Mexico's Diaz Leads Colombia Championship

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Roberto Diaz shot a bogey-free 62 in the opening round. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

BOGOTA, Colombia – Mexico’s Roberto Diaz fired a course-record 62 in Thursday’s opening round of the Colombia Championship and distanced himself from the field. Diaz had nine birdies and no bogeys at the Country Club de Bogota and grabbed a three-stroke lead over veteran Darron Stiles (65).

Second-year pro Tyler McCumber, Will Wilcox and Patton Kizzire share third place with 5-under 66’s.

Four players – Chase Wright, Zack Fischer, Aaron Watkins and Steve Marino – are at 67 and tied for sixth.

Diaz holed out from a bunker and chipped in on another hole – both birdies – as he played nearly flawless golf.

“I attacked the holes that I could and on the other holes I played pretty safe,” said Diaz, who lives in Veracruz, Mexico. “It’s a fun course. You can hit it a mile if you can get it up in the air.”

The air is a bit thin in Bogota, which sits is 8,660 feet above sea level in a high plateau of the Andes Mountains.

“I look forward to it,” laughed the 41-year old Stiles. “This is how far I hit it 20 years ago. I’d like stay at this altitude all year. It’s an adjustment but having been here a couple of times you learn how far things go.”

FIRST ROUND NOTES:

• Thursday weather: Mostly cloudy. Wind SE 6-12 mph. Overnight low 48. Daytime high 68.

• This week’s purse is $800,000 with $144,000 going to the champion.

• Rain is in the forecast for the remaining days of the tournament, which was plagued by heavy rains in each of the past four years. In 2011, only 36 holes were completed and Brenden Pappas was declared the unofficial winner. Last year, third-round leader Alex Cejka earned the win when 2.2 inches of rain fell during the week and ultimately reduced the tournament to 54 holes.

• Roberto Diaz established a course record with his round of 62 Thursday. The previous mark of 63 was set last year in the third round by tournament winner Alex Cejka.

• Diaz’ 62 is the lowest opening round at CC de Bogota. Danny Lee’s 7-under 64 in 2013 was the previous low.

• Diaz’ three-stroke lead is the largest in the tournament’s six-year history. Andrew Parr (2011) and Danny Lee (2013) both held one-shot leads in the past and in three of the five years at Bogota there have co-leaders after the first round.  

• The largest 18-hole leads in Tour history:

6 strokes	Ron Philo Jr.	1994 Pensacola Classic
5 strokes	David LeBeck	2001 Chitimacha Louisiana Open

• Diaz is in his second full season on the Web.com Tour. Last year he made the cut in eight of 15 starts and finished No. 78 on the money list.

• Diaz’ previous low round on Tour was 66 (6-under) which he posted three times last year.

• This is the second time that Diaz has been atop the leaderboard after the first round. Last year he was T1 at the United Leasing Championship but finished T19.

• Diaz’ career best finish on Tour is a T4 at The Rex Hospital Open in 2014.

• Diaz made 13 cuts in 22 career starts in three seasons on PGA TOUR Latinoamerica (2012-14). His best finish was a P2 at the TransAmerica Power Products CRV Open in Guadalajar, Mexico where he was part of a seven-man playoff last March (won by Marcelo Rozo of Bogota).

• Darron Stiles has chalked five official wins on the Web.com Tour over the years. He finished T12 at last week’s Panama Claro Championship.

• There were only five eagles recorded during the opening day, all on par-5s:

No. 8	Darron Stiles
No. 10	Bronson La'Cassie
No. 18	Miguel Carballo, Nathan Tyler, Sebastian Pinzon

• Australia’s Mathew Goggin, winner of last week’s Panama Claro Championship, fired a 3-over 74 Thursday and is tied for 98^th place. Joining Goggin at the number are two others who played well in last week’s season opener – Dicky Pride (T3) and China’s Hao Tong Li (54-hole leader, T11). Harold Varner III, runner-up last week, shot a 1-under 70.

• There are four players in the field this week who gained eligibility from the 2014 PGA TOUR China Order of Merit (OOM).

No. 1 OOM	Hao Tong Li	74	T98
No. 3 OOM	Brad Drewett	70	T34
No. 4 OOM	Sam Chien	76	T133
No. 5 OOM	Todd Baek	72	T67

• The top five players from the PGA TOUR Canada Order of Merit (OOM) are in the field this week:

No. 1 OOM	Joel Dahmen	70	T34
No. 2 OOM	Matt Harmon	72	T67
No. 3 OOM	Timothy Madigan	69	T17
No. 4 OOM	Brock Mackenzie	74	T98
No. 5 OOM	Greg Eason	70	T34

• The top five players from the PGA TOUR Latinoamerica Order of Merit (OOM) are in the field this week:

No. 1 OOM	Julian Etulain	71	T55
No. 2 OOM	Marcelo Rozo	74	T98
No. 3 OOM	Tyler McCumber	66	T3
No. 4 OOM	Brad Hopfinger	74	T98
No. 5 OOM	Jorge Fernandez-Valdes	69	T17

• Bogey-free rounds this week:
R1       62 – Roberto Diaz       67 – Zack Fischer, Steve Marino         68 – Kevin Tway, Vaughn Taylor

• DID YOU KNOW THAT COLOMBIA – 
-- Is the only country in South America with access to both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
-- Is the third most populous country in Latin America, trailing Brazil and Mexico, and has an estimated population of 47 million.

• NEXT WEEK: The Web.com Tour will be idle for three weeks and will return to Colombia for the inaugural Karibana Championship at TPC Cartagena March 5-8. From there, the Tour will head to Sao Paolo, Brasil for the Brasil Champions presented by HSBC March 12-15 at the Sao Paolo Golf Cub. The Tour finishes up the South America swing the next week with the Chile Classic in Santiago at the Club de Golf Mapocho March 19-22.

 

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