Alejandro Tosti and Cristobal Del Solar share 18-hole lead at Pinnacle Bank Championship

Things to Know

Korn Ferry Tour rookies Cristobal Del Solar and Alejandro Tosti share the first-round lead at 8-under par

Del Solar and Tosti have a combined six total wins on PGA TOUR Latinoamérica, however both players are in search of their first Korn Ferry Tour victory

Del Solar records a bogey-free first-round 63 that included six birdies and an eagle at the par-5 fourth

Tosti rolled in nine birdies against one bogey, tying Wilson Furr for the most birdies in the field Thursday

John VanDerLaan’s bogey-free 64 earns him his first top-10 position after 18 holes this season

Second-round tee times will run from 6:45 a.m. through 2:22 p.m. local time off the first and 10th tees

First-Round Lead Notes

0: First-round leaders/co-leaders to win Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Aetna

2: First-round leaders/co-leaders to win on Tour in 2023

- Nicholas Lindheim – The Ascendant presented by Blue

- Pierceson Coody – Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper

Cristobal Del Solar (T1/-8)

Carded a bogey-free first-round 8-under 63, marking a new career low round (previous low: 64/R3/NV5 Invitational presented by Old National Bank)

- Eagled the 576-yard par-5 fourth, and added six more birdies at two par 5s (Nos. 7, 15), three par 4s (Nos. 2, 10, 14) and one par 3 (No. 13)

Holds the 18-hole lead/co-lead for the second time this season and first since he was the solo leader after the first round of The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club (finished T27)

In his rookie season on the Korn Ferry Tour, has tallied six top-25 finishes in 19 starts, including three top 10s

Best finish of the year is solo fifth which came two weeks ago at NV5 Invitational presented by Old National Bank

Played in all 12 PGA TOUR Latinoamérica tournaments during the 2021-22 season, making 11 cuts and posting seven top-10s to end the season at No. 2 in the Totalplay Cup and earn Korn Ferry Tour membership for 2023

In December 2022, won the Neuquen Argentina Classic – part of the 2022-23 PGA TOUR Latinoamérica schedule – to earn his second PGA TOUR Latinoamérica title in seven months and his fourth career PGA TOUR Latinoamérica victory, tying him for the second-most career wins in the Tour’s history

Attended Florida State University where he played five seasons (2012-17) before turning professional in 2017 (PGA TOUR Canada in 2017, followed by PGA TOUR Latinoamérica from 2018-22)

Plays from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, but was originally born in Vina del Mar, Chile

Moved to the United States when he was 15 years old and attended IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida

Alejandro Tosti (T1/-9)

Posted a first-round 8-under 63 made up of nine birdies against one bogey

- Birdies came at three par 5s (Nos. 4, 7, 15), five par 4s (Nos. 1, 10, 11, 16, 18) and one par 3 (No. 13)

- His nine birdies were tied with Wilson Furr for the most by any player Thursday

Clinches his second 18-hole lead/co-lead of the season (T1/Visit Knoxville Open/finished T4)

Marks his seventh time inside the top 10 after 18 holes this season (converted three of those into top-10 finishes)

Leads all players on the Korn Ferry Tour with eight finishes inside the top 10 this year

In 18 starts this season, has finished inside the top-25 12 times while only missing three cuts

Also boasts three made cuts in as many PGA TOUR starts this season, highlighted by a T10 from the 2023 Mexico Open at Vidanta

Earned Korn Ferry Tour membership for the first time via a No. 5 finish in the 2021-22 PGA TOUR Latinoamérica Totalplay Cup, and earned guaranteed starts for the first eight events of the season with T29 at Final Stage of the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament

Played primarily on PGA TOUR Latinoamérica from 2018-22, earning his first win in 2019 and a second in 2022

Turned professional in 2018 after four seasons at the University of Florida (2014-18), where he won four times individually, with the crown jewel being medalist honors at the 2017 Southeastern Conference Championship

Represented Argentina at the 2014 Eisenhower Trophy, finishing T2 individually and three strokes behind individual medalist Jon Rahm

Native of Rosario, Argentina

Quotables

Cristobal Del Solar on the keys to playing well on this challenging course… “Ideally, it's just to hit the fairway. If you hit the rough and then you've got 6-irons, 5-irons in. And the rough is so thick that the ball doesn't get airborne. So yeah, I mean, you hit the fairway, it's a key definitely. Hit the green. Around the greens the rough is extremely thick, too. So it's not like if you miss the green you're going to get an auto par, no chance. But yeah, I mean, just ideally just hit the middle of the fairway, middle of the green and make the putt.”

Del Solar on the difficulty of phasing out any distractions when playing well… “It's difficult, man. I mean, it's difficult kind of thinking about yourself. You get all the external factors and just trying to do the best you can to just avoid them and just focus on yourself. Yeah, that's kind of what I've been working on not just this season, I mean, for the past X amount of years I've been trying to just working on my routines, kind of just sticking to myself.”

Alejandro Tosti on if he’s learned anything from holding leads previously this season… “I just take it round by round. I mean, the last round in Colorado (as the 54-hole leader), I had a great start in the last round, I think I was 4- or 5-under after like six or seven holes. Yeah, just it was not meant to be at that time. And I learned, learned whatever I had to learn. Just going to keep giving myself chances.”

Tosti on facing a challenging course… “You've got to be on in the fairways to get to the pins. It's a course that you cannot get away by hitting bad shots off the tee or hitting bad shots to the green, you have to hit the ball well, and I've been doing that the whole year.”

Notes

John VanDerLaan (T3/-7), in his 90th Korn Ferry Tour start this week, tied his lowest career first-round score with a bogey-free 7-under 64 via birdies at three par 5s (Nos. 4, 7, 15), two par 4s (Nos. 2, 18) and two par 3s (Nos. 5, 17)

- Marks the first time inside the top five after 18 holes this season for VanDerLaan, who entered the week No. 44 on the Points List

Korn Ferry Tour rookie Wilson Furr (T3/-7), who tied with Tosti for the most birdies by any player Thursday, rolled in nine birdies against two bogeys to finish with a 7-under 64; in his 20th start of the season, Furr sits inside the top 10 after the first round for the sixth time this year

Curtis Thompson (5th/-6) rolled in seven birdies against one bogey and sits inside the top five after 18 holes for the second time this season (T3/NV5 Invitational presented by Old National Bank/finished T42)

- Making his fourth ever start in the Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Aetna, Thompson’s best finish in this event is a T31 which came in 2018

In the sixth Korn Ferry Tour start of his career and just fourth this season, Zach Bauchou (T6/-5) carded a first-round 5-under 66 with six birdies against one bogey

- Bauchou earned the start this week by placing T20 at last week’s Utah Championship presented by Zions Bank where he was playing as a sponsor exemption

Rookie Brandon McIver (T6/-5) opens with a 5-under 66, his third consecutive tournament with a first-round score of 4-under par or better

Max Greyserman (T6/-5) cards a bogey-free 5-under 66 and sits inside the top 10 after 18 holes for the sixth time this season and fourth time in his last six starts

There were 10 players with bogey-free rounds Thursday, including Omaha native Scott Gutschewski (T36/-2) who recorded a 2-under 69 with birdies coming at the par-4 first and par-5 seventh

- Gutschewski, an alum of the University of Nebraska, currently sits No. 12 on the Points List off the strength of his win at the LECOM Suncoast Classic in April