Cristóbal del Solar earned himself the front page of all the world’s golf media this Thursday. And rightly so. His round of 57 strokes, thirteen under par, in the first round of the Astara Golf Championship (Korn Ferry Tour), deserved it. A historic scorecard. Something like this had never been seen in a tournament sanctioned by the PGA Tour, while professional golf in its entirety had only recorded another official 57 by the Irishman David Carey in a tournament of the Alps Tour in 2019. The nuance in favour of Del Solar is that he did it on a par 70, while Carey signed it on a par 68. He did it, however, by placing the ball.
Cristóbal del Solar is a 30-year-old Chilean, born on October 11 in Viña del Mar and has spent two seasons on the Korn Ferry Tour after forging a tough career for five years between the PGA Tour Latinoamérica and the PGA Tour of Canada. His record is not insignificant. He has four victories in Latin America, the third division of the PGA Tour, but he still needs to make the jump to the first division. He was not far from doing it last year and it is the unavoidable goal for 2025.
These are the cold facts that define his career, but we want to know a little more about him. We contacted two people who know him very well. They are Azahara Muñoz, a regular training partner, and Samuel del Val, who coincided with the Chilean in his beginnings in Latin America and struck up a very good friendship.
We caught Del Val working in his office. He plays less golf than he would like, but he does not forget it, he is clear that he is going to continue competing. Of course, he remains intimately linked to his favourite sport. He is one of the main ambassadors of inOne, a technological platform that provides all the necessary tools for the development and improvement of the management of a golf club. Among papers, screens and phone calls attending to clients, he has not had time to know about Del Solar’s feat. Ten Golf informs him and he is sincerely happy. “I’m very happy because he’s a very nice guy, magnificent, I get along very well with him, although we haven’t been in contact for a long time,” he says.
They first met in the first two rounds of the Open de Argentina in 2018, on the Pilará course. Del Val finished that tournament in the top 25 and Del Solar missed the cut. 36 holes of golf were enough for the friendship to take hold. The first thing he tells Ten Golf, off the cuff, is that “he has a swing like Furyk. It’s not that they look alike in the way they do it, but Cristóbal also has a very particular style,” says Samu. Interestingly, the previous lowest round in history in a tournament sanctioned by the PGA Tour until what Del Solar did yesterday, was Jim Furyk: 58 strokes at the Travelers Championship in 2016. Well, maybe it’s not a coincidence. It doesn’t matter how you do it, but how many you do.
Quickly, Samuel clarifies. The Biscayan, now settled in the province of Cadiz, assures of the Chilean that “he has always played golf very well, very consistently, and his short game is spectacular. His approach and putt is impressive”.
Azahara Muñoz confirms it on the fly after many training sessions together under the orders of coach Edo Miquel, a compatriot of Cristóbal. “He keeps things very simple and that’s why he’s doing so well in recent years. Since he’s been with that he’s improved his swing a lot, he’s hitting it much harder and yes, he’s very solid. When I’ve played with him I’ve always been impressed by how well he hits and putts”, says the Malaga resident, living in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, like Mr. 57.
The Spanish golfer, who has already played the first tournament of the LPGA Tour season and is now preparing for the Asian tour, agrees with Samuel when talking about Cristóbal as a person. “Man, I never thought someone would make 57 strokes, but the truth is he deserves it. He’s a spectacular guy. Always with a smile, positive, works a lot and very well”, she summarizes.
The scene of the feat also has its own. Del Val knows it because he has played there more than once. “The Country Club de Bogotá has two courses. I have never played Los Pacos, where Cristóbal did it, but I have played Los Lagos, which is next door. They are very similar. Narrow courses, with many trees and small greens. The key is, without a doubt, the height. You come from playing in Panama and Bahamas at sea level and suddenly they drop you almost 3,000 meters high. It’s another golf. From Monday to Wednesday you see all the players doing calculations with the trackman to know how much the ball flies. If you have a constant flight height, it’s not so difficult to adapt, but if you like to change the heights, as it happened to me, it gets more complicated. I never did well on that course, the one in Quito, León… To give the fans an idea, with that height a high 7 iron flies the same as a medium 6 or a low 5. With the woods the ball can fly up to 14% more… The main difficulty is mentally. It’s not easy to be 200 meters from the target with an open 7 iron and know that’s the club”, he says.
PS: A nuance sweeping for home and giving Caesar what is Caesar’s. In total strokes, Del Solar’s 57 card is placed in the first position of professional golf along with Carey’s, but in relation to par the lowest in professional golf is still Alejandro del Rey and his -14 in Switzerland in October 2021 (58 strokes on a par 72).
¡Histórico Alejandro del Rey! 58 golpes en el Swiss Challenge
