Kyle Stanley is the leader after the opening round of the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
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The PGA Tour’s season ends this week at the Tour Championship, and that means the end of the FedEx Cup season that began 342 days ago in California’s wine country.
It marks a superb ending to a very successful season for Thomas, who earned five victories and a first major championship at the recent PGA Championship.
Schauffele saved par from right of the 17th green for the fourth time on the back nine, and then smashed a 347-yard tee shot on the 18th that left him an approach just short of the green. The ball took a trip around the hole but eventually spun in for the closing birdie to avoid a playoff.
“I’ve always been on the outside looking in”, the PGA Tour rookie conceded. Dustin Johnson was 2016’s poster boy after a U.S. Open title and two other events. Not only did he see off a stellar field at East Lake but his rookie year on the PGA Tour has brought two wins and a cataclysmic rise from the position of merely seeking to retain his card. Not a good thing when you have JT and Rahm chasing you.
The seven-year streak which has seen the Tour Championship victor also claim the FedEx Cup and the $10 million bonus is in serious peril with one day remaining in the season-ending PGA Tour event at East Lake. I managed to lock up both a spot in this week’s Tour Championship (I started this week in 21 spot), and landed a place on the Presidents Cup team, becoming the first Canadian to represent the country since Graham DeLaet did it in 2013. This is the ninth straight year Johnson has qualified for the TOUR Championship, the longest active streak. “This is just unreal”.
But the English ace knows this course better than either of his closest rivals, after finishing in the top five on all three previous visits to East Lake.
There’s no guesswork involved with Spieth, the No 1 seed.
The 33-year-old Leishman entered the Tour Championship guaranteed to claim the $US10 million ($12.5m) FedEx Cup bonus if he won this event.
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The PGA Tour nearly never relegates tournaments, so it seems that under McIlroy’s plan, it would sanction over 60 events, creating a kind of de facto “A-Tour” for the top players and a “B-tour” for smaller names. But we’ve now got the Presidents Cup on tap this week, and Golfweek will have a full crew out there covering the action.
