Jhonattan Vegas certainly has the name and attire to mix it with Sydney's movers and shakers, but more importantly he showed he has the game to challenge for the Australian Open and add his name to a trophy that features some of golf's greatest names.
Decked out in a fluoro orange shirt that would rival any bright light in Nevada, Vegas tore up Royal Sydney's front nine with five straight birdies on Friday morning before surviving a mini-meltdown to put himself firmly in contention at five-under ahead of the weekend action.
"The course played a lot different to this morning than it did yesterday," Vegas said after posting a six-under 66.
"It was playing pretty hard [yesterday], the greens firm, fast, wind blowing; it was really hard the way it was playing yesterday.
"So softer greens, great greens, the ball was rolling really good on the greens; it was easy to make putts. But overall I feel like I played a pretty solid round...and we had a lot of fun, that was key, too."
What makes Vegas' round all the more impressive is the fact he only arrived in Sydney and had just one look at the course before opening up with a one-over 73 on Thursday.
"The first thing I told my caddie when I got here on Wednesday was that I really liked the course, I really like the area, I like everything," he said.
"So that was definitely a good start and, yeah, obviously there are different types of golf courses, but I'm doing a good job with my caddie to get things going."
Vegas is the only other international attraction of note in Sydney this week outside American superstar Jordan Spieth, though the Venezuelan has been playing second fiddle to Australia's Adam Scott.
Aaron Baddeley has completed the pairing over the first two days at Royal Sydney, but there is no doubt whom the galleries have come to see with Scott's birdies pulling double the cheers of his playing partners on Friday.
Not that Vegas sees it that way.
"Was it for Adam or was it for me? I thought it was for me," Vegas joked when asked about the swarms of people that hurried for vantage points of the former Masters winner and current world No.7.
"No, obviously he's a big athlete here in Australia and every time you can get a crowd like that it has a different feel, so it's a good atmosphere out there.
"And anytime you can play with a top-10 player, too, is always fun and [Scott] is such a great guy, too, so it's even better."
Vegas was just two shots shy of the clubhouse lead midway through the afternoon wave on Friday.