Thomas Ponder leads as KIA Open de Ecuador presentado por Diners Club is suspended

The first round was suspended due to lightning at 3:51 p.m. local time. Play will resume Friday at 6:45 a.m., and second-round tee times are delayed one hour.

Beforethe suspension of play on Thursday due to weather, Thomas Ponder (Dothan, Alabama)carded an 8-under 64 at Quito Tenis & Golf Club to take a one-stroke lead at the KIA Open de Ecuador presentado por Diners Club in Quito, Ecuador.

Ponder is a third-year pro from the University of Alabama, and he finished No. 35 (2025) and No. 36 (2024) on the PGA TOUR Americas Points List the last two seasons. This year, he’s currently No. 9 on the points list and with top-10 finishes in his last two starts – T6 at the 94 Abierto del Centro Zurich presentado por Personal and T10 last week at the Diners Club Peru Open.

A pair of Ecuadorians making their pro debuts – 25-year-old Felipe Garcés and 22-year-old Renato Naula – both carded rounds of 5-under 67 and are T9 to start the fourth event of the PGA TOUR Americas season.

Garcés won the South American Amateur in 2024 and 2026, and his round was highlighted by a hole-in-one with an 8-iron on the 200-yard, par-3 sixth hole. He previously competed in this event twice as an amateur, finishing T19 in 2025 and T27 in 2024.

Naula just completed a four-year collegiate career at the University of San Francisco (2022-26), closing with a T12 finish at the West Coast Conference Championship. He competed in the Latin America Amateur Championship five times, with his best finish being T9 earlier this year in Peru.

Making his PGA TOUR Americas debut this week is Canadian amateur Dayton Price, who was one of two survivors of a tragic auto collision that took the lives of his coach and six teammates four years ago when he was a member of the University of the Southwest golf team.

Price teed off at 1:06 p.m. local time Thursday, and he and the rest of the field will resume their first rounds at 6:45 a.m. Friday.