Jhonattan Vegas carded a final-round 64 to claim the second PGA Tour title of his career as he won the RBC Canadian Open by one shot over a group of three players at the Glen Abbey Golf Club on Sunday.
‘We had I think Dustin Johnson, Brandt Snedeker, a bunch of guys, really close. Great players that I mean, I knew if I got lucky, it was going to be a playoff,’ he said. ‘Super surprised when I saw that, you know, nobody got to 12-under-par. That’s the fortunate breaks that sometimes you need to be a champion on the PGA Tour. It’s a great feeling.’
The Venezuelan started his round with a par at the first, then made five straight birdies from the second hole onward and climbed the leaderboard. A dropped shot at the eighth meant the 31-year-old went out in 31 strokes.
The University of Texas alumni started his homeward stretch with three straight pars before picking up his sixth birdie of the day at the par-five 13th. The Maturin-born golfer then birdied the final three holes to complete his eight-under-par round.
His 12-under-par score proved to be enough as the likes of Steve Wheatcroft and Brandt Snedeker, who were both in with a chance, fluffed bunker shots on the 18th to give Vegas his first title since winning the 2011 Bob Hope Classic.
Second place was shared between Jon Rahm, Martin Laird, and Dustin Johnson. Defending champion Jason Day fired a Sunday 67 to end in a tie for 14th place at seven-under-par. Zimbabwe’s Brendon de Jonge finished in a tie for 26th on five-under-par.
George Coetzee was the top South African as he finished on four-under-par and shared 32nd place. Thomas Aiken ended in a tie for 49th place while Ernie Els (tied-65th) and Tyrone van Aswegen (74th) finished lower down the leaderboard.
