta. There is so much history around that place. That made life pretty nice for those couple of days.
The thing that surprised me the most was how undulating the course was. And how much you hit shots from sidehill lies. Up and down, left to right, right to left, that's what caught my attention. I don't think you hit a flat shot on that course, except on par-3s and on tee boxes. It really amazed me. It was a different perspective of the golf course. you have to really get your eyes adjusted to hit shots. It's not as easy as just hitting the ball on the fly.
I'm flying there Sunday night and will play a practice round with Angel on Monday and Ben Crenshaw, who also played at Texas, on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to talking to Ben about the greens.
I want to try to experience the full Augusta National experience . I'm going to go have a good time I'm not going to worry about it. Someone just told me Fuzzy Zoeller was the only rookie to win the Masters (editor's note: Gene Sarazen won in 1935, the tournament's second year). I'm going to try to do that too.
But first, this week.
We started off with a practice round on Sunday and a barbecue at Angel's house Sunday afternoon. A full Argentinian asado, as real as it gets. It was fun hanging out with people who have the same culture. We were just joking, talking, cooking and had a couple glasses of wine. Such a great evening.
I asked Angel about so many shots at Augusta. It was a really really fun experience. Andres Romero and Michael Connell were there too. We played cards -- a game called truco. We really went at it. It's a ranking kind of a game, played with Spanish cards.
Today, I played a practice round with Angel, Andres and Fabian Gomez. We had a little Argentia-Venezuela match going. It was Andres and Angel against me and Fabian. There was a lot of talking going on. They were 3-up after nine. We came back and beat them at 17.
So, there was little magic going on. Maybe it set up things for the whole week.
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