Kite made the turn at 4 under and recovered from a bogey-5 at No. 15 with an eagle-3 on the next hole and closed out with a final birdie on 18.
Dana Quigley, savoring the victory of his beloved Boston Red Sox in Major League Baseball's playoffs, shot a 7-under 65 to be in second place.
"I told my wife this morning that I felt different today than in any first round I've ever played," Quigley said. "I couldn't pinpoint why, but I'm sure it's because my mind is somewhere else. My mind is on the Red Sox. It really has taken my mind off being nervous about golf."
Boston beat the New York Yankees 10-3 Wednesday to cap a comeback from a 3-games-to-none deficit to won the best-of-seven AL Championship Series.
Quigley and Kite played outstanding first rounds amid the standing water at Sonoma Golf Course on the first day of the tour's season-ending event, where the winner gets US$435,000 and the winner of the season-long Schwab Cup competition takes home a US$1 million annuity.
Hale Irwin, in third place with a 66, leads the Schwab Cup standings by 39 points over Craig Stadler, who matched Morris Hatalsky and Jose Maria Canizares with a 68.
While Quigley played bogey-free golf and Kite cruised with two exceptional long putts, Irwin struggled to keep up, making six par saves.
"I got a whole stack of flour to make some bread. I was grinding out there," said Irwin, a Cardinals fan who was born in Missouri and lived in St. Louis for many years. "If I'd had some grapes, I'd have made some wine."
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