ATLANTA – East Lake Golf Club was supposed to be toughened for the 30 remaining competitors in the Tour Championship, the final leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. But it turned into a birdie-fest on Thursday as only two players failed two break par.
“It’s just Mother Nature. When conditions are like that, we’re going to be firing at pins. That’s just the nature of what we do,” said Collin Morikawa who opened with 6-under 64.
Nobody went lower than Peach State native Russell Henley, who made three putts of more than 30 feet, tallied more than 200 feet of putts in all and carded 9-under 61 to grab the lead after the first round of play.
“It’s probably the most I’ve ever made,” Henley said of his putting prowess. “I just felt like I was at peace if I missed. I felt like I was clear on my reads.”
He made an eagle at the par-5 sixth and closed with three birdies in a row, including a 42-footer at 16 and a 35-footer at 17. Henley, a five-time Tour winner who won most recently at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, gained 6.267 strokes putting in round one, his most in a round on Tour. It’s the 10th time that Henley had held or shared the 18-hole lead and he’s winless after the previous nine hot starts.
Henley shot 62 in the final round last year and his 61 tied the opening-round low and was a stroke off the course record. Rain earlier in the week, including overnight, softened the course and resulted in officials implementing preferred lies.
“Lift, clean and place, you’ve got a lot of wedges on this golf course. Can’t really do much to tuck them away because even if you do tuck them in corners, we’re firing away with a wedge,” Morikawa explained.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who is attempting to become the first player to win the FedEx Cup in consecutive years, is in contention to do so, alone in second after shooting a bogey-free 7-under 63, his lowest score in 21 career rounds at East Lake.
“I hit fairways and I holed some nice putts,” Scheffler said.
Justin Thomas got the birdie party started early. He holed out from 60 feet off the green at the first and it proved to be an auspicious start. He tacked on another at the third and then heated up with a steak of four in a row beginning at No. 6. He canned a 35-footer at No. 6 and a 34-footer from across the green at No. 9 to open in 6-under 29, his lowest nine-hole score of the season and in 33 career rounds at East Lake. He made 113 feet, 10 inches of putts on the front nine alone. He was the solo leader at 7 under until he made double bogey at 16. But he closed with a birdie for one of five rounds of 64, along with Morikawa, Tommy Fleetwood, Robert MacIntyre and Patrick Cantlay.
Thomas won the FedEx Cup in 2017 based on points but didn’t win the Tour Championship, which Xander Schauffele won that year. This year starting strokes is out and everyone in the field started the 72-hole stroke-play event at par.
Morikawa, who finished second to Scheffler last year despite shooting the low 72-hole score, joked in a tweet a year ago that he signed up for the gross division, but forgot to sign up for the net.
“I’m for it this way now,” Morikawa said, “and I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do but last year I knew my challenge as well, I had shots to make up. Different mindset that way, so it’s nice that I would have started this week if I was, whatever, 1 under, 2 under, I still would have been pretty far behind.”
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