At this U.S. Open, a lone Venezuelan navigates golf's great test and America's immigration turmoil

New York Times

15-06-2025

OAKMONT, PA — Late in December 2004, with no other options, Jhonattan Vegas picked up the phone and called University of Texas golf coach John Fields. Vegas was stuck. He was supposed to be in Austin and enrolling for his freshman year. Instead, he was still in Maturín, Venezuela with no way out.
The U.S. Embassy in Caracas, at the time, was overwhelmed by Venezuelans seeking access to the United States following President Hugo Chávez's victory in a controversial recall referendum that August. Having already missed UT's first semester due to academic snafus, Vegas now faced the possibility of missing the second semester and the entire golf season. He was told the earliest appointment available might come in March or April. He thought all was lost.
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Except things have a way of getting done sometimes. Fields called legendary golfer Ben Crenshaw, a proud Longhorn and friend of President George W. Bush. Crenshaw told Fields, 'John, I don't think we need to call the president about this, but I have an idea.' Crenshaw told Fields to call Don Evans, a Texas oilman, former UT regent, and the sitting U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Evans told Fields that he was, in fact, close friends with William Brownfield, the U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, and he'd see what he could do.
Fields' phone rang the next day. 'Can Jhonny be in Caracas tomorrow? His appointment is at 10 a.m.'
Vegas boarded a bus in Maturín, made the 300-mile overnight ride to Caracas, then received a student visa. He picked up a plane ticket and flew to Texas. He arrived on a Thursday, having missed only two days of the semester. It was, as Fields puts it, 'an extraordinary confluence of events.'
That's what it took for Venezuela's lone PGA Tour player to come to live in the United States.
And that, deep in the recesses of Vegas' mind, is why this U.S. Open, a national championship being played amid heightened tensions in American streets and foment-filled conversations surrounding immigration, is unlike any other for the 40-year-old.
'As an immigrant, as a guy from Venezuela, a country that's being highlighted in all this, it's tough to see,' Vegas said Saturday. 'It's tough to read the news because it directly and indirectly affects you. It's hard to see.'
In a field with 67 international players, Vegas is the only one representing a country targeted in President Trump's latest round of travel bans. In addition to the 12 countries with outright bans, Venezuela is among seven foreign nations subject to partial restrictions on entering the U.S. permanently or applying for certain visas. The result is Venezuelans across the country navigating deep anxiety over not only their own status, but over bubbling hostilities in the national debate over immigration.
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As Vegas took to Oakmont on Saturday, tipping his cap to throngs of fans lining the first hole in anticipation of world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler playing in the next group, he was, for the moment, well removed from a bigger picture and a much, much larger story.
Vegas says he thinks 'every day' about the circumstances of him leaving Venezuela and how his prodigious golf talent secured him and his family status to live in the U.S. His mother and father live near him in Houston. His brother Julio, who followed him as a player at Texas, works as a teaching professional in Florida. Another brother, Carlos, is 'in an asylum-type of process, so, not as free, but trying to do it the right way.'
Other Venezuelans, Vegas knows, aren't quite so fortunate.
There's a weight with that.
'I feel their pain, for the reason that our country is in a horrible spot politically,' Vegas said. 'I think we all wish we were living in our country and enjoying our country. But unfortunately, because of the political situation, we had to leave. Obviously, a lot of us came here, and now a lot of us have to leave. It's hard, man. It's hard to deal with a lot of that. I can see why there are protests. At the end of the day, I support the people that I can.'
Fifteen miles from Oakmont, in downtown Pittsburgh, demonstrators marched through the streets as part of weekend protests sweeping the U.S. to oppose, among other causes, Trump's immigration crackdown and ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. In Pittsburgh, three people were arrested at one rally specifically against ICE.
Vegas, meanwhile, was in the throes of one of the most difficult U.S. Opens in recent years. It's no small feat that he's still here this weekend, grinding his way to a third-round 2-over 72 and a spot in 29th place heading into Sunday.
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This is somewhat new territory. Prior to May, Vegas was a journeyman in the later days of a career highlighted by four PGA Tour wins, but often derailed by injuries and hard times. His major tournament résumé was always particularly thin. Six made cuts in 16 total appearances. A top finish of T22 in the 2016 PGA Championship.
That's all unexpectedly changed when he came from nowhere to finish tied for fifth at the PGA Championship last month. Now he's made his first cut in the U.S. Open since 2021.
'I think it's big for (Venezuela) for me to be here this week, playing in a major championship, and doing fairly well,' he said. 'The support I get and my family gets is incredible.'
While that support is there for him, as it has been since picking up that phone in 2004, Vegas wrestles with the reality that his story is his only. He's happy to have been married in the U.S. and had two children born here. He's happy he gets to play on Sunday.
And he knows what the alternative might look like.
'It's about being uncertain about your future, you know?' he said outside the Oakmont clubhouse, as his family, swing coach and manager waited for him to wrap up. 'We all have families. Most of us came here because of our families and the promise of a better future. And it's just hard when that gets taken away.'
(Top photo of Jhonattan Vegas: Andrew Redington / Getty Images)