The American started with a four-under 66 to be alongside countryman Kevin Chappell and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama atop the leaderboard at East Lake.
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The FedEx Cup leader has a share of the overnight lead at the Tour Championship in Atlanta and will claim the huge prize if he wins, although a top five finish could well be sufficient.
Jason Day has been careful in plotting his return from the back injury that forced him out the BMW Championship earlier in September, but that does not mean he is lowering his sights at this week’s PGA Tour Championship.
Spieth roared back from his bogey-double bogey start, holing out from a bunker for birdie at 13 and rolling in two 20-foot birdie putts to cap his round.
Rory McIlroy overcame a pair of double bogeys to sit two shots behind Dustin Johnson at the end of the first round of the Tour Championship.
“It was on, which is good and to be able to shoot three under in some of the positions that I was in, get up and down where I was getting up and down from, I’m pretty pleased with”. Chappell is still looking for his first win on the PGA Tour. This golf course is very hard and I have to focus on it instead. Even if I win the golf tournament. Chappell is still seeking his first victory in six years on tour, but has three second-place finishes this season at the RSM Classic, Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship, giving him five since 2011. “I’m not really thinking about it”, he said.
Bubba Watson made two late bogeys from the rough and had a 72 to tie for 15th, while Daniel Berger shot 40 on the front nine and shot 74. “I just kind of hit a soft cut because I knew if I hit one hard there was a chance it was definitely going to go way through”.
“I can afford those mistakes hopefully on a Thursday, but no more hopefully”, Scott said. Unfortunately, they’re not going to be sympathetic to me.
The 18th was officially a missed fairway, and Johnson hit eight of 14 fairways, missed five greens but managed par on four of them, and took 28 putts. “My biggest thing is I’ve got to win, and if I win, that hopefully pushes me over the edge”.
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“I haven’t struggled much this year”, Johnson said. “You know, past year I played pretty well”. The 55-year-old Port, the women’s golf coach at Washington University in St. Louis, also won the event for players 50 and older in 2012 and 2013 and the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur in 1995, 1996, 2000 and 2011. I feel like I’m putting the ball really nicely, I’m driving it well.
