- Chris Kirk leads the World Wide Technology Championship after a bogey-free 63.
- Nick Dunlap and Zac Blair share second place.
- Kirk is No. 110 in the FedExCup Fall standings, outside the top 100 who keep full cards for 2027.
Chris Kirk hit every fairway and missed only one green at El Cardonal at Diamante on Thursday. His bogey-free 9-under 63 gave him a one-shot lead after the opening round of the World Wide Technology Championship, played on the Tiger Woods design at the southern tip of Baja California.
The six-time PGA Tour winner arrived at No. 110 in the FedExCup Fall standings. He has three tournaments left to get inside the top 100.
“Just go day by day, shot by shot. I know how cliché that sounds, but there’s not really anything I can do to control like where I finish on a points list,” Kirk said. “The only thing that I have somewhat of control over is just how I approach each day and how I look at each shot. Just trying to keep it as simple as that.”
He putted for birdie on every hole except the par-3 2nd, his second hole of the day. He pushed his tee shot right there, pitched to 10 feet and saved par. His worst swing came at the 156-yard 16th, a shot he called a “little bit of a chunk pull.” That left him 70 feet away over a ridge, and he holed the putt for birdie.
“There was a lot to like, for sure,” Kirk said. “It felt like my swing was in a really good spot and hit a bunch of really nice putts. I’m sorry I’m not going to have a very exciting answer for you, but yeah, it was just a really steady day.”
The 63 is one outside his Tour career low of 62, which he has shot three times, and it matches his lowest round of the season. This is his ninth 18-hole lead or co-lead in 399 starts. He has converted none of the previous eight. One of those leads came at this event in 2016, at El Camaleón. He missed the cut on his only previous visit to El Cardonal, in 2023.
He has two top-10s in his last three starts: T10 at the Biltmore Championship Asheville and T6 at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. His last win came at the 2024 Sentry.
Dunlap back near the top
A year ago Nick Dunlap opened with a bogey-free 61 here. This time he shot 64. The 2024 Rookie of the Year is No. 165 in the standings after 10 made cuts in 22 starts. Zac Blair, at No. 121, birdied four of his last five holes for a bogey-free 64.
Matthieu Pavon, Kensei Hirata, Taylor Montgomery and PGA Tour University No. 1 Ben James were among those on 7-under. Montgomery, playing on a sponsor exemption, hit all 14 fairways and leads the field in strokes gained putting. Hirata has now shot 65 or better in the first round of three straight starts.
More than half of the 120-man field broke 70. The group on 66 includes 19-year-old Blades Brown and Ryan Gerard, the highest-ranked player in the field at world No. 23.
Defending champion Ben Griffin is T70 on 2-under. He won here last November with a tournament-record 29-under.
The first round was suspended at 5:48 p.m. local time (MT) due to darkness and will resume Friday at 7:20 a.m. with four players yet to complete their round. The second round will begin as scheduled with tee times from 6:30 a.m. – 12:44 p.m. in groups of three off Nos. 1 and 10.
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World Wide Technology Championship Leaderboard
| Pos. | Player | To Par | Thru | R1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Kirk | -9 | F | 63 |
| T2 | Nick Dunlap | -8 | F | 64 |
| T2 | Zac Blair | -8 | F | 64 |
| T4 | Matthieu Pavon | -7 | F | 65 |
| T4 | Harry Hall | -7 | F | 65 |
| T4 | Taylor Montgomery | -7 | F | 65 |
| T4 | Kensei Hirata | -7 | F | 65 |
| T4 | Ben James | -7 | F | 65 |
| T9 | Peter Malnati | -6 | F | 66 |
| T9 | Ryan Gerard | -6 | F | 66 |
| T9 | Blades Brown | -6 | F | 66 |
| T9 | Karl Vilips | -6 | F | 66 |
| T9 | Joe Highsmith | -6 | F | 66 |
| T9 | Alejandro Tosti | -6 | F | 66 |
| T9 | Beau Hossler | -6 | F | 66 |
| T9 | Patton Kizzire | -6 | F | 66 |
| T17 | Ben Martin | -5 | F | 67 |
| T17 | Brice Garnett | -5 | F | 67 |
| T17 | Rico Hoey | -5 | F | 67 |
| T17 | Johnny Keefer | -5 | F | 67 |
| T17 | Will Gordon | -5 | F | 67 |
| T17 | Max Greyserman | -5 | F | 67 |
| T17 | Andrew Putnam | -5 | F | 67 |
| T17 | Adrien Dumont de Chassart | -5 | F | 67 |
| T17 | Hayden Springer | -5 | F | 67 |
| T17 | Zach Bauchou | -5 | F | 67 |
| T17 | David Ford | -5 | F | 67 |
| T17 | Jay Leng(a) | -5 | 17 | - |
| T29 | Chad Ramey | -4 | F | 68 |
| T29 | Denny McCarthy | -4 | F | 68 |
| T29 | Matt Kuchar | -4 | F | 68 |
| T29 | Keith Mitchell | -4 | F | 68 |
| T29 | Taylor Pendrith | -4 | F | 68 |
| T29 | Adam Svensson | -4 | F | 68 |
| T29 | Patrick Rodgers | -4 | F | 68 |
| T29 | Kristoffer Ventura | -4 | F | 68 |
| T29 | Paul Peterson | -4 | F | 68 |
| T29 | Ben Kohles | -4 | F | 68 |
| T29 | Austin Eckroat | -4 | F | 68 |
| T29 | Pierceson Coody | -4 | F | 68 |
| T29 | Cam Davis | -4 | F | 68 |
| T29 | Stephan Jaeger | -4 | F | 68 |
| T29 | Camilo Villegas | -4 | F | 68 |
| T29 | Neal Shipley | -4 | F | 68 |
| T29 | Isaiah Salinda | -4 | F | 68 |
| T46 | Kevin Streelman | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | David Skinns | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Jackson Suber | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Sami Valimaki | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Kevin Yu | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Nick Taylor | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Tom Hoge | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Takumi Kanaya | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Pontus Nyholm | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Alejandro Madariaga | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Jeffrey Kang | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Marcelo Rozo | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Tyler Duncan | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Hank Lebioda | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | John Parry | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Seamus Power | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Erik van Rooyen | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Ben Silverman | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Austin Hitt | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Luke Clanton | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Alvaro Ortiz | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Muzzy Donohue | -3 | F | 69 |
| T46 | Trace Crowe | -3 | 16 | - |
| T46 | John VanDerLaan | -3 | 16 | - |
| T70 | Justin Lower | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Max McGreevy | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Tony Finau | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Patrick Fishburn | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Emiliano Grillo | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Kevin Roy | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Rasmus Højgaard | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Jordan Smith | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Jackson Koivun | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Ben Griffin | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Lucas Glover | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Billy Horschel | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Garrick Higgo | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Danny Walker | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Christo Lamprecht | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Tyler Collet | -2 | F | 70 |
| T70 | Jesper Svensson | -2 | 17 | - |
| T88 | Christiaan Bezuidenhout | -1 | F | 71 |
| T88 | Rafael Campos | -1 | F | 71 |
| T88 | Preston Stout(a) | -1 | F | 71 |
| T88 | Sudarshan Yellamaraju | -1 | F | 71 |
| T88 | Taylor Moore | -1 | F | 71 |
| T88 | Davis Riley | -1 | F | 71 |
| T88 | David Lipsky | -1 | F | 71 |
| T88 | Haotong Li | -1 | F | 71 |
| T96 | Dylan Wu | Par | F | 72 |
| T96 | Mackenzie Hughes | Par | F | 72 |
| T96 | Aaron Wise | Par | F | 72 |
| T96 | Chandler Phillips | Par | F | 72 |
| T96 | Zecheng Dou | Par | F | 72 |
| T101 | Joel Dahmen | +1 | F | 73 |
| T101 | William Mouw | +1 | F | 73 |
| T101 | Willie Mack III | +1 | F | 73 |
| T101 | Nicholas Marchese | +1 | F | 73 |
| T101 | Davis Chatfield | +1 | F | 73 |
| T101 | Steven Fisk | +1 | F | 73 |
| T101 | Michael Kim | +1 | F | 73 |
| T101 | Vince Whaley | +1 | F | 73 |
| T101 | A.J. Ewart | +1 | F | 73 |
| T101 | Marco Penge | +1 | F | 73 |
| T111 | Mark Hubbard | +2 | F | 74 |
| T111 | Lee Hodges | +2 | F | 74 |
| T111 | Lyon Lazare | +2 | F | 74 |
| T114 | Jimmy Stanger | +3 | F | 75 |
| T114 | Chandler Blanchet | +3 | F | 75 |
| 116 | Gordon Sargent | +4 | F | 76 |
| 117 | Nathan Tseng | +5 | F | 77 |
| 118 | Nicholas Lindheim | +7 | F | 79 |
| 119 | Harry Higgs | +8 | F | 80 |
| 120 | Jorge Villar | +15 | F | 87 |
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.