Jhonattan Vegas needs helicopter to make tee time after visa nightmare

JhonattanVegas

Venezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas was all smiles when he began his first round at the 2018 Open Championship – but not for the reason you might think.

The three-time PGA Tour winner was simply relieved he hadn’t missed his 10.31am tee time after problems with his visa, passport and flights left him needing a private helicopter just to get to the course in time.

The problems started a week ago when he originally started his journey to Carnoustie and realised his visa had expired.

In an attempt to resolve the issue, his new passport was held up and then bad weather delayed his connecting flight from Houston to New York City on Tuesday afternoon.

With his baggage (including clubs) already checked in, he had to scrap his plans (again) and take a different route – from Houston to Toronto to Glasgow to Carnoustie.

Luckily for us, he detailed the entire journey on his Instagram page and landed in Scotland less than two hours before his tee time.

Vegas then hopped in a helicopter and rushed to the course where he found his caddie, Ruben Yorio, and a makeshift set of clubs – hastily prepared by TaylorMade and Mizuno – waiting for him at 9.50am.

Watch his full instagram story while you can here

The 33-year-old then spent the next 40 minutes on the range and practice green, and even had to ask for a torque wrench to change the settings on his TaylorMade driver.

Sounds like a typical warm up for your average Sunday golfer! 

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