Tour Championship: Scottie Scheffler two off lead as Russell Henley cards nine-under opening round of 61 at East Lake

Scottie Scheffler sits second, two photographs off the Tour Championship lead, after a surprising nine-under 61 from Russell Henley within the race for the FedExCup.

World No 1 Scheffler, bidding to turn out to be the primary participant to efficiently defend the Tour Championship title, closed with three birdies in his ultimate 4 holes – plus a significant par save at 16 – to sit down alone on seven beneath.

One stroke additional again in a tie for third are Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay and British hopefuls Robert MacIntyre and Tommy Fleetwood.

Northern Eire’s Rory McIlroy is 4 beneath after a blended opening spherical, one which the world No 2 signed off with a exceptional birdie on the par-five 18th after his chipped third out of the bunker deflected off the grandstand and again onto the inexperienced.

McIlroy, enjoying within the ultimate pairing with Scheffler, eagled the par-five sixth to get his spherical up and working, following that up with an extra birdie at seven, whereas he moved to 4 beneath with one other at 11.

Dropped photographs at 14 and 17 proved expensive, although he no less than adopted them each up with birdies at every of the following holes – together with that beautiful end at 18.

Scheffler, in the meantime, returned a blemish-free card, his birdie surge down the stretch interspersed with a vital par save at 16, the place Thomas and JJ Spaun had earlier carded double and triple bogeys, respectively.

However it nonetheless was not sufficient to earn the four-time main winner the lead, with that honour belonging to Henley after he too completed strongly, signing off his spherical with three straight birdies.

Thomas had been out in entrance on his personal for a lot of the opening spherical, the 2017 FedExCup champion carding a career-best front-nine rating of six beneath spherical East Lake, earlier than later faltering at 16.

Morikawa held a share of the lead at one level, whereas Cantlay, Fleetwood and MacIntyre are all firmly within the combine as a part of that grouping at six beneath – the latter bouncing again brilliantly from the frustration of shedding his massive result in Scheffler on the ultimate day of final week’s BMW Championship.

With storms anticipated on Friday, beginning instances for the second spherical have been introduced ahead, with dwell protection on Sky Sports activities Major Occasion beginning at 3pm.

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