Scottie Scheffler takes seven-shot lead at Tour Championship, Rory McIlroy is 10 shots behind

Rory McIlroy is 10 shots off the pace despite an opening-round 69.

TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP: Rory McIlroy is 10 shots off the pace despite an opening-round 69. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler never had the best relationship with the old East Lake golf course or the new FedEx Cup’s starting strokes scoring system. But after his first round on the new East Lake golf course, his relationship with it and the now six-year-old scoring system seems on the mend.

Scheffler shot a 6-under 65 on Thursday, turning his opening two-stroke advantage as the top seed into a seven-stroke lead after the first round of the Tour championship. His mark was the lowest score anyone shot on the completely renovated golf course, which certainly comes in handy when the entire field is already giving you anything from two to 10 strokes.

So after one day, Scheffler sits at 16-under par – seven clear of No. 2 seed Xander Schauffele, whose 70 matches his worst score at East Lake, and Collin Morikawa, who shot 66 to move up to 9-under after starting the day tied for sixth.

“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 yeah, 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.” 

There’s a five-way tie for fourth at 8-under with Adam Scott (66), Sam Burns (67), Wyndham Clark (67), Keegan Bradley (69) and Hideki Matsuyama (70) jockeying for positions in the chase group behind Scheffler.

It didn’t start out as well as it finished for Scheffler, who after a bogey on the first hole watched his two-shot lead evaporate immediately when Schauffele birdied. But Scheffler took the lead back with a birdie on No. 3 and never let it slip away again as he made six more birdie in the last 12 holes to open up his big lead.

“I wasn’t thinking about the lead out there today,” Scheffler said. “There’s no reason to. It’s the first day of the tournament. It’s 72 holes. It’s a long time out there to be playing with a lead or whatever it is. I was just focused on staying in my own world and continuing to just try to execute.”

Schauffele, who has shot the low 72-hole score three times previously at East Lake, couldn’t keep up with Scheffler on Thursday and yielded the final pairing to Morikawa for round two.

“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,” Schauffele said. “But yeah, overall it was kind of a meh day. Wasn’t something to be proud of or disgusted by.

“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.” 

Rory McIlroy, who started the tournament tied for sixth at 4-under par and six behind Scheffler, got off to a slow start and was 1-over on the day through 13 holes before making birdies at 14, 16 and 18 to shoot 2-under 69 and finish T10. He’s 10 shots behind Scheffler now but only three shots out of second place – which is worth US 12.5 million.

McIlroy rallied from as many as seven strokes down early in the final round to Scheffler two years ago at the old East Lake and ended up winning his record third FedEx Cup.

“I’m happy with how I hung in there and had a good finish,” McIlroy said. “When I saw Scottie had gotten to 14 (under), I was like, oh, got to try to just hang on to the coattails a little bit. Still feel like I’ve got a chance, and it was nice to finish the way I did.” 

Shane Lowry, making his Tour Championship debut, also shot a 2-under 69 and lost a little ground from his T11 start to T14 at 5-under and 11 behind the leader. But it was a solid start, which his only blemish against three birdies was a bogey on the par-3 ninth when his tee shot suffered the consequences of the steep runoff in front of the green and he missed a 7-foot save chance.

While some veteran Tour Championship players may not be too keen on the course changes, McIlroy is not one of them.

“I love the restoration. I love the golf course. It’s probably six months away from being perfect just because of the firmness of the greens,” he said Thursday. “But I’ve always liked Andrew Green’s work. I like what he did at Congressional, I like what he did at Oak Hill. … 

“I like that the ball repels off the greens. I like that it gives you options. I think a lot of these aprons, it really gives guys a chance to sort of shine and show how good their short games are because you can play all sorts of different chips and you can putt it, you can bump it, you can fly it and try to spin it. I love that side of it.

“I think he’s probably made it a little less penal off the tee just by clearing some of the trees, but I think he’s made it a little more penal around the greens. Overall, I don’t think the course plays that much differently apart from the par-5 14th, but I really like what he’s done, and I like golf courses that sort of stretch out the playing areas and expand the playing areas a little bit. I think he’s done a great job.” 

McIlroy will play with Justin Thomas – the 30th and last player to qualify who shot 66 Thursday to vault past half the field – while Lowry will play his second round with Sungjae Im.