Hideki Matsuyama had six birdies and Kevin Chappell has avoided bogeys to reach Johnson at 4 under raised during a round at East Lake on Thursday.
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Day was three under for the tournament, just three shots behind the leaders, when he chose to withdraw.
Rory McIlroy’s roller-coaster opening round at the Tour Championship on Thursday was not ideal for stroke play but just about flawless for the match play format of next week’s Ryder Cup.
If nothing else, Johnson all but eliminated almost everyone not among the top five seeds vying for the FedEx Cup.
The US$10 million bonus on offer to the playoff series victor was still clearly in the 32-year-old’s sights after a round of five birdies and one bogey.
Day, 28, finishes the season with three US PGA Tour victories, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the WGC Match Play and the Players Championship. Chappell is now the top-ranked American not in the team, closely followed by Kevin Kisner (-3) and Justin Thomas (-2).
Day, still the world No. 1 after three wins this year, withdrew from the BMW Championship little more than a week ago and while he is expected to play at East Lake, his status is questionable.
McIlroy, who needs to win with Johnson finishing tied second or worse, bogeyed the first and then hit sixes at both the seventh and eighth holes during a rollercoaster round.
Also at that mark is Spieth’s good friend Justin Thomas, along with Englishman Paul Casey and four-time major champion Rory McIlroy.
I am a big believer in par-5s as the closing hole because there is so much risk and reward involved.
“It was a very nice shot to start the day”, Johnson said with a smile.
“Now that I’m here”, he said Tuesday at East Lake, “I’m only thinking about this”. “You work so hard to get here and it’s just so special when you can finish it off”.
Fellow American Kevin Chappell had carded a hat-trick of birdies from the sixth to briefly take the lead, but bogeyed the 11th – after receiving treatment for a bee sting – and had to settle for a 68 to finish a shot behind the US Open champion.
That run has earned the 32-year-old $9.1m in PGA so far this year, already the best haul of his career to date, and boosted his all-time earnings to $38.7m, the 12th highest total in PGA Tour history. “I feel like my game’s better than it has been in years past”.
“I put the tee in the ground at the BMW Championship, and my back went out”. The following week, he was tied for the lead at Torrey Pines with eight holes to play and tied for third.
“I always felt like I was capable of winning, but it’s getting everything to happen at the right time, all in the same week”, McGirt said.
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“The last thing probably on my mind is that there’s $10 million at stake because really I’m playing golf tournaments to win hardware”.
