- Andrew Novak leads the VidantaWorld Mexico Open by three shots.
- Novak’s second-round score matches the tournament’s 18-hole record and his PGA Tour career low.
- Ben Griffin, Kihei Akina, Matthieu Pavon, Adrien Dumont de Chassart and Kensei Hirata share second place.
Andrew Novak drove the green at Vidanta Vallarta’s reachable par-4 13th on Friday and rolled in a 12-foot eagle putt to draw level with Ben Griffin at the top of the VidantaWorld Mexico Open. He then birdied three of his last four holes, signed for a 10-under 61 and goes into the weekend three shots clear at 14-under 128.
The 61 matches the tournament’s 18-hole record, set by Jon Rahm in the third round in 2023 and equalled by Aldrich Potgieter in the second round last year. It also ties Novak’s career low on Tour, the opening 61 he shot at the 2025 RSM Classic.
The 15th decided the second round. Griffin, Novak’s partner when the pair won the 2025 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, drove into the water at the par-4 and scrambled for a bogey. Novak holed from just outside 15 feet for birdie and a two-shot swing, then finished with a 20-foot birdie putt.
“I separated a little bit, but we’re halfway there. There’s so much golf to play,” Novak said. “I’m going to have to go out and keep hitting a bunch of fairways. If I’m hitting my irons like this, I’m going to be able to give myself a lot of opportunities.”
The putter returns
Novak leads the field in strokes gained putting at 7.804. That is new for him. A recent look at his statistics showed numbers similar to last season, when he reached the Tour Championship, in every category except putting.
“I was just truly one of the worst putters in the world for, well, on the PGA Tour, for about eight months,” he said. “I turned a bunch of 66s and 67s into 69s and 70s and that doesn’t really get it done out here. I think the putter I put in at Wyndham (Championship) has actually shown up, and my game never left, it’s still there.”
He has held a 36-hole lead once before, at that 2025 RSM Classic, where he finished T7. He finished T8 here in 2024. Novak sits 89th in the FedExCup Fall standings and is projected to climb to 53rd with a win. Nos. 51 to 60 at the end of the Fall earn spots in the 2027 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational.
A crowded second place
Griffin shares second place at 11-under with Kihei Akina, Matthieu Pavon, Adrien Dumont de Chassart and Kensei Hirata. His 67 means he has shot 67 or better in seven of his eight rounds at Vidanta Vallarta, and he defends his World Wide Technology Championship title in Los Cabos next week.
Kihei Akina, a 20-year-old BYU sophomore playing on a sponsor exemption, added a 64 to his opening 67. His T2 is the best 36-hole position by an amateur on Tour this season, and it is his ninth round of 67 or lower in his last four PGA Tour starts.
Matthieu Pavon (66), making his tournament debut, leads the field in strokes gained tee to green. Dumont de Chassart (67) matched his lowest 36-hole score on Tour. Japanese rookie Hirata, one behind after round one, shot 68 and is the only player bogey-free through 36 holes.
First-round leader Karl Vilips followed his 62 with a 3-over 74 and is T34 at 6-under. Defending champion Brian Campbell, bidding to be the event’s first back-to-back winner, is T26 at 7-under.
Clark and Finau go home
The average score across the first two rounds was roughly 2-under par, and the cut fell at 4-under 138. World No. 5 Wyndham Clark, the US Open champion and the only top-10 player in the field, shot 73 and missed it. Tony Finau, the 2023 winner, missed a 6-foot birdie putt on the last for a 71 and missed by one.
Alvaro Ortiz is the only one of six Mexicans to make the weekend. The Guadalajara native, who won this event in 2021 when it was on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica schedule, recovered from a double bogey at the 18th, his ninth hole, to shoot 68 and sits T11 at 9-under.
Related: La Hacienda Links Named Highest New Entry in Golf World’s Top 100 Continental European Resorts
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VidantaWorld Mexico Open Leaderboard
| Pos. | Player | To Par | R1 | R2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andrew Novak | -14 | 67 | 61 | 128 |
| T2 | Matthieu Pavon | -11 | 65 | 66 | 131 |
| T2 | Kihei Akina(a) | -11 | 67 | 64 | 131 |
| T2 | Adrien Dumont de Chassart | -11 | 64 | 67 | 131 |
| T2 | Ben Griffin | -11 | 64 | 67 | 131 |
| T2 | Kensei Hirata | -11 | 63 | 68 | 131 |
| T7 | Mackenzie Hughes | -10 | 65 | 67 | 132 |
| T7 | Max Greyserman | -10 | 65 | 67 | 132 |
| T7 | Gordon Sargent | -10 | 67 | 65 | 132 |
| T7 | Marco Penge | -10 | 64 | 68 | 132 |
| T11 | Jackson Suber | -9 | 66 | 67 | 133 |
| T11 | Doug Ghim | -9 | 65 | 68 | 133 |
| T11 | Garrick Higgo | -9 | 64 | 69 | 133 |
| T11 | Alvaro Ortiz | -9 | 65 | 68 | 133 |
| T11 | Luke Clanton | -9 | 66 | 67 | 133 |
| T11 | Blades Brown | -9 | 68 | 65 | 133 |
| T11 | Hayden Springer | -9 | 66 | 67 | 133 |
| T11 | Jeffrey Kang | -9 | 64 | 69 | 133 |
| T11 | Steven Fisk | -9 | 67 | 66 | 133 |
| T20 | Brice Garnett | -8 | 68 | 66 | 134 |
| T20 | Zecheng Dou | -8 | 68 | 66 | 134 |
| T20 | Keita Nakajima | -8 | 68 | 66 | 134 |
| T20 | Jeremy Paul | -8 | 67 | 67 | 134 |
| T20 | Pierceson Coody | -8 | 65 | 69 | 134 |
| T20 | Trace Crowe | -8 | 67 | 67 | 134 |
| T26 | Ben Silverman | -7 | 66 | 69 | 135 |
| T26 | Chandler Phillips | -7 | 69 | 66 | 135 |
| T26 | Tom Kim | -7 | 67 | 68 | 135 |
| T26 | Brian Campbell | -7 | 67 | 68 | 135 |
| T26 | Harry Hall | -7 | 69 | 66 | 135 |
| T26 | Kristoffer Ventura | -7 | 69 | 66 | 135 |
| T26 | Justin Lower | -7 | 68 | 67 | 135 |
| T26 | Corey Conners | -7 | 68 | 67 | 135 |
| T34 | Max McGreevy | -6 | 66 | 70 | 136 |
| T34 | Rafael Campos | -6 | 72 | 64 | 136 |
| T34 | Karl Vilips | -6 | 62 | 74 | 136 |
| T34 | Adam Hadwin | -6 | 71 | 65 | 136 |
| T34 | Mac Meissner | -6 | 67 | 69 | 136 |
| T34 | Marcelo Rozo | -6 | 67 | 69 | 136 |
| T34 | Haotong Li | -6 | 70 | 66 | 136 |
| T34 | Jesper Svensson | -6 | 68 | 68 | 136 |
| T34 | Denny McCarthy | -6 | 67 | 69 | 136 |
| T34 | Austin Eckroat | -6 | 68 | 68 | 136 |
| T34 | Erik van Rooyen | -6 | 69 | 67 | 136 |
| T34 | Christiaan Bezuidenhout | -6 | 69 | 67 | 136 |
| T34 | Tyler Duncan | -6 | 68 | 68 | 136 |
| T34 | A.J. Ewart | -6 | 70 | 66 | 136 |
| T34 | Ben James | -6 | 72 | 64 | 136 |
| T49 | Vince Whaley | -5 | 68 | 69 | 137 |
| T49 | Patrick Fishburn | -5 | 69 | 68 | 137 |
| T49 | Jordan Smith | -5 | 69 | 68 | 137 |
| T49 | Emiliano Grillo | -5 | 69 | 68 | 137 |
| T49 | Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen | -5 | 68 | 69 | 137 |
| T49 | Max Homa | -5 | 66 | 71 | 137 |
| T49 | Joel Dahmen | -5 | 67 | 70 | 137 |
| T49 | Chad Ramey | -5 | 68 | 69 | 137 |
| T49 | Cameron Tankersley | -5 | 71 | 66 | 137 |
| T49 | John Daly II | -5 | 70 | 67 | 137 |
| T59 | Dylan Wu | -4 | 69 | 69 | 138 |
| T59 | David Skinns | -4 | 70 | 68 | 138 |
| T59 | Neal Shipley | -4 | 68 | 70 | 138 |
| T59 | Garrett Endicott | -4 | 71 | 67 | 138 |
| T59 | Beau Hossler | -4 | 68 | 70 | 138 |
| T59 | Cam Davis | -4 | 71 | 67 | 138 |
| T59 | Sudarshan Yellamaraju | -4 | 66 | 72 | 138 |
| T59 | Nick Hardy | -4 | 70 | 68 | 138 |
| T59 | Chandler Blanchet | -4 | 71 | 67 | 138 |
| T59 | Paul Peterson | -4 | 71 | 67 | 138 |
| CUT | William Mouw | -3 | 70 | 69 | 139 |
| CUT | Kevin Streelman | -3 | 70 | 69 | 139 |
| CUT | Alejandro Tosti | -3 | 71 | 68 | 139 |
| CUT | Patton Kizzire | -3 | 74 | 65 | 139 |
| CUT | Nick Dunlap | -3 | 71 | 68 | 139 |
| CUT | Tony Finau | -3 | 68 | 71 | 139 |
| CUT | Davis Riley | -3 | 69 | 70 | 139 |
| CUT | Kevin Roy | -3 | 68 | 71 | 139 |
| CUT | Rico Hoey | -3 | 69 | 70 | 139 |
| CUT | David Ford | -3 | 71 | 68 | 139 |
| CUT | Trent Phillips | -3 | 66 | 73 | 139 |
| CUT | Andrew Putnam | -2 | 71 | 69 | 140 |
| CUT | John Parry | -2 | 68 | 72 | 140 |
| CUT | Zac Blair | -2 | 68 | 72 | 140 |
| CUT | Chan Kim | -2 | 72 | 68 | 140 |
| CUT | Johnny Keefer | -2 | 71 | 69 | 140 |
| CUT | Joe Highsmith | -2 | 67 | 73 | 140 |
| CUT | Jimmy Stanger | -2 | 69 | 71 | 140 |
| CUT | Zach Bauchou | -2 | 74 | 66 | 140 |
| CUT | Taylor Pendrith | -2 | 71 | 69 | 140 |
| CUT | Ben Martin | -2 | 72 | 68 | 140 |
| CUT | Isaiah Salinda | -2 | 68 | 72 | 140 |
| CUT | Adam Svensson | -1 | 75 | 66 | 141 |
| CUT | Ryder Cowan(a) | -1 | 69 | 72 | 141 |
| CUT | Mauricio Figueroa Ramirez | -1 | 74 | 67 | 141 |
| CUT | Patrick Rodgers | -1 | 72 | 69 | 141 |
| CUT | Aaron Wise | -1 | 72 | 69 | 141 |
| CUT | Santiago de la Fuente | -1 | 71 | 70 | 141 |
| CUT | Takumi Kanaya | Par | 71 | 71 | 142 |
| CUT | Kevin Yu | Par | 72 | 70 | 142 |
| CUT | Wyndham Clark | Par | 69 | 73 | 142 |
| CUT | Will Gordon | Par | 70 | 72 | 142 |
| CUT | Rasmus Højgaard | Par | 72 | 70 | 142 |
| CUT | Omar Morales | Par | 71 | 71 | 142 |
| CUT | Christo Lamprecht | Par | 70 | 72 | 142 |
| CUT | Pontus Nyholm | +1 | 76 | 67 | 143 |
| CUT | Danny Walker | +1 | 76 | 67 | 143 |
| CUT | Harry Higgs | +1 | 71 | 72 | 143 |
| CUT | Peter Malnati | +1 | 73 | 70 | 143 |
| CUT | Lee Hodges | +1 | 73 | 70 | 143 |
| CUT | Alejandro Fierro(a) | +2 | 73 | 71 | 144 |
| CUT | Hank Lebioda | +2 | 74 | 70 | 144 |
| CUT | John VanDerLaan | +2 | 72 | 72 | 144 |
| CUT | Davis Chatfield | +3 | 76 | 69 | 145 |
| CUT | David Lipsky | +4 | 71 | 75 | 146 |
| CUT | Tayler Termeer | +4 | 77 | 69 | 146 |
| CUT | Eli Ortego | +4 | 71 | 75 | 146 |
| CUT | Mark Hubbard | +5 | 72 | 75 | 147 |
| CUT | Gerardo Gomez(a) | +6 | 73 | 75 | 148 |
| CUT | Aldrich Potgieter | +6 | 75 | 73 | 148 |
| CUT | Camilo Villegas | +7 | 78 | 71 | 149 |
| W/D | Billy Horschel | - | - | - | - |
Simon Bale
Simon Bale is the publisher of Golf Today. A low single-figure handicap golfer, he was previously a major shareholder and course reviewer for Top100GolfCourses.com for over a decade, starting in 2010. Through this role, he developed extensive knowledge of golf course design and architecture while playing more than 300 courses worldwide.