By any reasonable measure, Scottie Scheffler is the best player in the world this year. By the leaderboard of the Tour Championship, however, he’s not in the lead.
He’s in second place.
Scheffler (-7) is in his typical inevitable form, trailing — for the moment — only Russell Henley after one round at the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. Henley put some serious distance between himself and the field over the course of the afternoon, carding a 9-under 61 that included seven birdies and an eagle.
For Henley, the long putts gave him a sense of calm he hasn’t felt lately on a golf course: “I just felt like I was at peace if I missed. I felt like I was clear on my reads,” he said after his round. “Just felt a little more clear in my mind on what I thought the ball was going to do and just felt like, yeah, at peace if I missed it. Just kind of free-wheeled it a little bit.”
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Robert MacIntyre, who knows a thing or two about getting chased down by Scheffler, is in third at -6. Also at -6: a trio of American Ryder Cup hopefuls: Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay, as well as Tommy Fleetwood, who will represent Europe. Thomas, in particular, was on fire early, firing a 29 on the front nine before a double bogey on 16 derailed his momentum. But he closed with a birdie to claw back a bit of the lost ground.
“I probably wouldn’t have had a very good taste in my mouth if I didn’t make birdie there,” Thomas said afterward. “Yeah, I feel like it definitely put a cap on a really solid day.”
Morikawa and Cantlay, unsurprisingly, fielded multiple Ryder Cup questions after the round, given that they failed to automatically qualify for the team and are dependent on captain Keegan Bradley’s decision.
“I hope I’ve done enough. We’ll have to wait and see,” Morikawa said. “My focus right now is to try and go out and win this golf tournament. I think if I do that, then hopefully that’s enough, and we’ll see how everything plays out.”
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“I’m not worrying too much about [the Ryder Cup] this week,” Cantlay said. “I’m worried about the task at hand; those kind of things will take care of themselves.”
Rory McIlroy finished the day at -4, tied for 8th, but not before a wild 18th hole where he bounced a skulled bunker shot off the grandstand, and then proceeded to roll in in a long birdie.
Scheffler and Henley will be in the final pairing on Friday. The Tour Championship is a no-cut event, and this year, in the latest iteration of the championship rules, the winner of the tournament wins the FedEx Cup, straight up. It’s too early to say Scheffler will claim the title … or maybe it isn’t.
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