Jhonattan Vegas

Jhonattan Vegas will make his first Open appearance since 2018 after his joint fifth place finish in May’s PGA Championship swept him from 70th to 49th in the world rankings.

This came one week before the leading 50 earned Royal Portrush exemptions.

He led outright at Quail Hollow after the first and second rounds before Scottie Scheffler left everyone trailing in his wake over the weekend. His previous best performance in majors had been 22nd going back to his debut at The Masters in 2011, the year he captured his maiden PGA Tour title at the Bob Hope Classic.

That victory made him the first Venezuelan to win on the circuit and he would go on to add back-to-back Canadian Open titles and then, following a seven-year gap, last season’s 3M Open.

Vegas represented his country in the 2002 Eisenhower Trophy world amateur team championship and has since played three World Cups and the 2017 Presidents Cup, where he beat Jordan Spieth in the concluding singles.

His career also includes two appearances at the Olympics since the sport’s return to the Games, but he missed almost the entire 2022-23 season because of elbow and shoulder problems.

He was still playing on a medical exemption when he won last year.