Former Air Force Academy golfer Kyle Westmoreland notches first Korn Ferry Tour victory following his tour-career-best 61 in round 3
By Gary Baines – 2/9/2025
An unusual week in professional tour golf for players with strong Colorado connections started with Centennial State natives Wyndham Clark and Jennifer Kupcho leading tournaments on their respective tours on the same day (Thursday). And it ended on Sunday with the first victory ever on the Korn Ferry Tour by an Air Force Academy graduate.
Kyle Westmoreland, who won four times during his AFA college career (2010-14), capitalized on the lowest round of his tour career (61 on Saturday) to win the Astara Golf Championship by one shot on Sunday in Bogota, Colombia.
In his 61st start on the Korn Ferry Tour, the former Broomfield resident notched victory No. 1 on the KFT after recording a runner-up in the Bahamas 12 1/2 months ago.
Sunday’s victory was worth $180,000, but perhaps more importantly it gives Westmoreland a leg up on regaining his PGA Tour card. The top 20 players on the season-long KFT points list after the Korn Ferry Tour Championship — which concludes on Oct. 12 — land exempt status on the PGA Tour in 2026.
The 33-year-old Westmoreland, who led by two going into Sunday, started the final round a double bogey and shot a 1-under-par 70 despite a bogey on the par-5 last hole. On a see-saw final day, Westmoreland twice strung together three consecutive birdies and ended the day with seven birdies, four bogeys and a double bogey. His birdies on No. 15 and 16 each came from well outside 30 feet. Westmoreland finished at 18 under par, one stroke ahead of Pierceson Coody and rising South African standout Christo Lamprecht.
Westmoreland, the first former Air Force Academy golfer to earn a PGA Tour card (he made 10 cuts in 32 events during the 2022-23 season), now becomes the first ex-AFA Falcon to win on the Korn Ferry Tour. It’s his first victory on any PGA Tour-sanctioned tournament.
Westmoreland is the second golfer from a Colorado-based college golf program to win on the Korn Ferry Tour in the last 13 months as former University of Colorado golfer Jeremy Paul prevailed in the Bahamas in January 2024.
For all the scores from Bogota, CLICK HERE.
Elsewhere in professional tour golf for players with strong Colorado ties … Denver native Wyndham Clark, who led the PGA Tour’s WM Phoenix Open after a first-round 64, ended up with a 16th-place finish in Scottsdale, not far from where he now lives. He birdied the final hole to close with a 67 on Sunday, leaving him at 11 under par. After a missed cut and a 73rd-place showing in his previous two events, it was a big step up for the three-time winner on the PGA Tour. SCORES …
Fellow 2024 Colorado Golf Hall of Fame inductee Jennifer Kupcho finished 34th at her LPGA Tour season opener, the Founders Cup in Bradenton, Fla., where she shared the round 1 lead with a 65. Kupcho went 65-70-72-73 for a 4-under total.
Winning the Founders Cup — for her first LPGA Tour victory — was Yealimi Noh, who Colorado golf fans may remember. At the Colorado Women’s Open in 2019, the then-17-year-old held a three-stroke lead going into the final hole but made a quadruple-bogey 9, then lost in a playoff to Coloradan Becca Huffer. SCORES …
Speaking of Colorado Golf Hall of Famers, Brandt Jobe made his first PGA Tour Champions start in 11 1/2 months after undergoing hip and shoulder surgeries in recent years. Jobe, a two-time winner on the Champions circuit, finished 47th out of 66 players Saturday at the Trophy Hassan II in Morocco. He posted scores of 73-76-78 for an 8-over-par total. SCORES
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com