If you heard what sounded like a wolf howling on Thursday morning, don’t be alarmed, it was just a 22-year-old making some noise in Mexico.
On a day where low numbers were the theme, nobody was better than Matthew Wolff. After his well-documented struggles over the last year, the former star at Oklahoma State tied his career low with a 61 on the par-71 Mayakoba Resort’s El Camaleon Golf Club in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, to take the early lead at the 2021 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba.
In his first two starts of the new PGA Tour season, Wolff finished T-17 at the Sanderson Farms Championship and solo second at the Shriners Children’s Open. He’s been under par in each of his nine rounds this season, with eight rounds in the 60s.
“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,’” said Wolff, who hit 11 out of 14 fairways, found the green in regulation 14 times and made 10 birdies and no bogeys for a steady, care-free round.
Flying up the leaderboard.
@Matthew_Wolff5 takes the outright lead with his 9th birdie of the day at No. 7. pic.twitter.com/S1CsRUCjWn
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 4, 2021
“I feel like I’ve definitely gone through some stuff in the last six or seven months, but to be able to come out of it, have a really good attitude and, you know, everything did go right today,” explained Wolff, “but even on the second hole I think I landed it a few feet from the hole and it ripped off the green. Or on 11, my second hole. I think just my attitude about making good swings is all I can really control, it’s definitely helped me out a lot and probably a good reason why I’m playing so well right now.”
That said, the winner of the 2019 3M Open a month after turning professional wasn’t the only player to score on Thursday. Of the 66 players who teed off in the first round morning wave, only nine players were over par, while 20 were at least 4 under or better.
Aaron Wise sits second at 8 under, with Chris Kirk and Billy Horschel T-3 at 7 under. Joel Dahmen and J.J. Spaun round out the top five at 6 under.
Kirk set the pace early with an ace on his first hole of the day, the par-3 10th.
“Made me feel a little better about my 4:30 a.m. wake-up call this morning,” joked Kirk. “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.”
Chris Kirk made a hole-in-one on his first hole of @WWTatMayakoba (No. 10). The last player to make an ace to begin a round on the @PGATOUR was @K_m_Mitchell at Mayakoba, R1, 2017 (same hole).
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) November 4, 2021