Miami (AFP) – World number one Scottie Scheffler swiftly put himself in a commanding position at the Tour Championship, the finale to the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs, with his 6-under 65 giving him a seven-shot lead. Under the format for the playoff final, designed to reward players for their position in the FedEx Cup standings, Scheffler started the day at East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, on 10-under, combining with his opening round to place him at the top of the leaderboard on 16-under.
His closest challengers are Collin Morikawa, who shot a 5-under 66 to move to 9-under, and Xander Schauffele, who started on eight-under and shot a one-under 70. The Masters champion Scheffler let his advantage slip by a shot on the first hole, where he made a bogey on the par-4 hole, but that was the only blemish on his scorecard. The American caught fire on the back nine, where he made five of his seven birdies, including three in a row from the 12th hole onwards.
“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,” he said. During the previous two years, Scheffler had come into this tournament with a lead, but had been unable to close out and clinch the Cup — but he said he is now trying to play the event as if it was a regular 72-hole competition.
“Just like any other tournament, if I came out here and shot 2-over par and this was a regular stroke play event, I’d be sitting pretty far back from the lead,” he said. “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,” he said.
Scheffler had said before the tournament that the key at East Lake was to keep the ball on the fairways, given the rough would make it tough to control the ball into the firm, new greens. That point was proven by Schauffele, the PGA Championship and British Open winner this year, who made four bogeys and just one birdie mainly due to his wayward driving.
“Kind of hit it in the rough a lot, and with brand new greens, I think I scored okay 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,” added Schauffele.
If anyone is going to push Scheffler to the wire, the evidence of the opening round suggested it could be Morikawa, who made six straight birdies from the 10th hole onwards, having reached the turn one-over for his round. “I’m going to use that back nine to hopefully push myself the next three days,” he said. “After nine, 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,” he said. Five players in the 30-man field found themselves tied fourth at 8-under, eight shots behind Scheffler. The most impressive of that quintet was Australian Adam Scott, who continued his recent run of good form with a bogey-free 5-under 66. For all the pre-tournament talk of how tough the course might be, only one player shot over par for the round: American Billy Horschel, who made 73.
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