VALLARTA, Mexico — Six of the seven PGA Tour events this year had international winners, and the Mexico Open added to the trend Thursday when Jeremy Paul of Germany, Kris Ventura of Norway and Harry Hall of England shared the lead at 7-under 64.
Hall played early and handled the gusts at Vidanta Vallarta, chipping in from 30 yards for eagle on the par-5 sixth hole and driving the green on the 297-yard seventh hole for another look at eagle. He putted for birdie and closed with two more pars.
Ventura and Paul, whose twin brother Yannik plays on the European tour, had the advantage of the wind slightly easing late in the afternoon. But it was a matter of making birdies on a day when 70 players in the 132-man field broke 70.
Ventura was the only player to reach 8 under, running off three straight birdies late in his round. But he missed the green on the par-3 ninth, his final hole, chipped to 10 feet and missed the par putt.
“Bummer with the last hole, but other than that, really solid,” Ventura said. “Could have made some more birdies, obviously, but just happy where my game is. I can’t expect to hit it like this every single day. Today was just one of those days where everything was spot on.”
Paul had a pair of eagles, on the reachable seventh hole and the other when he ripped a 3-wood from 309 yards to about 12 feet on the par-5 12th.
“Hit a really good 3 wood but I didn’t think I could quite get there, thought it was going to be just short of the green,” Paul said. “With the help of the wind, it must have made it all the way up there. That was a nice bonus.”
He had a chance to take the lead until he chose to play the fairway left of the par-5 18th hole for a better angle. But his 3-wood didn’t cut back to the right toward the green, and Paul wasn’t aware water behind the green was in play. He hit it into the water and did well to hit a pitch from 50 yards to 6 feet to save par.
They were a shot ahead of five players. Stephan Jaeger was in the group two shots behind with reason to be disappointed. He was at 6 under through 11 holes and played the three par 5s on the back nine at 1 over, going into the water on the 18th for a bogey.
Harris English — from Georgia — is the lone American winner on tour this year, having captured the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in late January. Otherwise, there have been winners from Japan, Canada, Austria, Northern Ireland, Belgium and Sweden.
There’s still a long way to go in the Mexico Open, with low scoring allowing for plenty of movement. Defending champion Jake Knapp birdied three of his last five holes to turn a pedestrian round into a 67. Also at 67 was England’s Aaron Rai, who at No. 29 is the highest-ranked player in the field.
