There were several hot rounds early at the 2023 PDGA Professional Disc Golf World Championships presented by L.L.Bean with more on the way before the dark skies moved over the Green Mountains of Vermont.

Lightning arrived just after Wednesday’s feature card teed off and forced a lengthy delay. Six cards heard the horns again at dusk and will resume their opening round Thursday morning.

Before the weather and darkness suspensions, the scores were heating up at Smugglers’ Notch, led by a 1086-rated, 12-under round from Chris Clemons.

Clemons went bogey-free — going 7-under through the front nine and 5-under through the final six — on Brewster Ridge for a two-stroke clubhouse lead in the A Pool. Clemons led in strokes gained tee-to-green at 7.22 of the early finishers, keeping it clean off the tee box in the muddy conditions.

Joining Clemons in the double-digit club was Anthony Barela at 10-under. Barela was the only player in the field to start 5-for-5 at Brewster.

Then the logjam begins.

Jesse Nieminen and Matt Orum (T9) during round one in Vermont. Photo: Justin Anderson / PDGA

Isaac Robinson and Finland’s Jesse Nieminen will round out the lead card on Thursday at Fox Run Meadows at 9-under and they’re joined by Zach Arlinghaus, Cole Redalen and Gavin Babcock in a five-way tie for third. Six more players are tied at 8-under, four strokes off the lead.

The leaderboard will be changing once again when the final 24 players complete their first round on Thursday morning.

Niklas Anttila will finish his first round on Thursday morning. Photo: Justin Anderson / PDGA

Alden Harris is 7-under through 13 holes and James Proctor and Jakub Semerad are the same through 14. Through 12 holes, Niklas Anttila and Aaron Gossage are 6-under. Their cardmates Calvin Heimburg and Simon Lizotte are 5-under and 4-under, respectively.

The feature card, which will remain the same on Thursday’s round at Fox Run Meadows, is through 11 holes. 2018 PDGA World Champion leads that card at 4-under while Paul McBeth, Ricky Wysocki and Chris Dickerson are 3-under.

In the B Pool, Nick Hanson dropped a 1070-rated, 10-under par — that included two bogies — at Fox Run Meadows. Raven Newsom and Jaden Rye are right behind him at 9-under. Randon Latta and Matt Thompson are at 8-under.

Day one is in the books in Vermont, just not quite round one as action resumes at 7:47 a.m. ET on Thursday. Live coverage begins at 7:45 a.m. ET on the Disc Golf Network.