ATLANTA: Russell Henley hardly missed a putt. Scottie Scheffler hardly missed a fairway. They led a parade of players who seized on the soft conditions at East Lake to begin the race for the Tour Championship and the season-ending FedEx Cup title.
Henley one-putted six of his last seven holes and made three birdie putts from 40 feet or longer and, with three straight birdies at the end, had a 9-under 61 to build a two-shot lead over the world’s No. 1 player.
Scheffler didn’t miss a beat from last week — really the last five months — and finished with a 25-foot par save on the 16th and two birdies for a 63. That’s his lowest round by two shots in his six appearances at East Lake.
The entertainment came from Rory McIlroy, who bladed a bunker shot on the par-5 18th hole over the green and off the grandstands, and then back onto the green. He made an 18-foot putt for a most unlikely birdie.
Scheffler was rooting hard for McIlroy, not so much for the birdie but so they could avoid a length ruling to finish. Seconds after Scheffler holed his 4-foot birdie putt, the horn sounded to stop play because of approaching storms that led to East Lake being evacuated.
Left behind was a leaderboard filled with red numbers in a tournament that has a $40 million purse in official money for the top 30 players, all of them with an equal chance. Only two players were over par.
Rain hammered East Lake on Wednesday — and again after the first round ended — leaving the course soft enough that players could lift, clean and place their golf balls in the short grass.
“I felt like with it being lift, clean and place and somewhat soft compared to last year when the greens were brand new, it was a little bit softer, so it was just a little bit more gettable,” Henley said.
There was also that no-so-small matter of putting. Henley already has a great reputation with the putter, and on this day he holed some 207 feet worth of putts.
“Probably the most I’ve ever made,” he said.
Three of the five players who got in at 64 was enough to wonder which cup was on their minds. Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay all finished outside the top six who qualified for the Ryder Cup and have to wait on being one of six captain’s picks.
All three are seen as likely picks.
“I don’t think you’re ever comfortable until you get that call and you’re on the team,” Morikawa said. “Look, I hope I’ve done enough. We’ll have to wait and see. But I think, yeah, my focus right now is to try and go out and win this golf tournament. I think if I do that, then hopefully that’s enough, and we’ll see how everything plays out.”
Scheffler is coming off his fifth victory of the season last week at the BMW Championship and didn’t miss a step. All that slowed him was some swirling wind as the storm approached, making it a little tougher to get close for birdie chances with a wedge in hand.
The only fairway he missed — except for No. 18, in which the ball rolled through the middle into the first cut — was at the 16th, and that left him in his biggest predicament. From the rough he went down a deep swale to the right, the one place he knew to avoid.
“I knew going down there right of 16 was a huge penalty. We had talked about it in the practice rounds,” he said. “And our job was just to get the ball back on the green, which I did, and it was nice to hole that long putt.
But it was a reminder of how key it was to keep the ball in play.
“I missed one (fairway) on 16 and all of a sudden I’m almost playing for bogey,” he said. “It’s pretty important around this place.”
Tommy Fleetwood, who keeps giving himself chances at his first win on the PGA Tour, also was at 66, along with BMW Championship runner-up Robert MacIntyre, who is ready for a return to Scotland given how hot has been in Memphis, Baltimore and Atlanta.
“I wear as much sun cream as I possibly can. I look like Casper the Ghost out there, to be honest. I get a lot of shouts about my sun cream,” MacIntire said.
It beats the shouts he got last week at Caves Valley when he lost a four-shot lead to Scheffler in the final round and was hearing from the pro-American crowd along the way. MacIntire was as upset about how he handled the crowd as he was his golf, but figures it will be a great teaching moment for him at Bethpage Black for the Ryder Cup next month.
“There’s a couple of things that I know that I’m going to change, but do you know what it’s really going to help me for? Bethpage,” he said. “I’m always going to be fiery, I’m always going to yell, swear, yell, get angry.
“But just the way I interacted with the crowd, I was trying to keep them out of the way, but instead of doing what I did on Saturday and bringing them into it.”
