This is the 63rd Mexico Open but just the third at Vidanta Vallarta.
The Mexico Open at Vidanta may not have the high-profile leaderboard as some other PGA Tour events, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t great storylines coming out of Vidanta Vallarta.
Defending champion Tony Finau is looking to go back-to-back south of the border. Raving about a place where he can play a par-3 course with his kids, Finau, the highest-ranked player in the field, is looking to win on Tour for the fourth season in a row.
He had four birdies in his first-round 69, but did post a double-bogey on the par-4 eighth hole, his second-to-last of the day.
Four golfers defended their title last season. Finau is seeking to be the first to do it in 2024. He was solo second two years ago, losing by a shot to Jon Rahm.
After a few weeks of wind and rain, the Tour is enjoying some fantastic weather along the Mexican coast. Here are five more things to know about the first round of the 2024 Mexico Open at Vidanta.
Si Woo Kim said he had nothing to lose, so he played aggressively on his chip shot on the 17th hole during the final round of the Sony Open in Hawaii. He picked a great time to chip in for birdie.
“It can’t get better than this,” Kim said.
The 27-year-old South Korean tied for the lead with a dramatic chip-in at the par 3 and added a two-putt birdie from 42 feet at 18 to match the low score on Sunday.
Kim’s 6-under 64 at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu propelled him to a one-stroke victory over Hayden Buckley and his fourth career PGA Tour title. It’s an impressive tally, which includes the 2017 Players Championship, but Kim still has work to do to catch his bride, Ji Hyun Oh, who turned professional in 2014 and has seven wins on the KLPGA to her credit. The couple tied the knot on December 19.
“Feel like we’re (on our) honeymoon because we came here early last week,” he said.
Kim said he was going to approach the final round of the Sony Open with a different mindset, trying not to focus so much on winning the tournament.
“Just play the golf,” he said.
Whatever that entailed, it worked. Kim, who trailed by three strokes at the start of the day, came out firing with birdies on the first three holes and marked six circles on his card in his first 12 holes to assume a one-stroke lead over Buckley.
In September, Kim represented the International team in the Presidents Cup. After playing a practice round with teammate Adam Scott, he adopted Scott’s putting style and use of a broomstick-length putter that week. It came in handy as he knocked off Justin Thomas of the U.S. in a singles match en route to going 3-0-1 in the competition. Kim tried to downplay the significance of his victory over Thomas, calling it “just a lucky day,” but later conceded it gave him a boost of confidence.
“My game was little down like at the end of the season, but I think that kind of like gave me momentum,” he said.
On Sunday, Kim chased down Buckley, the 54-hole leader, who started with a birdie but then his putter cooled off and he made his first bogey of the day at No. 11, missing from 5 feet, to fall one stroke behind Kim.
“I feel like the putting was a little shaky,” Buckley conceded.
Buckley’s putter temporarily woke from its slumber as he holed a 17-foot birdie at 12 and a 29-foot birdie at 14 to vault into first. But it was shaky down the stretch, especially inside 15 feet. Buckley lipped out a 4-foot par putt on the left at 15 to drop back into a tie for the lead at 16 under but rebounded with a birdie one hole later.
Buckley’s 16-footer at 16 reclaimed the lead momentarily. Just when it appeared that Buckley had the edge to grab his first title, Kim answered with his chip-in from 28 feet over the 17th green. His celebratory fist pump rivaled that of Tiger Woods in his prime.
“Right before that I heard the noise, I knew he made it,” Kim said of Buckley’s birdie putt at 16. “It was a tough lie — into the grain — so I had to be aggressive and I had nothing to lose and it went in.”
Kim drove into the left fairway bunker at 18 but his second shot, a 5-iron from 236 yards, at the par-5 was a beauty, bounding on to the green and stopping 42 feet short of the hole. He got down in two putts for the go-ahead birdie. Kim shot a pair of 64s on the weekend to finish with a 72-hole total of 18-under 262. Buckley, whose runner-up finish marked a personal best in 40 career Tour starts, signed for a final-round 68. He had a chance to tie and force a playoff but his 12-foot birdie putt at 18 slid by on the left. Chris Kirk, who was trying to end a winless drought of nearly eight years, shot 68 and finished third.
“Winning on the PGA Tour is the hardest thing to do, and sometimes you just get beat,” Buckley said. “I feel like that’s what happened today.”
Both Noren and Wise have plenty they want to improve on after the first round.
HOUSTON – Based off Aaron Wise’s attitude following his opening 18 holes, one would’ve thought he performed poorly during the first round of the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open.
He was less than enthralled after his round at Memorial Park Golf Course on Thursday, which was a brilliant bogey-free 5-under 65 to take the lead following the morning wave. Wise, whose lone PGA Tour win came in the state of Texas at the AT&T Byron Nelson in 2017, is tied with Alex Noren, Tony Finau and Tyson Alexander at the top.
“I’ve just been in a weird place with my game where I’m obviously playing well enough to shoot good scores, but there’s just a couple shots a round that are frustrating me,” Wise said. “Maybe it’s also just because it’s late in the season and I played too much golf, and that’s just kind of how golf gets.
“I have time to go clean some stuff up before the round tomorrow and hopefully play a little more solid, even though I would take the score again if you would give it to me.”
The first round was suspended because of darkness at 5:36 p.m. local time. The groups who didn’t finish will complete their rounds early Friday morning.
The highlight for Wise came on holes No. 3-6, when he recorded four straight birdies to move to 5 under. He started on No. 10, making seven pars before a birdie on the par-3 17th.
“I had a couple great saves to shoot bogey-free,” Wise said. “Sometimes you shoot bogey-free and you hit 18 greens, and it was just an easy round. Today, it was bogey-free on the card, but it didn’t feel stress-free.”
For Noren, his round started and ended the same way: with a birdie. He also started on the 10th hole, where he stuffed his approach shot inside six feet for a circle on the scorecard. He then had four birdies in five holes to begin his second nine after a bogey on the first, and Noren capitalized his day with a great tee shot on the par-3 ninth, drilling an eight-foot birdie to get to 5 under.
Alex Noren lines up a putt on the 13th green during the first round of the Cadence Bank Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course on November 10, 2022 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images)
Noren, who has 11 international victories but none on the PGA Tour, also wasn’t feeling his best coming into the week.
“A little bit nervous coming into today,” Noren said. “Didn’t feel great in practice but found something and got the irons a lot better. So yeah, good.”
Finau teed off in the afternoon wave, and he did most of his damage on his final nine holes. He had five birdies on the front nine, but the exclamation point came on the par-3 ninth, when he sank a 35-foot, 5-inch putt for birdie to tie Noren and Wise.
Coming off a missed cut in his first event of the fall slate last week, the closing birdie was a great finish to Finau’s first round.
“I know I played well just to put myself near the top of the leaderboard. and it’s kind of just icing on the cake on a day that’s hard fought and well played,” Finau said.
Tony Finau plays his shot from the ninth tee during the first round of the Cadence Bank Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course on November 10, 2022 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
Alexander is a part of the group tied for the lead, though he hasn’t finished his first round. He will start from the rough left of the 18th fairway with a 197-yard shot left for his second on the par-4 closing hole.
The group on top has a one-shot lead over David Lipsky and seven others, including Mackenzie Hughes, who won earlier this season at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
Lipsky had five birdies and no bogeys to go out in 30, but he proceeded to bogey the 10th hole before making eight straight pars to finish his round. He also hasn’t won on Tour.
“Took advantage of the birdie holes on the front nine and hung in there pretty well on the back nine,” Lipsky said. “I think there was a stretch where I missed like three greens in a row, got them all up and down.”
There’s a large group at 3 under, including Justin Rose and Zecheng Dou, who finished on top of the Korn Ferry Tour standings to earn his PGA Tour card this summer.
Scottie Scheffler, the No. 2 golfer in the world and favorite coming in, birdied three of his final eight holes to finish at even-par 70. Amateur Travis Vick, a senior at Texas who missed the cut last week in Mexico, shot 2-under 68 and is T-21.
However, the packed leaderboard is chasing Finau, Noren and Wise. And on a course where the winning 72-hole scores have been 13 under and 10 under since returning to Memorial Park, getting off to a fast start is pivotal for success come the weekend.
“I’m anxious to get that next win,” Wise said. “I got one, but it feels like forever ago now. It’s one of those things where you’ve just got to stay patient. Like, I can’t control if I’m going to go out and win this tournament, right? I can only control how good a shot I’m going to hit, how good a putt I’m going to hit. So I’m just going to focus on that and then at the end of the week just tally them up and see where it ends up.”
“I felt like we just have had good vibes all week and we’ve been playing really solid golf.”
AVONDALE, La. — Any follow up to a record-breaking 59 may look like a disappointment, but in a difficult format and tough conditions, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay fought for a second-round 68 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
“I think we just wanted to hit a bunch of quality golf shots, and we did that today,” Cantlay said after their round. “We really fought hard and made a bunch of those mid-range putts, especially in the middle of the round, and that kind of kept the momentum going.”
After opening with three birdies in their first four holes, the pair made six straight pars before writing another circle on the card at the par-5 2nd. They closed out their 4-under effort with six pars and a birdie.
“Alternate shot is an opportunity to do some cool things if you’re making a lot of birdies,” Schauffele said, “but for the most part you’re trying to leave your partner in a good spot to make an easy par.”
They did just that, limiting the mistakes to a lone bogey on the par-4 12th, their third hole of the day.
“I felt like we just have had good vibes all week and we’ve been playing really solid golf. Same game plan for the weekend,” said Cantlay.
The best-buddy tandem enters the weekend with a one-stroke lead.
One of the pairs just a shot back is David Lipsky and Aaron Rai. Lipsky has had an interesting week — it started with a car accident and now he’s in a great spot to earn his first PGA Tour win.
“This is such a fun week for us. You play with a friend, different format, and I think we’re just enjoying it,” Lipsky said. “Wherever Doc and Sam finish, I know we’re one back of Xander and Pat, but I think we’re just having fun out there. We’re both playing pretty well right now, and I’m looking forward to what we can do this weekend.”
Rai is also searching for his first win on Tour.
Doc Redman and Sam Ryder are the other tandem that sits just one back. Like the Lipsky/Rai team, both players are searching for their first win.
Wyndham Clark/Cameron Tringale and Garrick Higgo/Branden Grace are at 15 under, while Jason Day/Jason Scrivener and Sam Burns/Billy Horschel are at 14 under.
Jay Haas and Bill Haas prepare to putt on the ninth green during the first round of the 2022 Zurich Classic of New Orleans at TPC Louisiana in Avondale, Louisiana. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
The feel-good story of the week goes to the Haas team, as Jay became the oldest player in history to make the cut at a PGA Tour event (68). He had to do it in dramatic fashion, too, needing to drain a four-and-a-half footer for par at the last.
“That was probably as nervous as I’ve ever been over a putt of that length certainly. It sounds silly just to have a chance to make the cut,” he said.
He is just one start away from 800 on the PGA Tour.
The top 33 teams and ties made the cut to play the weekend. Saturday’s round will be Four-balls with Sunday’s final round will be Foursomes.
“No more Cajun for the next couple days, but some soup sounds pretty good at the moment.”
Taylor Moore began his week by getting food poisoning and ended his first round with an eagle as he and Matthew NeSmith tied the tournament course record to take the lead.
David Lipsky started his week at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with a car accident and ended Thursday on the first page of the leaderboard.
Jay Haas, two years shy of his 70th birthday, showed he still has game to hang with the youngsters on the PGA Tour.
And all of this came before the afternoon wave started to tee off in the first round at TPC Louisiana in Avondale, Louisiana, the PGA Tour’s only official team event.
“I was in the ER yesterday morning,” Moore said after he and NeSmith shot a 12-under 60 in Four ball to grab the lead. “I had food poisoning Tuesday night up until midday yesterday. So just got an IV and some nausea medicine. Finally ate something this morning, which was nice.
“Got into a little rhythm there at the end, which was cool. But no more Cajun for the next couple days, but some soup sounds pretty good at the moment.”
Added NeSmith: “Honestly, we were just trying to finish 18 holes upright. And all of a sudden, we started catching a touch of a rhythm, started making a few putts, started finding the round a little bit. We finished 18 holes, and that was the goal.”
The format switches to the more difficult Foursomes (alternate shot) for the second round; Four ball will be used in the third round, Foursomes in the final round.
Moore and NeSmith were one shot ahead of the teams of Aaron Rai/Lipsky, Tommy Gainey/Robert Garrigus, and Doc Redman/Sam Ryder.
It was a much better spot to be in for Lipsky, who on Tuesday was rear-ended on his way to the golf course as he pulled out from an inside lane to avoid a car that had broken down.
“I’m fine,” Lipsky said. “I started changing lanes, and the guy behind me, I guess, wasn’t paying attention and slammed on the brakes and smoked me. I’m all right. I think the other two drivers were fine.
“It was a little bit of a hectic beginning to the week.”
Jay Haas plays from the 13th tee during the first round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Wevers-USA TODAY Sports
Haas, 68, began his 799th week at a PGA Tour event by teaming with his son, Bill, 39, to shoot 65. The winner of nine PGA Tour titles and 18 PGA Tour Champions events hadn’t played in a PGA Tour event since 2010, hadn’t made a PGA Tour cut since 2006, and hadn’t won on the PGA Tour since the 1993 Texas Open.
But the elder Haas made four birdies to his son’s three.
“We hammed-and-egged it. We bounced back and forth,” the older Haas said. “I had a ball today. I played well. I thought I was helpful and all that, so it was nice. Hopefully I can continue that the rest of the week and we’ll see what we can do.
“It was fun today.”
Lefty MacIntyre didn’t look too excited about his tee shot on the par-3, 207-yard 14th but the ball took a nice bounce from just in front of the green and rolled right into the cup for his first ace in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event. MacIntyre, who used a 6-iron, is denied a place in the record books because statistics in team events are not included.
As for Morikawa, he holed out from 94 yards on the par-4 14th and chipped in from 40 feet on the par-3 17th as he and Viktor Hovland, the first team in tournament history to feature two top-5 players in the official world rankings, were leading the tournament in the early going.
But the two were even-par on their final eight holes and shot 65.
“Even with a kind of mediocre day,” Morikawa said, “to still be at 7 under, we’re still right there with formats to come.”
“Yeah, it was a little bit of a hectic beginning to the week.”
AVONDALE, La. — David Lipsky was on his way to TPC Louisiana on Tuesday morning when he was passing a scene of a broken down car. When he went to change lanes to get out of the way, he was then hit from behind, causing damage to the left rear of his rental car.
“I was driving here on Tuesday morning, and there was a car right in front of me that had broke down,” Lipsky said in his post-round press conference Thursday, “so I started changing lanes, and the guy behind me, I guess, wasn’t paying attention and slammed on the brakes and smoked me.”
Your @Zurich_Classic co-leader David Lipsky, who is teaming with Aaron Rai, already had an eventful week. He was involved in a car crash on Tuesday heading to the course. He said no one was hurt in the accident. pic.twitter.com/EobINlcQ4B
“I’m all right. I think the other two drivers were fine. Yeah, it was a little bit of a hectic beginning to the week,” he said.
Lipsky must be feeling all right, because he and his partner, Aaron Rai, opened the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with a best ball 11-under 61 to take an early two-shot lead in the Thursday morning wave.
“We did complement each other really well today. David played some incredible golf, hit some shots really close, putted well,” Rai said after their round. “And David made a lot of birdies, especially early on and around the turn, which really got things going for us. I chipped in a couple things on the back nine, but it was great to see David be a part of it.”
Lipsky made six birdies and an eagle, which came in the form of a 113-yard hole out on the par-4 8th.
Tomorrow the pair will be playing an alternate shot format, a type of golf neither one has an extensive history with.
“I’ve never played foursomes before,” Rai said.
“I played like two holes alternate shot like five years ago. That was the closest I’ve had to this type of format,” Lipsky said.
They’ll have to acclimate quickly if they plan to hold off the star-studded teams just a few shots back.
From the parking lot to the golf course, the defending champion is feeling right at home this week.
PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Sam Burns arrived at Innisbrook Resort, home of this week’s Valspar Championship, late Monday night and noticed his face on everything from banners to billboards to hotel keys. The defending champion’s mug is seemingly everywhere, and he even got a custom paint job on his parking spot.
“I don’t know who did it but they did a fantastic job with the eye of the Tiger there and then the state of Louisiana for the L in LSU,” he said. “Really well thought out, they did a great job.”
They may be able to re-use the same signs next year if Burns keeps burning up the Copperhead Course. The 25-year-old Louisiana native made birdie on his final two holes to shoot 7-under 64 and tie for the opening-round lead with Venezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas, former Valspar champion Adam Hadwin, who birdied four of his final five holes, and rookie David Lipsky.
Burns birdied half the holes, recording four deuces on the scorecard, including stuffing his tee shot at both the par-3 13th and 17th holes to 2 feet, and three of the four par 5s.
Vegas went out early and fired 7-under 64, which included a 4-iron to 6-feet that set up eagle at the first hole, his 10th of the day. Vegas made an early exit from the Players Championship last week despite playing in the good wave that didn’t have to battle with the worst of the weather.
“But I still screwed up 17,” said Vegas of his second-round 78 at TPC Sawgrass.
He switched to an old set of Mizuno MP-4 irons and found the Copperhead Course more to his liking. Vegas, who hasn’t notched a single top-10 finish this season, gained nearly two strokes on the field with his iron play and more than 3 ½ with his putter.
“Exactly what I needed after last week. Game was there. I took advantage of the great conditions this morning,” Vegas said. “Absolutely a perfect day out here. So, yeah, lucky to have shot a nice 64.”
On a sunny day with mild winds and soft greens from recent storms, the field painted the scoreboard red with birdies galore. Eighty-nine players in the field, including amateur Jackson Suber of Ole Miss, broke par.
“While I was in the scoring tent, everyone is like, that was the craziest 7-under we’ve ever seen,” Lipsky said. “I just sort of did everything that you’re supposed to do, and then when that happens you play well.”
Danny Lee, Scott Stallings and Richy Werenski were among a group a stroke back of the leaders after 6-under 65s.
“I always like this place,” Lee said. “I wish I can play like this every day. But it’s nice to play under normal conditions again, the last two weeks have been brutally tough and mentally and physically.”
Justin Thomas is among the players who arrived weary from a long start-stop week that stretched into Monday at the Players. He said he slept nearly 10 hours ahead of his Thursday afternoon tee time.
“I woke up and played like a zombie,” said Thomas, who couldn’t buy a putt early on and was even par through his first 10 holes. “I was rolling it exactly where I wanted to and just burning the edge and lipping out some of them.”
His caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay, advised him to stay patient.
“If we can just get this lid to come off, some of them might start going in,” Thomas said.
He did just that in a big way. Thomas lofted a high-cut 3-wood from 252 yards at the par-5 14th that stopped 64 feet beyond the hole and then drained the putt. It was the third-longest made putt of his PGA Tour career.
“Clearly you’ve been hitting it too close to the hole today,” playing competitor Kevin Kisner teased.
Thomas’s ball-striking was on point. He led the field in Strokes Gained: Approach the green and SG: Tee to Green, but ranked 114th in putting, losing more than a stroke to the field despite making the bomb at 14. Thomas knocked a 9-iron inside 2 feet at No. 16 for another birdie to play the three-hole stretch starting at 14 in 4 under and signed for 66.
“The greens are very difficult to read, they are very subtle,” Thomas said. “They are always going to be a little bit more chewed up in the afternoon, so, we’ll get some fresh ones tomorrow morning and maybe we’ll fill it up.”
David Lipsky won the Korn Ferry Tour’s TPC San Antonio Challenge by four shots Sunday.
Entering this week’s TPC San Antonio Challenge at the Canyons, David Lipsky sat in 82nd on the Korn Ferry Tour points list.
After rounds of 69-66-62-66 at TPC San Antonio, Lipsky won the event by four shots and rocketed to No. 11 on the Korn Ferry Tour’s list.
Lipsky carried the same momentum from the third round — in which he led by one shot — to his final round Sunday morning, carding three birdies on the front nine. The 31-year-old carded seven birdies total, including one on his 72nd hole, and one bogey Sunday to earn his first Korn Ferry Tour win.
The former Northwestern golfer joined the Korn Ferry Tour in 2013 and has won two international events as a professional: the 2012 Handa Faldo Cambodian Classic and the 2014 Omega European Masters.
His best finish this season before Sunday this season was T-10 at the Panama Championship in February.
Taylor Pendrith finished in second at 21 under. Paul Haley II and Paul Barjon tied for third at 20 under and David Skinns rounded out the top five after carding a final-round 64 to finish at 19 under.
