ATLANTA — East Lake Golf Club, where, oh where, is thy sting?
In the first round of the FedEx Cup playoff finale on Thursday, most of the 30-player field at the Tour Championship excelled at the historic course.
Russell Henley led the way with a 9-under-par 61, including three straight birdies to end the round.
World No. 1 and defending champion Scottie Scheffler is just two strokes behind at 7-under 63. Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, Justin Thomas, Robert MacIntyre of Scotland and Tommy Fleetwood of England were three strokes back at 6-under 64 on a crowded leaderboard.
In total, 22 players were under par, six players were even and just two players were over par. The combined score of the field was 82 under par.
Perhaps it was the heavy rain that pummeled the Atlanta area Tuesday and Wednesday that helped the golfers. Round 1 was played under preferred lies rules due to evening downpours. This allowed balls on the fairways or other closely mown areas to be lifted, cleaned and placed in a preferred spot.
The course was set up to be more challenging with pins tucked in corners of the greens. It turns out, that didn’t matter.
“Just with conditions right now, flags barely moving and it’s rained a lot over the last day, so things that you can’t control,” Morikawa said. “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.
“Lift, clean and place, you’ve got a lot of wedges on this golf course. Can’t really do much to tuck (pins) away because even if you do tuck them in corners, we’re firing away with a wedge.”
With more inclement weather due on Friday, second-round tee times were moved up for an 8 a.m. start. The final hour of the first round was played under a weather alert with lightning 10 miles away.
Henley finished with seven birdies and an eagle at No. 6. Five of his birdies came on the back nine, including the final three holes. Henley made a total of 207 feet, four inches worth of putts on the round.
“Just felt like I was at peace if I missed,” Henley said. “I felt like I was clear on my reads. Last week, I felt like I played really well and didn’t give myself a bunch of looks because I couldn’t figure out how far the ball was going and struggled a little bit on the looks of those greens, getting the reads down.
“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.”
Some players thought there may have been an even lower score to be had.
“I started with three birdies, so there was 59 out there at that point,” Fleetwood said. “Unbelievable score (by Henley). Just unbelievable score.”
Scheffler, who won last week’s BMW Championship for his fifth title of the season, birdied three of the final four holes in a bogey-free round.
Playing in the final pairing with Scheffler, Northern Ireland star Rory McIlroy had a stroke of incredible luck at the par-5 18th.
He hit his third shot out of a bunker and it came out much hotter than he expected. It sailed over the green but ricocheted off the stands and headed back onto the green, settling to 17 feet of the pin. McIlroy sank the ensuing birdie putt for a 4-under 66.
As soon as Scheffler made his birdie putt at No. 18, the horn sounded for the course to be cleared.
“I have never rooted so hard for somebody’s ball to come back, outside of my partner in a team event,” Scheffler said of McIlroy’s shot. “… I’m watching his ball fly towards the grandstand. I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, we’ve got no way of finishing this thing (before the horn),’ so I was relieved when I saw it come back on the green.”
McIlroy, who entered second in the points standings, was tied for eighth at 4 under with Akshay Bhatia, the last man in the 30-player field, along with Ludvig Aberg of Sweden and Ben Griffin.
Maverick McNealy (1-over 71) and Austria’s Sepp Straka (4-over 74) were the only golfers to exceed par.
–Chris Vivlamore, Field Level Media
