ATLANTA — Scottie Scheffler began the Tour Championship with a two-shot lead primarily based on his dominant season. After which he regarded dominant as ever Thursday, posting the most effective spherical at 6-under 65 to construct a seven-shot lead and take an enormous step towards the FedEx Cup title.
Scheffler had 5 birdies over his final seven holes on a sweltering afternoon at renovated East Lake to tug away from Xander Schauffele and everybody else.
He made birdie from the bunker on the par-5 18th gap with an 8-foot putt and took his spot within the PGA Tour file e-book with an asterisk. Nobody has ever led by seven after 18 holes way back to the tour retains such data.
The asterisk is as a result of he was just one shot higher than Collin Morikawa and 4 others who every had a 66.
That is the sixth 12 months of the “beginning strokes” format on the FedEx Cup finale. Scheffler was the No. 1 seed primarily based on his six PGA Tour victories, which incorporates the Masters and The Gamers Championship. He began the match at 10-under par and with a two-shot lead over Xander Schauffele, the double main winner and No. 2 seed.
That is the third straight 12 months Scheffler has began with the lead. He has but to win the FedEx Cup and its $25 million bonus. And by the sound of it, that wasn’t on his thoughts.
“I wasn’t serious about the lead on the market right now. There’s no cause to. It’s the primary day of the match. It’s 72 holes. It’s a very long time on the market to be enjoying with a lead,” Scheffler mentioned. “I used to be simply centered on staying in my very own world and persevering with to simply attempt to execute.”
He bought a fast reminder {that a} two-shot lead on Thursday — and even on a Sunday — is nothing to have fun. Schauffele made up that deficit on the opening gap with an 8-foot birdie, whereas Scheffler made his lone bogey by having to play wanting the inexperienced from behind a tree.
Scheffler, on the power of a 35-foot birdie putt at No. 7, led by one after they made the flip after which left his fellow Olympic gold medalist within the mud.
Schauffele missed an 8-foot birdie probability at No. 10 and a 5-foot par putt on No. 11. Scheffler made birdie on the subsequent three holes as Schauffele couldn’t discover a fairway, which led to him not having any cheap birdie possibilities.
“I feel I scored OK truly for a way dangerous I hit it,” mentioned Schauffele, who headed for the vary when his spherical was over. “Total it was sort of a ‘meh’ day. Wasn’t one thing I used to be pleased with or disgusted by.”
The distinction between golf’s greatest two gamers this 12 months was clear — Scheffler was in a position to management his distance from the green, Schauffele was guessing on photographs out of the tough.
“Scottie was virtually in each fairway, it regarded like,” Schauffele mentioned. “It regarded like he was going by means of wedge apply whereas he was on the market.”
Certainly, Scheffler missed solely two greens and putted for birdie or higher on his final 14 holes. The world’s No. 1 participant poured it on on the finish, and with the pinnacle begin, he was 16-under par.
However this chase for the $25 million bonus is much from over, and Scheffler is proof of that. He was the highest seed and led by 5 photographs after the primary spherical of the 2022 Tour Championship. That additionally was the 12 months he took a six-shot lead into the ultimate spherical and misplaced to Rory McIlroy.
Just one different high seed led after the primary day since this format started in 2019. That was Patrick Cantlay, who led by two and went on to win the FedEx Cup by one shot.
Morikawa has a historical past of nice begins. He made up a nine-shot deficit in a single spherical final 12 months with a 61. On today, he ran off six straight birdies on the again 9, and his 66 will put him within the ultimate group with Scheffler on Friday.
Morikawa and Schauffele (70) have been at 9-under par. One other shot again was a big group that included Adam Scott (66), Hideki Matsuyama (70) and Keegan Bradley, who went from No. 50 to No. 4 by profitable the BMW Championship final week.
Scoring was not terribly low on the new-look East Lake, with its closely contoured greens, intently mown areas as a substitute of thick tough and the absence of bushes. However then, just one participant was over par — Billy Horschel at 73.
Schauffele a minimum of prolonged his astonishing streak at East Lake even with the redesign. He misplaced plenty of floor on the again 9, however his 70 was the twenty sixth time in 29 rounds that he was below par. He has by no means shot over par.
That wasn’t ok to maintain tempo with Scheffler.
