Top seed Dustin Johnson birdied the final hole to move into a three-way tie for the lead after the opening round of the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Thursday.
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The season-ending Tour Championship is the only event on tour that hands out two trophies – one to the tournament victor and another to the victor of the season-long FedExCup points race.
Dustin Johnson tees off on the second hole during the first round of the Tour Championship golf tournament at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016.
While the threat of pain remains, Day’s competitive instincts are taking over as he looks to beat out Johnson and the rest of the field for the lucrative FedEx Cup.
Johnson had 165 yards from the sand and anxious about getting it over the lip of the bunker. “That’s why some of the drives went a little bit wide”, Day said.
Johnson is coming off a victory in the BMW Championship, his third of the year. He hit a reasonable amount of fairways (eight out of 14) considering the dry, fast conditions, and only once when he was out of position did he fail to save par.
Reigning US Open champion Johnson is now in the box seat to claim the FedEx Cup and accompanying $US10 million bonus prize after he entered this week’s season finale on top of the standings.
The leading trio were one stroke in front of a group led by world number one Jason Day of Australia, who had four birdies and one bogey in a 67 that left him tied with South Korea’s Kim Si-Woo and American Kevin Kisner.
“I think this week the weather is looking really good, the weather is staying dry, the rough is long”, he said.
Defending champion Jordan Spieth finished with a 68 as did Rory McIlroy and Casey to be tied seventh.
That would give him The Players Championship, the Tour Championship, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Dell Match Play, along with being the FedEx Cup champion.
Spieth holed three straight putts from the 30-foot range – one of them for par – and raced back into the mix on the back nine by holing a bunker shot for birdie right of the 13th green and finishing with a pair of 20-foot birdies.
“So I’ve got to go in with the mentality that I have to win”.
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“I said to JP [Fitzgerald, his caddie] out there, I am mixing a lot of bad with a lot of good so if I can eradicate the mistakes, seven birdies around this golf course is pretty good and as you can see, once I get a couple of birdies I get some confidence and momentum”.
