BOGOTA, Colombia– The Korn Ferry Tour’s Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard opened Thursday morning on the Lagos and Pacos courses at Country Club de Bogotá. The duo sitting atop the leaderboard, Ryan McCormick and Trevor Werbylo, do not have much in common, aside from carding matching 9-under 61s as playing partners on the Pacos course.

McCormick, a Middletown, New Jersey resident, played his first five holes at his day 3-under par as he made four birdies and one bogey. The 30-year-old McCormick recorded his first par of the day at the par-4 15th, his sixth hole, and rounded out his front nine with another birdie at the par-4 16th. McCormick played bogey-free across his final nine holes, birdied Nos. 1, 5, and 9, and eagled the 516-yard par-5 seventh for the highlight of his round.

“Just a lackadaisical three-putt (bogey) on No. 11,” McCormick said. “You have to take advantage of the conditions. Made some nice 15-footers on No. 13 and No. 14. It was nice to get the ball rolling in the hole early, see that the rest of the round.”

Thursday marked a pair of career accomplishments for McCormick, a St. Johns University alum. The 9-under 61 was a career-low round for McCormick, eclipsing the two rounds of 7-under 64 he posted last season. Making his 52nd Korn Ferry Tour start, McCormick’s share of the 18-hole lead also marked his first lead of any kind on Tour.

“I actually hadn’t played all the holes on the course,” said McCormick, who is making his first start at the Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard. “We got rained out of the pro-am yesterday in the afternoon, so I’d probably only seen four or five holes. The [Lagos] course is where we are going to be playing the next three rounds, and it’s quite a bit longer. Fortunately, I have played a couple practice rounds on that course, so I’m a little more comfortable over there. Looking forward to the challenge.”

A different course is in the cards for McCormick tomorrow, but what will remain are his playing partners, Werbylo and Robby Shelton.

“Trevor [Werbylo] is a great player,” McCormick said. “It was fun that he was playing well early and we fed off each other a little bit. To be honest with you, I had no idea where he stood. I just knew we were both playing well. Always nice when another guy in the group is taking it low as well.”

In his fourth Korn Ferry Tour start, Werbylo turned in a bogey-free 9-under 61, his first bogey-free scorecard of the 2022 season. The University of Arizona alum opened his round with a birdie on the par-4 10th, added another at the par-5 12th, and rattled off seven more across his final 12 holes.

“It was a good way to start,” Werbylo said. “We played the shorter course today, and it was definitely gettable. Everything felt good off the tee, in my iron game, and I was putting it well, too.”

Werbylo won the 2021 Forme Tour Order of Merit, largely off the strength of a win, a runner-up, and a T6. Finishing atop the Order of Merit awarded Werbylo fully exempt status for the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour season, and the 23-year-old native of Tucson, Arizona already has a top-10 this year, a T7 at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club.

“I knew playing today, the shorter course, you’re going to have to shoot a good score to keep pace with some of the guys,” Werbylo said. “I felt good about my game and was confident. I feel comfortable having to go low to win a golf tournament”

Second-round tee times will run from 7:30-9:30 a.m. ET off the first and 10th tees of both the Lagos and Pacos courses.