MIAMI:
Chile’s Cristobal del Solar fired the record-lowest round in a US PGA Tour-sanctioned event on Thursday with a 13-under par 57 in the opening round of an event in Colombia.
Del Solar made nine birdies and two eagles at 6,254-yard Bogota’s Country Club de Bogotá-Pacos to seize the lead at the Astara Championship on the developmental Korn Ferry Tour — one step below the PGA Tour level.
“It was crazy, honestly I didn’t even know what I shot,” Del Solar said in a PGA Tour website posting. “I knew I was playing, obviously, great… Everything just kept happening. Everything just clicked.”
The 30-year-old from Vina del Mar was the first golfer to shoot 57 in a PGA-sanctioned tournament, lowering the old mark of 58 shared by American Jim Furyk at the 2016 PGA Tour Travelers Championship and Germany’s Stephan Jaeger from a 2016 Korn Ferry event at TPC Stonebrae in Hayward, California.
Del Solar made the turn at 8-under 27 to match the low nine-hole score in Korn Ferry history. He birdied the first and third holes and reeled off four consecutive birdies before closing his front nine with an eagle at the par-4 ninth, landing his drive within 15 feet of the hole.
“The course was definitely set up to shoot a very low score,” Del Solar said.
Del Solar began his back nine with a birdie, eagled the par-5 12th and added birdies at 14 and 15
“I don’t know if I was nervous,” the Chilean said. “I was anxious. I wanted to keep making more birdies.”
