The First Look: Puerto Rico Open

It’s a key opportunity earn some valuable FedExCup points with the PGA TOUR heading back to the Puerto Rico Open for the 16th time.

The event will once again boast a field with plenty of international flavor, proven winners and up-and-comers looking for a breakthrough.

Here’s everything you need to know as the TOUR returns to Rio Grande.

FIELD NOTES: Nico Echavarria will look to successfully defend his maiden TOUR title from a year ago. No one has ever gone back-to-back in Puerto Rico. Echavarria had an up-and-down rookie campaign on TOUR after his win, but he’s had a solid start to 2024. He returns to Puerto Rico on the heels of two straight top-25 finishes… Aaron Wise is back in action on the PGA TOUR for the first time since last year’s U.S. Open. Wise withdrew from the Masters in 2023 to focus on his mental health and played the CJ CUP Byron Nelson, PGA Championship, RBC Canadian Open and U.S. Open before shutting it down for the season. Wise, the 2018 PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year, finished 13th in the FedExCup in 2022. This will be his debut in Puerto Rico… Daniel Berger’s comeback tour continues in Puerto Rico. Berger, who was on the sidelines with a back injury for nearly 18 months, returned to action at The American Express and has made three of four cuts since his January debut. He last played Grande Reserve in 2019 and finished second… Last year’s Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year Ben Kohles leads a hearty contingent of Korn Ferry Tour grads (including both Coody twins, Pierceson and Parker) keen to earn some early-season FedExCup points… Among that group is Puerto Rico’s own Rafa Campos. This is the 15th appearance at Rio Grande for Campos, whose best result at his home country’s national open is a third-place finish in 2020… Other notables include multi-time TOUR winners K.H. Lee, Kevin Kisner and Cameron Champ, 2022 Puerto Rico winner Ryan Brehm, Ryder Cupper Robert MacIntyre, FedExCup champs Bill Haas and Brandt Snedeker, fan favorite Joel Dahmen and Camilo Villegas – who won on TOUR for the first time since 2014 at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in November. He looks to become the second straight Colombian to win in Puerto Rico. … The winner of the Puerto Rico Open will be looking to nab the final spot into THE PLAYERS Championship, as Echavarria did last year.

SPONSOR EXEMPTIONS: Rasmus Højgaard tees it up on the PGA TOUR for the second week in a row. Højgaard has had an impressive run on the DP World Tour to start 2024 and fell just one shot short of making the cut at PGA National… This is the third week in a row for Fred Biondi to receive a sponsor invite. Biondi, the 2023 NCAA individual champion at the University of Florida, has made all four cuts on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024 including a tie for seventh to start the season… Spain’s Angel Ayora is set to make his PGA TOUR debut. Ayora has two top-15 finishes on the DP World Tour this year… Justin Hastings will also make his PGA TOUR debut this week. The native of the Cayman Islands is a junior at the University of San Diego and was named the 2023 PING All-West Region and made the All-Mountain West Conference team… Recent University of Florida graduate Yuxin Lin is back in action on the PGA TOUR. Lin won the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in 2017 and 2019 and made his non-major TOUR debut at the Shriners Children’s Open last fall. He teed it up at The American Express earlier this year and found the weekend… Puerto Rico’s own Chris Nido is back in action in his home country for the fifth time and looking for a little bit more like at Rio Grande – he’s not yet made the cut at the Puerto Rico Open in his career… Puerto Rican teenager Evan Pena will play the PGA TOUR for the first time (without even being old to enough to have a driver’s license) Pena won the Discover Puerto Rico Junior Championship in February and finished 35th at the Latin America Amateur Championship… Taiga Semikawa, the former world No. 1-ranked amateur, is teeing it up for the fourth time on TOUR this season. His best result was a T30 at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Semikawa has won four times on the Japan Golf Tour, including twice as an amateur in 2022… Australia’s Gareth Steyn, a sophomore at Georgia State, won the White Sands Bahamas NCAA Men’s Invitational in October by one shot to earn an invite into the Puerto Rico Open… Jackson Van Paris, a junior at Vanderbilt, will make his TOUR debut. Van Paris, a can’t-miss junior golfer, won his first college individual title at the St. Andrews Links Collegiate in the fall. In 2018, he became the youngest player since Bobby Jones in 1916 to win a match at the U.S. Amateur (14 years old)… UNC Greensboro freshman Kelvin Hernandez of Puerto Rico finished runner-up at the Michelob Ultra Tour Championship in January to earn a spot in his national open… Among the sponsor invites are past Puerto Rico Open winners Scott Brown, D.A. Points and George McNeill… Rounding out the exemptions are Argentina’s Aram Yenidjkeian (making his PGA TOUR debut), fifth-year senior at Arkansas Julian Perico of Peru, and Italian pro Domenico Geminiani.

SIGNATURE EVENT STORYLINES: The Puerto Rico Open is played opposite the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard… The next Signature Event on the PGA TOUR schedule is the RBC Heritage in mid-April. The Aon Swing 5 for that event starts with the Puerto Rico Open and continues through the Valspar Championship, Texas Children’s Houston Open and Valero Texas Open… The Aon Next 10 for the RBC Heritage is picked from the current FedExCup standings through the Masters Tournament.

COMCAST BUSINESS TOUR TOP 10 UPDATES: With his tie for fourth at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches, Jake Knapp jumped from No. 8 to No. 5 in the standings. Knapp has three top-five finishes this season, including his victory at the Mexico Open at Vidanta… Chris Kirk also jumped one spot in the standings from No. 4 to No. 3 after a 6-under 65 closing round at PGA National… Cognizant Classic winner Austin Eckroat jumped 78 spots in the standings to No. 17, about 50 points back from a spot in the TOUR TOP 10.

FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 300 FedExCup points.

COURSE: Grand Reserve Golf Club (Championship Course), par 72, 7,506 yards. The Tom Kite design stretches along the Grand Reserve beachfront peninsula and is a lengthy beast – with two par 5s on the back nine alone measuring longer than 600 yards.

72-HOLE RECORD: 267, Chesson Hadley (2014) and Nico Echavarria (2023)

18-HOLE RECORD: 62, Jhonattan Vegas (Round 4, 2020)

LAST TIME: Nico Echavarria tied the tournament scoring record and won for the first time on the PGA TOUR at last season’s Puerto Rico Open. Echavarria, a TOUR rookie, captured his maiden TOUR title by two shots. He made two straight birdies to start his final round and added three in a five-hole stretch on the back nine to put a bow on a 4-under 68. Akshay Bhatia fired a 7-under 65, the round of the day, to finish solo second and secure Special Temporary Membership on the PGA TOUR in the process. Nate Lashley and Carson Young finished tied for third at 16-under, five shots back of Echavarria’s winning total. He became the third Colombian to win on the PGA TOUR, and veteran Camilo Villegas, who finished two hours prior, stuck around to celebrate the breakthrough title with the first-year TOUR member.

HOW TO FOLLOW:

Television:

• Thursday-Friday: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)
• Saturday-Sunday: 2:30-5 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)