Feb. 27, 2011

PANAMA CITY, Panama - Former Oregon State men's golf standout Diego Velasquez finished tied for 16h in his professional debut at the Panama Claro Championship that concluded on Sunday.

Velasquez, who was given a sponsor's exemption in the opening event on the 2011 Nationwide Tour schedule, fired a 4-under 68-71-68-69--276 at the par-70, 7,102-yard Panama Golf Club.

The tournament was hampered by afternoon storms that kept the first three rounds from being completed on time. There were 132 players in the field and 64 made the cut with the majority of the players completing their third round on Sunday.

Velasquez had five birdies in his first round, four in both the second and final rounds and six in the third round. He moved up from a tied for 25th with his final round 69. Matthew Goggin won the tournament with an 11-under 269 to finish two strokes ahead of Darron Stiles and Alistair Presnell, who both carded a 9-under 271.

Velasquez, who played at Oregon State from 2006-10, is arguably the greatest golfer in Beavers history and has his name plastered all over the OSU record books. He's the first Oregon State golfer to earn PING First Team All-American honors, holds the school single-season scoring record with a 70.31 average and was ranked No. 1 in the nation his senior season by Golfstat.com.

He was named honorable mention All-Pac-10 as a junior and All-Pac-10 First Team as a senior. He ended his career with the second best totals in school history in scoring average (72.06) and Top 10 finishes (13) and had three individual tournament wins.

Velasquez will compete in this week's Pacific Rubiales Bogota Open presented by Samsung in his hometown of Bogota, Columbia, by finishing in the Top 25 at the Panama Claro Championship.

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