Mark Hubbard made a single bogey at the 4th hole before firing eight birdies, four of them consecutively from the 11th to close with a 7-under 65 and take the clubhouse lead at the Valero Texas Open.

He currently ranks third in both Shots Gained: Tee to Green (4.437) and Shots Gained: Around the Green (2.087).

“Just kind of did everything well. The big thing for me is I drove it a lot better, I’ve been really struggling with the driver for the last like, I don’t know, seems like forever, seems like Wyndham last year. To get that going the right direction, I mean, this is not a friendly course off the tee if you’re not feeling good with the big club. So to get that going, and just even the ones that I missed, just knowing where they’re going, getting that like real feedback because for a while it’s been coming out of both barrels and it’s been ugly. So it was nice today.

“I did a ton of equipment work [in the three days leading up to the Valero Texas Open], new driver, new shaft, and it made a huge difference.”

“I think for me, I always thought the back nine’s a little gettable out here. That front nine there’s a couple tough par 4s, you’re just hanging on, but the back you can get it going, especially with the wind direction. There’s some downhole really scrabble opportunities coming down the 1streatch. I just hit it really well with my irons, and if you’re in the fairways, just kind of frees me up.”

Were play not suspended, this would mark his sixth 18-hole lead/co-lead in stroke-play events on the PGA Tour and first since the 2022 Barracuda Championship (finished 4th). He shared the 18-hole lead at the 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans with teammate Ryan Brehm (finished 3rd).

65 marks the American’s best score in 15 career rounds at TPC San Antonio (previous: 68, 2024/R2 and 2025/R2).

In nine starts this season, Hubbard has had one top-25 finish (T23/Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches). In 271 prior career starts on Tour, he has had 17 top-10 finishes, with his best being T2 (2019 Texas Children’s Houston Open).

Five players are tied in fifth place at 6-under including Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre who carded a bogey-free 66.

Making his third appearance in the Valero Texas Open (T7/2024, 62/2025), England’s Tommy Fleetwood is T7 at 5-under. He is the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 4 in the OWGR and finished T8 or better in three of four starts this season.

Since the Valero Texas Open relocated to TPC San Antonio in 2010, only two of the 15 winners of the event held at least a share of the first-round lead: Corey Conners (2023) and Akshay Bhatia (2024).

Due to dangerous weather conditions in the morning, first-round tee times were delayed 90 minutes and started at 9:00 a.m. CT. The first round was suspended at 7:56 p.m. due to darkness, with 24 players left to complete the round, and will resume Friday at 7:45 a.m. The second round will begin as scheduled at 7:30 a.m.

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