Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard: Four things to know

The 14th edition of the Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard and hosted by Country Club de Bogotá in Colombia, begins Thursday. The fourth of 26 events in the Korn Ferry Tour Season, the Astara Golf Championship joins the BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by TD SYNNEX as the only tournaments played on two courses (Lagos and Pacos Courses).

Here's what you need to know about this event:

1. A test of toughness

The Lagos Course was ranked the fourth most difficult course on the Korn Ferry Tour last season with a scoring average of 71.403 (+0.403), while the Pacos Course ranked 17th-hardest with a scoring average of 68.526 (-1.474). Four holes on the Lagos Course ranked inside the top-50 most difficult holes on the Tour: Nos. 2 (par 4, 525 yards), 5 (par 3, 235 yards), 9 (par 4, 447 yards) and 13 (par 4, 439 yards).

2. International trend

The Tour has seen two international winners in three events this year: the prodigious Aldrich Potgieter of South Africa and University of Colorado alum Jeremy Paul of Germany. This week’s field includes 19 players from six different Latin American countries or territories. Could we see a third international winner among this pool rise?

3. Past winners return

Two past Astara Golf Championship winners return to Country Club de Bogotá: Rhein Gibson (2023) and Mark Anderson (2019). They round off the 52 past Korn Ferry Tour winners in the field with 73 total wins, including four winners from the 2023 season (Ricky Castillo, Rhein Gibson, Spencer Levin, Jorge Fernández Valdés) and all three winners from the 2024 season (Paul, Potgieter and Isaiah Salinda). Seventeen past winners from the PGA TOUR are teeing it up this week, led by Jonathan Byrd and Mark Wilson with five wins apiece.

4. Last time

In 2023, Gibson secured his second career Korn Ferry Tour win at the Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard with a final-round bogey-free 7-under 64 to win by four strokes, tied for the second-largest margin of victory in the event’s history with Patrick Cantlay (2013) and Anderson (2019). Kevin Dougherty recorded his fourth runner-up finish in his 114th career Korn Ferry Tour start and his second top-10 in the event; he went on to finish No. 22 on the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour Points List to earn his first career PGA TOUR card. Ryan Gerard, currently the highest-ranked player in the field (No. 199 in the OWGR), recorded his first career top-10 in his fifth career start on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Tournament facts:

• Course: Country Club de Bogotá: Lagos (par 71, 7,237 yards), Pacos (par 70, 6,249 yards)
• Course designer: John Van Kleek
• Defending champion: Rhein Gibson
• Purse: $1,000,000 ($152,272/winner)
• Scoring records, facts:
  • Low 18-hole score: 61, Ryan McCormick (2022, Round 1, Pacos), Trevor Werbylo (2022, Round 1, Pacos), Ben Griffin (2022, Round 2, Pacos), Doug Ghim (2019, Round 2, Pacos) and Xinjun Zhang (2019, Round 1, Pacos)
  • Largest margin of victory: 6 strokes, Ben Taylor (2018)
  • Playoffs: Three (most recent in 2017, won by Ethan Tracy)