World number one Scottie Scheffler has yet to win the Tour Championship despite twice starting in pole position at -10, but he’s gone a long way to making it third time lucky with an opening 65 that sees him pull seven shots clear.
Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry started at -4 and -3 respectively, but their already slim hopes of pulling off a Danny Ocean-esque heist of the century were made even slimmer as they both slipped down the leaderboard despite breaking par on the new-look East Lake.
Despite fears that the redesign and the firm greens would prove too challenging for the PGA Tour’s elite, just one of the 30-man field failed to shoot a red-figured round, with Billy Horschel’s 73 that odd one out.
Lowry made just the one bogey, that coming at the par-3 ninth, with birdies at five, 14 and 18 to end the day tied for 14th in his first Tour Championship appearance, while McIlroy laboured to the turn with two bogeys and a birdie before heating up on the back side, going bogey free with birdies at 14, 16 and 18 to sit tied for 10th, one stroke clear of Lowry.
But it’s all about Scheffler, who overcame a first-hole wobble that saw his lead instantly vanish. That would be his only bogey of the day, however, and seven subsequent birdies means that he moves to -16 overall, seven clear of Collin Morikawa who shot a 66 and Xander Schauffele who found himself tied for the lead after he birdied the first, but couldn’t build on that and ended up carding a one-under 70.
“I’m trying not to think much about the starting strokes stuff,” said Scheffler. “I think it’s still a bit weird with it not being a traditional event. But it was nice to get off to a good start in the first round, and I feel like I did a lot of things well today.
“Just like any other tournament, if I came out here and shot two-over par and this was a regular stroke play event, I’d be sitting pretty far back from the lead.
“So treating it like I would any other tournament, just staying in my lane and doing the things I’m good at, and that’s just trying to focus on the task at hand and let all the other stuff take care of itself.”
Schauffele felt that accuracy off the tee, or the lack thereof, and the firmness of the greens were the reasons why he failed to replicate the outstanding form that’s seen him become a two-time major winner.
“Kind of hit it in the rough a lot, and with brand new greens, I think I scored OK actually for how bad I hit it. But yeah, overall it was kind of a ‘meh’ day. Wasn’t something to be proud of or disgusted by,” he said.
“Scottie was almost in every fairway it looked like. It looked like he was going through wedge practice while he was out there. If you’re in the fairway you can attack this golf course.”
Morrikawa could well be the man to push Scheffler all the way. The two-time major winner caught fire from the 10th, reeling off six straight birdies to push his way up the board and sign for a 66.
“I’m going to use that back nine to hopefully push myself the next three days,” he said. “After 9 I told myself to start only thinking about my shot and not worrying about if the ball is going to be perfect or not.
“My game is good enough to come out here and win. I’ve just got to get out of my own head.”
Leave a comment