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AT&T NATIONAL

June 30, 2011

Jhonattan Vegas

NEWTOWN SQUARE, PENNSYLVANIA

NELSON SILVERIO: Welcome, Jhonattan Vegas, to the media center at the AT&T National. 67 today. What was the key to your round today?
JHONATTAN VEGAS: Well, it was a great round today. I mean, I hit the ball extremely well. That was actually the key. I mean, I hit the ball so well, 17 greens, put the ball in the fairways. There were a bunch of fairways that I hit, too, and just hit it close all day. It was a shame that I shot 67 because it could have been definitely a lot better round.
But it was a good start. It's definitely good to be starting good. There's still a long way to go, but I feel like I'm playing great.

Q. What did you think of the golf course in terms of how difficult it was and how it played today?
JHONATTAN VEGAS: It's a really difficult golf course. There's no doubt about that. It's a course that you have to have absolutely everything in place to play great, and that's kind of what I did from tee to green today. It's a course that you must hit the fairways, and even when you hit the fairways you've still got to be careful with the greens. You've got to really find where the flags are, where to leave the ball to give yourself a good chance to make birdie because it can definitely get you if you don't pay attention.

Q. It's been a while since you won. Have you met any Omar Vizquels of the world or anything like that?
JHONATTAN VEGAS: I have. I have. I've met a bunch of baseball players like Miguel Cabrera, who plays for Detroit, and Ozzie Guillen. It's been great. It's been fun a lot of fun meeting with those guys. A lot of those guys play golf, and it's been good. It's been a blast, and it's been fun.

Q. How would you assess your year since Torrey Pines?
JHONATTAN VEGAS: It's been off and on, to be honest. It's been a lot to deal with. It's been a lot of hard work. It's been a lot of patience, but it hasn't been as good as the year started for sure. But it's a learning process. I'm taking it as a learning process every single day, not really getting impatient. The good thing about winning is you get two or three years on TOUR so you don't have to really worry about keeping your card, which is a plus. But it's fun. I'm learning, learning every day and trying to get better.

Q. What are some of the things you are learning?
JHONATTAN VEGAS: To really stay patient, to really have a plan, to not really -- just to really be yourself, play your own game, not really get ahead of yourself because especially when I won so early and then almost won the following week, expectations were a little high and I want to win every week, and sometimes the game puts you in your place if you're not careful. Like I said, just really going back and being myself, playing my own game and not worrying about anything else.

Q. Did you have any issues with your irons recently?
JHONATTAN VEGAS: No, no. The only thing was my grips, I guess, were a little thinner than what I always play with. I have huge hands. They were a little thinner, but it's just something that happens, I guess, if you're not careful. No, it's good. Like I said, it's been a crazy long year, and I love where I am right now.

Q. You've talked a lot about being sort of worn out by everything that's gone on since you've won and the demands that go with that. Just curious how you manage that. Have you changed anything?
JHONATTAN VEGAS: It's been really tough because being a foreign player, especially coming from a country that has no idea about golf, the demands internationally are really tough, and that's something that I really have been having to deal with, and it's been taking a lot of my time.
The thing that I realized after a few weeks of playing horrible is that mentally you really get worn out if you're not careful, having to deal with so many things, the media back home, and trying to explain to everyone what really golf is and finishing top 20 in a TOUR event is not the end of the world because the people keep asking, why did you finish 19th, are you kidding, what a horrible week. I'm like, really?
So it's been hard having to deal with all that stuff, but I'm taking it as it goes and being a little bit more patient and just trying to just focus on myself a little more.

Q. Has it been hard to not get too complacent out there because you won and because you've secured yourself for the next two years? Any of that kind of crept in?
JHONATTAN VEGAS: Not really, because I pretty much set goals at the beginning of the year that were high, and I knew that I could achieve them. And I've been really working on that. But at the same time, because I won and because of a lot of stuff, I haven't really gone crazy about it. I've been patient, really working hard, doing the right things. We all know this game, how crazy it can be. But I feel like I'm making progress, I feel like I'm getting better. My consistency is definitely improving, and that's what I've got to keep working on.

Q. Have you been home since you won?
JHONATTAN VEGAS: No, and literally I want to really focus on being here and finishing the year off in a great way, hopefully making the TOUR Championship, which is a goal, and finishing good. That makes things a lot easier. Then at the end of the year really take good time off, go there, talking to everyone, meeting everyone, but I just want to focus on golf right now.

Q. I'm just curious, do you get a sense of how excited everyone back there is about what you're doing?
JHONATTAN VEGAS: Yeah, I mean, everyone is really excited, but at the same time it could be really negative because we don't have knowledge about the game, and like I told you, you finish 19th on TOUR and people at home go like, what, really, you had a mediocre week, and I'm like, wow. So having to deal with all that stuff can be really tough because when you get asked questions that are just out of this world -- I really want to take the end of the year as soon as I'm done with everything to go there and talk to everyone and explain a little more about how the PGA TOUR is, and hopefully we'll start getting a little more knowledge about it and get better.

Q. Will they throw you a parade?
JHONATTAN VEGAS: I don't think so. I'm not a baseball player. If I definitely would have won the World Series it would have been a little different. But there's going to be a lot of excitement. There's going to be a lot of people -- it's always good for a country to have, I guess, a player do something on the biggest stage there is in golf.

Q. Are there other guys like there down you that just haven't had the opportunities?
JHONATTAN VEGAS: You know, it's really tough to come out, and there are guys trying, but I guess they haven't really had the right opportunity to make it. It's not easy. We don't really have many golf courses, and to play golf there is tough. We really probably have two or three championship golf courses, and I mean, they're not -- to a level like this, they're not even close. So I mean, it's hard to really get better being down there.

Q. Are you taking it upon yourself, though, to try to inspire the young kids down there?
JHONATTAN VEGAS: You know, it's my goal. If it allows it, I'm going to do great here on the PGA TOUR for a long time and really try to push the game down in South America, especially in Venezuela, where I know there's talent. I know we have a lot of great athletes, and if we put a lot of those athletes into the game, we could have a lot of great players.

Q. How did you get to this level if the courses and the opportunities aren't there?
JHONATTAN VEGAS: I just grew up playing the game with my dad, which I was fortunate enough to have a dad that played golf, and as soon as I turned 18 and I finished high school, my Venezuelan golf teacher moved to Houston, and then I followed him here, lived with him for a year and a half, Franci Betancourt and his family. As soon as I got here, spent time here, went to college here in the States, the University of Texas, which was a great experience, and just kept developing as a player, as a person, and fortunately I made it to the PGA TOUR.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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