His agent said Friday at East Lake this was the same issue, and Day was withdrawing as a precaution.
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In the past four years, the victor of the TOUR Championship and FedExCup Playoffs was in the top five entering East Lake: 2015 (Jordan Spieth, second); 2014 (Billy Horschel, second); 2013: (Henrik Stenson, second); and 2012 (Brandt Snedeker, fifth).
Day was three under par through one round and seven holes, but he was unable to continue his pursuit of his first Tour Championship win and FedEx Cup crown at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
Johnson – the US Open victor – birdied three of the first six holes and then the last after a 359-yard drive to move into a three-way tie for the lead.
American Kevin Kisner and Hideki Matsuyama were four shots off the lead on three under par, with Rory McIlroy, Paul Casey and Ryan Moore another stroke back.
Day, who has been No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking since winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational and WGC Match Play Championship in the spring, has been dealing with a bad back that forced him to withdraw from the BMW Championship. He is followed by Barclays victor Patrick Reed, Adam Scott, world No. 1 Jason Day and Paul Casey.
But the calamitous finish – set up by two missed fairways off the tee – led to the pair of bogeys, Scott also unable to capitalise on East Lake’s gettable closing hole.
He was just three shots behind the lead but in the midst of making a mess of the eighth hole when he made a decision to pull the pin as back spasms continued to plague him.
Victory in Atlanta would secure both titles for the U.S. Open champion, while finishing as low as 29th could also snare the FedEx Cup crown, providing other players’ scores go his way. He hit his next tee shot out of play and made triple bogey, and followed that with a double bogey with a drive into the water.
Fellow Queenslander and playing partner Adam Scott could have been sharing fourth place with Day but two late bogies in his round saw him drop out of the top-10 with his under 69.
After round one of the Irish PGA Championship at Moyvalley Hotel and Golf Resort, Simon Thornton is three shots clear of the field. That one’s a longshot, even if he plays well this week, but after having such a special season in his sixth on the PGA Tour, anything’s possible.
“I can only swing the club one way at the moment so it takes away a lot of options”, said Thornton, who collected seven birdies and an eagle in his round with two bogeys coming at the fourth and 11th.
He’s not anxious about the Ryder Cup either. However, they need to win the Tour Championship, and they’ll need a ton of help from the top five in points – depending on the composition of the leaderboard come Sunday afternoon, any number of things could happen.
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These four are Bubba Watson, Justin Thomas, Daniel Berger and Jim Furyk. “I wish it was”, Johnson said.
