Min Woo Lee surged ahead early in the PGA Tour’s season‑closing Tour Championship, while Rory McIlroy experienced a start that mixed strong play with costly mistakes in his quest for FedExCup supremacy. Lee delivered an immaculate, bogey‑free 62 at East Lake Golf Club, tallying eight birdies as the course played under preferred‑lies conditions after an overnight rain.
Remarkably, every one of the 29 competitors who completed the round managed to stay at or under par, underscoring the favorable scoring environment. The 28‑year‑old Australian now enjoys a two‑stroke lead over a trio of contenders—Chris Gotterup, Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa. World No.
1 Scottie Scheffler, who finished his opening round with a birdie‑birdie finish to post a 65, closed the gap to three shots behind the leader. Ludvig Åberg, Akshay Bhatia and Ryan Gerard also sit at five under par, joining Scheffler in a tight pack. Defending champion Tommy Fleetwood trails by an additional stroke, sharing a group with fellow Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick and Open champion Ryan Fox. BMW Championship victor Wyndham Clark lags five shots after carding a three‑under 67.
Meanwhile, McIlroy finds himself tied for 20th after a roller‑coaster 68 that featured five birdies offset by three bogeys, a result that leaves his pursuit of a record‑tying fourth FedExCup title still very much alive. Lee’s round featured a pair of consecutive birdies beginning at the fourth hole.
He then played the remainder of his round solo after playing partner JJ Spaun withdrew on the sixth tee due to a shoulder injury. The Australian kept swapping the top spot with Hovland, who was two groups ahead, and capped a flawless front nine by sinking a 20‑foot birdie putt at the eighth and adding another at the ninth.
On the back‑nine, Lee continued his momentum with back‑to‑back birdies on the 12th and 13th, and a short‑range birdie on the 16th, extending his lead to two strokes when Hovland faltered with a three‑putt bogey from 25 feet on the 17th. Hovland responded by scrambling from a greenside bunker to birdie the final par‑five, setting a clubhouse target of six under par. Lee answered with a closing birdie of his own, preserving his two‑stroke cushion and matching his career‑best round on the PGA Tour.
"It felt a little odd at first, like I was searching for a playing partner and ended up on my own," Lee reflected. "I just focused on maintaining my tempo and not rushing.
I had to slow down a bit, but it paid off." Collin Morikawa, who began his round with a bogey, rallied by recording seven birdies and pulling level with Hovland. Gotterup also made a late surge, birdieing three of his final five holes to create a three‑way tie for second place. Åberg finished strongly with three consecutive birdies, joining Bhatia and Gerard at five under. Scheffler completed the fifth‑place quartet after holing a 10‑foot birdie on the final hole, marking the fourth time in five seasons that he has opened with a 65 or better.
"Aside from the first hole, I wasn’t really fighting for par much," Scheffler said. "That’s always a good sign on a course like this.
Every missed fairway here can turn into a struggle for par, so I created a few chances and managed to convert a couple of birdies at the end." McIlroy’s round began poorly, dropping to the bottom of the leaderboard after failing to get up and down from a bunker on the first hole and making a bogey on the fourth despite holing an eight‑foot putt. He rebounded with a birdie on the sixth but missed a short four‑footer on the ninth that could have added another birdie. He found his rhythm on the back‑nine, posting two birdies in three holes to start that stretch. After a clumsy bogey on the 14th, McIlroy quickly recovered by sinking a six‑foot birdie on the subsequent par‑three, then added another birdie on the 17th.
Despite these highlights, he entered the second round with only five players trailing him on the leaderboard. The FedExCup race remains wide open as the field heads into the remaining three rounds of the Tour Championship.
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