Ryan leads by two following opening 63 in Mazatlán

MAZATLÁN, MEXICO—A bogey-free 63, featuring seven birdies and one eagle, brought a smile back to Matt Ryan's face Thursday morning in the opening round of the Estrella del Mar Open. Resuming the 2021-22 PGA TOUR Latinoamérica season with a solid performance, the California native holds a two-shot lead over Armando Favela and Joseph Winslow, whose opening 65s came in bogey-free fashion as well. Officials suspended play due to darkness, with players still on the course.

In addition to Favela, there are four other Mexican players inside the top 10. Aaron Terrazas, Emilio González, Angel Morales Hernández and Jorge Villar shooting 6-under 66s to tie for fourth. The other 66s came from Sweden’s Linus Lilliedahl, Guatemala’s José Toledo, Chile’s Cristóbal Del Solar, and Americans Scott Wolfes and Carson Roberts.

“The best part of my day was my attitude,” said the 35-year old leader.

Coming off a rough 2020-21 season in which he lost his Korn Ferry Tour card, Ryan only managed to record five top 25s while making 15 cuts in 34 starts on PGA TOUR-sanctioned Tours. In addition to the Korn Ferry Tour, he played the Forme Tour and PGA TOUR Latinoamérica during that stretch.

“Over the past year and a half my attitude has been terrible,” admitted the Fresno State alum, a pro since 2010. “So, that’s the only goal this week, (to) have a better attitude. I wrote on my yardage book ‘Be your own best friend’, so I’m trying to do that.”

Pushing himself to stay positive, Ryan got off to the best possible start, shooting 6-under on the front nine, making eagle at the fifth and birdies on 2, 4, 7 and 9.

“I drove it nicely, and then I hit a couple of irons pretty close to the hole and just putted steady all day,” said the lefty of a round that saw him close with birdies on 10, 16 and 18.

Although he secured good PGA TOUR Latinoamérica status with a tie for fifth at the Argentina Qualifying Tournament last November, Ryan closed his year with back-to-back missed cuts in Argentina and Chile to start the new season.

In need of a break, he went to California to spend time with family and friends. “I actually took like three and a half weeks off. I hadn’t seen my family other than three days during the two years of COVID, so I only played one round of golf with my brother and a friend on the second- to-last day I was home in Los Angeles. I felt rejuvenated when I went back East,” said Ryan, who moved from Jacksonville Beach, Florida, to Charlotte, North Carolina, this past week.

Did you know Matt Ryan is making his fourth career start at Estrella del Mar Country Club? He came up empty in his two previous starts at the Estrella del Mar Open, missing the cut in 2014 and 2020, but he had a runner-up finish at the 2019 PGA TOUR Latinoamérica Qualifying Tournament with rounds of 64-71-68-63.

Key Information

Officials suspended play due to darkness, with 15 players unable to complete their opening rounds. Those players will resume play Friday at 7:45 a.m., and then will proceed with the second round, which the rest of the morning wave will begin at 7:10 a.m.

The scoring average for the 129 players who completed the first round was at 70.99 strokes, with 37 of them posting rounds in the 60s. There were 76 rounds under par, with the cut line currently at 2-under at the 7,015-yard par-72 at Estrella del Mar Country Club.

There were seven bogey-free rounds Thursday: Matt Ryan (63), Armando Favela (65), Joseph Winslow(65), Linus Lilliedahl (66), Scott Wolfes (66), Kevin Velo (67) and Shintaro Ban (67).

Entering this event as the Totalplay Cup points list leader after a win and a runner-up finish, Argentina’s Jorge Fernández Valdés carded a 5-under 67 to join a group of eight players tied for 13th. The 29-year-old had an eagle, four birdies and only one bogey on a course where he has finished second (2014 Estrella del Mar Open) and third (2021 Mexico Open) during his PGA TOUR Latinoamérica career.

This is how the players inside the Totalplay Cup Points List top 10 stand through 18 holes:

Thursday’s 6-under 66, good for a tie for fourth, adds to the good momentum Mexico’s Aaron Terrazas is enjoying. The 25-year-old (birthday February 6) has a win and four top-10s in his last four starts (tie for fourth, tie for ninth and tie for sixth), combining his schedule on PGA TOUR Latinoamérica and the Mexican Tour. Ranked seventh after back-to-back top-10s in South America last December, he entered this week as the leading Mexican player on the Totalplay Cup standings.

Starting on No. 10 at 9 a.m., Mexico’s Jorge Villar had the lowest nine of the day on his opening nine. He birdied the first four holes and then birdied 15, 16 and 18 for a 7-under 29. On the front-nine, he recorded eight pars and his only bogey of the day, on No. 7, to card an opening 66.

Former PGA TOUR winner Andrés Romero had a rollercoaster opening round of 1-under 71 to tie for 63rd. The 40-year old from Tucuman, Argentina, had a birdie on No. 2, a bogey on the fourth and an eagle on No. 5 before making a quadruple bogey 8 on the sixth and a bogey on seven to shoot 3-over 39 on the front nine. He managed to turn things around on the back, birdieing 10, 11, 14, 15 and 16, dropping his only shot on 17, where he made bogey.

American Kevin Stadler, the other former PGA TOUR winner in this week’s field, went on to shoot 3-over 75. The 42-year old who won the 2014 WM Phoenix Open was 1-under with five holes to play, but a bad stretch of bogey-double bogey-bogey, starting at the fifth, dropped him into a tie for 122nd.

There are 26 Mexican players in this week’s field. The following are the scores and positions of those inside the top 55 and ties through 18 holes:

Quotable

“I putted extremely well today. I gave myself many chances and took good advantage. I had a hole out on 12, my third hole, and that kind of gave me a push, a feeling that I was going to have a good day, and I went on to shoot 7-under.” –Armando Favela

“The course is prone to low scores, but you have to stay patient. If at some point you can’t take advantage of an easy hole, you have to keep in mind that there are many other holes to take advantage of.” –Armando Favela

“The fifth hole has always been a tough par-5 for me. I hit a great driver off the tee, from where I have struggled in the past. I had a great number on my second shot, with the 4-iron. I hit it in the middle of the green and almost made the eagle putt. That gave me a good feeling, and I knew it was going to be a good round to start the tournament.” –Aaron Terrazas

“It was quite windy this afternoon. I didn’t expect it to blow as hard as it did, but it’s something we have to deal with when playing this near to the ocean.” –Jorge Fernández Valdés

First-Round Weather

Partly cloudy. High of 77. Wind NW at 14-22 mph.