CARNOUSTIE, Scotland _ Never mind the challenge of working your way around a British Open course.
For Jhonattan Vegas, merely getting to Scotland was a wild adventure.
"It almost seemed like it was a horror movie happening for the past week," said the Venezuelan golfer, who barely made it to Carnoustie for his 10:30 a.m. tee time Thursday.
He was supposed to arrive here last Friday, giving him plenty of time to rest and prepare. But at the last minute, he discovered his visa was set to expire on the day he was traveling. So he went to the consulate in New York last Thursday and applied for another visa. He didn't get an immediate response, so he waited through the weekend.
On Monday morning, he learned he had applied for the wrong kind of visa. He quickly reapplied, and, because of bad weather in New York, he planned to fly to Houston to take a roundabout route to Scotland. He was scheduled to arrive Wednesday, the day before the tournament started. At least he could get a look at the course.
He went to Houston but missed that Tuesday flight because his visa was still being processed.
"I got the reply, but that day (Tuesday) something happened with UPS in New York that the whole UPS shut down," he said. "So the visa never left New York until late that day. I mean, I waited _ I literally waited in a car in front of the consulate in Houston for seven hours, hoping for that visa to show up that day. It never did."
Now, he was getting really nervous. But he was able to get his visa Wednesday morning, and got on a flight to Toronto, then Glasgow, Scotland, where he landed early Thursday morning, four hours before his tee time.
The good news: "I got my agents to give me a helicopter ride from Glasgow here. So it opened up for me to be here at least two hours before tee time, which at least two hours it gives a little time to kind of settle down and go play."
The bad news: His clubs never made it.
His club sponsor was able to cobble together an emergency set, and Vegas had enough time to hit about 20 practice balls.
He did pretty well and was one over par through eight holes. But then he started to spray his driver and the round slipped away from him a bit. He wound up shooting a 76 on a very trying day.
"I gave it a try," he said. "I wouldn't do it every single day. It's fun playing here. It's fun playing majors, fun playing the Open. This is my second one, so I wouldn't really miss it for anything."
