As Franci Betancourt checked the internet for results from the OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup Latin American qualifier last week, he couldn’t help that his thoughts took him back to 1966. Forty-three years ago, Betancourt was a young Venezuelan professional looking to make his mark in golf. At the halfway point of that qualifier 43 years ago at the Caracas Country Club, Betancourt was in second place as he attempted to make it to Asia for the World Cup.

So it was with more than passing interest that Betancourt followed this year’s Venezuelan team of Jhonattan Vegas and Alfredo Adrian, playing the Qualifier at—coincidence alert!—the Caracas Country Club, where Vegas and Adrian were in second place after 36 holes, hoping to be one of the three teams to qualify for the 28-country team competition in (well, lookie here) Asia, at the Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen, China.

There was plenty of Venezuelan pride for Betancourt as he tracked his country’s progress. Betancourt, a jovial man who is a teaching professional at The Woodlands Performance Center at The Woodlands Country Club outside of Houston, liked what he was seeing on his computer. By the end of the event, Betancourt was smiling. The scores on the Web site meant Vegas, Betancourt’s student, was going to the World Cup.
“I called and was telling Jhonattan that I was nostalgic because I did that myself on the same course back in 1966,” says Betancourt, who also successfully qualified for the 1966 World Cup held in Tokyo, Japan, and two other World Cups—in 1968 and 1975.

This November, Vegas and Adrian will travel to China, where the Venezuelans will be decided underdogs, the same way Betancourt and Teobaldo Perez were in 1966.

“Representing your country is always a big deal, and even if the chance of winning is really small, I’m still looking at trying to win the golf tournament. That’s what we have in mind right now. You have to aim high,” said Vegas, a Nationwide Tour rookie. So committed was Vegas to the OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup that he skipped both the Tour’s Albertsons Boise Open and the WNB Golf Classic to be in Venezuela for the Qualifier, and he watched his money-list position drop from No. 56 to No. 66. That’s important since the top-60 money-earners are invited to the season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship at Daniel Island, Oct. 22-25. With his tie for 50th at last week’s Soboba Classic, Vegas moved up a couple of slots and improved to the 64th position on the current money list.

“My belief is that representing your country is something that totally fills you up more than individual stuff,” said Vegas, who counts a tie for fourth at the Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open as his top 2009 performance. “I know it cost me 10 spots on the money list, but it’s going to be fun going to China.

“Franci is one of the people who convinced me that it’s a great experience and great opportunity to play in the World Cup,” Vegas continued.

Like most Venezuelans, Vegas grew up playing baseball. He idolized long-time Major League infielder Omar Vizquel. But Vegas eventually gravitated toward golf, and that’s when, as a 9-year-old with no equipment and no experience but plenty of desire, he met Betancourt. That began a teacher-student relationship that exists today.

“I have a picture of me taken when I was two where I was hitting real golf balls with a small set of plastic clubs,” said Vegas. “I must have thought it was a good sport to play, because I really got into the game.”

Both Betancourt and Vegas eventually made it to Houston to pursue their golf careers (Betancourt for a second time following stints in Minneapolis and Louisville), with Betancourt and his wife, Alba, opening their doors to Vegas in 2001 and giving him a place to live while Betancourt teaches at The Woodlands Golf Performance Center. Today, Vegas’ Nissan is still parked at Betancourt’s home.
“Jhonattan has the potential. He has the length off the tee, and he has the personality,” said Betancourt. “I believe if he stays the way he is and works the way he has and is willing to do it, establishing himself, he will make some noise.”

The first noise from Vegas came at the 2002 Callaway Junior World Championship at Torrey Pines Golf Course near San Diego. Heading into the final round, he was one stroke off the lead and two strokes ahead of Australian Michael Sim, who, as the 2009 Nationwide Tour leading money-winner, has made a bit of noise of his own this season. Although Vegas shot a 78 on that last day at Torrey Pines to drop to a tie for sixth with Sim, the Junior World was experience that gave Vegas the confidence that he could play at the highest level. A year later, Vegas made his PGA TOUR debut when he qualified for the Shell Houston Open, missing the cut. By then, Vegas’ previously non-existent English skills had improved, his ability to communicate catching up with his obvious on-the-course talent.

Following a four-year career at the University of Texas, where he earned a degree in general kinesiology in 2008, Vegas took his first shot at the PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament. At the end of the six-round tournament in La Quinta, Calif., he became a non-exempt Nationwide Tour member this year.
“I think this season has been a success,” said Vegas of his rookie season. “I found a little inconsistency, both missing cuts and playing good. I have to say it’s been successful, proving to me that I can play here and compete here.”

Last week, Vegas returned to the Nationwide Tour after his two-week World Cup hiatus and is in Tennessee this week for the Chattanooga Classic. He will head to Miami for the Miccosukee Championship after that, hoping to climb back inside the top 60.

“I plan to be at the Tour Championship in Daniel Island, then we have Q-School if I don’t get my PGA TOUR card through the Nationwide Tour,” he said. “Then there’s the World Cup, which is going to be a good way to finish the year.”

Vegas is aware that Venezuela’s best-ever World Cup finish is a tie for ninth in 1958, when Manolo Bernardez and Perez teamed together.

“Those guys are legends in our country, golf-wise,” Vegas said of Bernardez and Perez. “They are the ones who have accomplished so much for Venezuela. I would love to get a better finish than that.”
A year ago, Venezuela (Miguel Martinez and Raul Sanz) finished last at the OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup, 33 strokes behind the winning Swedish team of Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson.

“I talked to Miguel a little about it. He said it was a great opportunity, but you have to be prepared because you’re playing against the best players in the world. That was his advice,” said Vegas, who will be competing in China against Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Y.E. Yang, and Nick Watney, as well as Karlsson and Stenson. It will be another opportunity to see how Vegas’ game compares.

Betancourt had his own who’s-who-in-golf experience in his three World Cups, where Venezuela’s best finish was a tie for 30th in 1968 in Rome, Italy. In those three appearances, Betancourt saw a steady diet of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Roberto De Vicenzo, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller and Seve Ballesteros.

“The World Cup was totally new for me because we had never played too many competitions in our home country,” Betancourt said. “In those days, we played about six competitions a year. Looking back, I was never as good then as some of the kids are now.”

Like, say, the “kid” whose car is parked in Betancourt’s driveway.