Min Woo Lee fired an eight-under par 62 on the Tour Championship. Picture: AFP
LOS ANGELES:
Australia’s Min Woo Lee fired an eight-under par 62 on the Tour Championship on Thursday to steer a star-studded area on the profitable crowning occasion of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs.
With a $10 million prime prize up for grabs at East Lake in Atlanta, Georgia, Collin Morikawa, Chris Gotterup and Norway’s Viktor Hovland had been two strokes behind the 28-year-old chief.
World primary Scottie Scheffler was amongst a gaggle trailing Lee by three, after a bogey-free 65, with six-time Main winner Rory McIlroy six photographs adrift on two-under par.
The opening-day heroics from Lee, ranked thirty first on this planet, had been at stark odds together with his playoffs thus far — he completed second-from-last eventually week’s BMW Championship, and fifty fifth every week earlier.
“Very common two weeks, the final two weeks — it was in all probability the saddest I have been on the golf course, which isn’t good,” mentioned Lee.
However “this week was a brand-new week, and we clearly play from scratch and everybody performs from the identical rating,” he added.
“Being on the market, I believed why not give it a superb crack and have a superb angle?”
Lee’s opening spherical featured eight birdies, together with a 21-foot putt on eight that rattled the cup earlier than dropping, and no bogeys.
Lee — runner-up on the Pebble Seaside Professional-Am in February, and eventually month’s Scottish Open — had rapidly discovered himself within the uncommon place of enjoying solo.
His Thursday enjoying accomplice, JJ Spaun withdrew with a shoulder damage, having struggled by means of simply 5 holes at four-over par.
“It was slightly unusual at first, similar to in search of a enjoying accomplice and also you’re simply there by your self,” admitted Lee.
“It was extra simply sustaining speeds and never speeding as a result of I’d simply catch the group in entrance and wait. So I needed to simply decelerate slightly bit. It labored out.”
Spaun mentioned it was “disappointing” to withdraw having tried to push by means of the ache, however “did not wish to trigger any additional injury.”
Tied for second, two strokes behind Lee on six-under, had been two-time Main winner Morikawa, 2023 Tour Championship winner Hovland, and eighth-ranked Gotterup.
“Out right here these greens are quick. It is in all probability the quickest I’ve seen them over the previous few years, however I noticed them rather well in the present day,” mentioned Morikawa.
An extra shot again had been Individuals Ryan Gerard and Akshay Bhatia, Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg, and Scheffler.
The world primary birdied his closing two holes, getting up-and-down from a bunker due to a 10-foot putt on the 18th to remain firmly within the race.
Lee’s compatriot Adam Scott and reigning British Open champion Ryan Fox had been amongst a gaggle on four-under that additionally included final 12 months’s Tour Championship winner Tommy Fleetwood.