Grady Shue shot one of the hot rounds on Thursday to jump to a share of the lead. Photo: Kevin Huver / DGN

The skies cleared and the birdies dropped Thursday at Smugglers’ Notch.

After six cards officially wrapped the weather-delayed opening round of the 2023 PDGA Professional Disc Golf World Championship presented by L.L.Bean early in the morning, the field returned for their first crack at Fox Run Meadows.

And the field shredded it under sunny skies and wind.

Niklas Anttila jumped to a share of the lead on Thursday. Photo: Justin Anderson / PDGA

Grady Shue and Niklas Anttila both jumped 27 spots into a share of the lead with 12-under and 11-under rounds, respectively. Just one shot back, also shooting the hot round of 12-under, were Ricky Wysocki and Chris Dickerson to round out the lead card, just one stroke back.

Also sitting one stroke back from the chase care is Gannon Buhr (-10 on Thursday), Cole Redalen (-8) and Anthony Barela (-7).

Nine more players are within four strokes of the lead, including Raven Newsom, who made the lead from the B Pool into solo eighth place.

Shue is in the top 10 in fairway hits (80%) and strokes-gained outing (5.17), according to UDisc. He’s hit 100% from C1X and 50% of his Circle 2 looks. Antilla, who had just one bogey during his 11-under round, a rollaway on the 18th green, is equally as strong off the tee so far with a 92% clip in fairway hits and is third in strokes gained tee-to-green at 11.03.

Wysocki was the only bogey-free round out of the top 14 on the leaderboard after Thursday, shooting his 12-under round with 4-of-5 from Circle 2. Dickerson, meanwhile, didn’t card a par until hole 14 with bogies on holes five and seven.

The rest of the field is right behind and the action shifts back into the weeks for the final run through Brewster Ridge. The leaderboard is chaotic, but things are starting to take shape for the weekend and an action-packed weekend in Vermont.