Mayakoba Championship 2021 R1
November 04-07
El Camaleon Golf Club, Riviera Maya, Mexico
$7,200,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Matthew Wolff opened with a bogey-free 61, tying his career-low score on the PGA Tour and setting a new course record, to take the opening lead in the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba.

Mayakoba Championship 2021 R1

"As soon as I finished the round, my caddie said to me, he goes,"You know, I've been caddying for you for quite a few rounds and that was not the one that I thought was going to be the lowest."

"It was very steady, birdies kind of came evenly throughout the round, didn't really make any mistakes. I think my game plan coming into the week was just really keeping the ball in play off the tee. I feel like when you start taking clubs that you're trying to push it up or, you know, get a little farther up there, that's when stuff narrows in. I think the main thing about how you play well out here is just being comfortable. Every single shot I was comfortable over, I was committed to. Yeah, just ended up that, at the end of the day, last putt dropped. I didn't know it was a course record, it's really cool to hear."

Mayakoba Championship 2021 R1

The course isn't best suited to Wolff's game, he only hit one driver on Thursday, but he feels confident about his game after working on it during his break since he last played in Las Vegas three weeks ago.

"You know, it's obviously nice being able to rip dog because it's a big advantage. I can carry some stuff that most people can't, so obviously I love courses that I can hit driver on, but I think along with me, every other player out here, when we're playing good, I mean, it doesn't matter if a course doesn't suit you well, we're all so good out here that on any given day, if it's Torrey Pines or a course like this and you're only taking one driver, when you're on, you're on and stuff was just kind of going right for me and I felt really good."

Mayakoba Championship 2021 R1

Aaron Wise shot six birdies and an eagle at the par-5 5th over the first ten holes before closing bogey-par-birdie and lies in second place at 8-under.

"Made a couple long putts, hit a couple really good iron shots and drove it well. It takes a lot to be 8 under through 10. I was happy to be there, but this course has a pretty tough finish to it. There's probably three, four really tough holes coming down the back end an d one of them got me there with hitting a 3-wood out of play, but was able to save bogey, and then made a nice long putt on 18 for birdie to kind of cap off the round."

Mayakoba Championship 2021 R1

Chris Kirk started his round on the back nine with a hole-in-one at the par-3 10th and another eagle at the par-5 13th. He made five more birdies as well as three bogeys around the turn to close with a 64 and a share of third place.

"Made me feel a little better about my 4:30 wake-up call this morning. Yeah, No. 10, it was 204, perfect -- got to land it a little bit short, so perfect 6-iron for me to land it a little short. I hit a really good shot. We were first group out, so it was still kind of overcast and dark, and walking up, as we got close to the green, it was like there's not a ball there, there's not a ball there. Justin, my caddie, was like, "I swear I saw it rolling on the green," so I was like, "It's either in or just over in the rough," and sure enough, Danny and Jonas actually got up there before I did and started celebrating early.

Mayakoba Championship 2021 R1

Billy Horschel and Spain's Sergio Garcia shot bogey-free 64s for their share of third place alongside Talor Gooch.

"I think there were obviously a couple shots here and there that I could have hit better," said Garcia, "but it's difficult to hit every shot pretty much like you want throughout 18 holes. I drove the ball quite well for pretty much the whole day. My irons were in pretty good shape and gave myself a lot of chances, so I was able to roll it quite nicely. Thanks to that, I made a couple putts, so that was good "

Mayakoba Championship 2021 R1