Tour Championship: Scottie Scheffler extends lead, Rory McIlroy fights back after starting with triple bogey

Scottie Scheffler took a vice-like grip of the Tour Championship, as Rory McIlroy endured a roller-coaster day at East Lake.

World No. 1 Scheffler began the final event of the PGA Tour season with a two-stroke lead, by virtue of topping the FedEx Cup standings.

He was the hunted from the first tee, but produced a passable impression of a gazelle zooming away from a pack of lions as he extended his advantage to five shots.

An eagle on six was the highlight for Scheffler, who showed battling skills by grinding out pars when missing a string of fairways mid-way through his opening round of 65.

Xander Schauffele is the closest challenger to Scheffler, with the East Lake specialist five back after a round of 66.

McIlroy began six shots adrift of Scheffler. That gap grew to nine back by the second tee, as he made a triple bogey on the first hole after hooking his opening tee shot out of bounds – admittedly in the middle of a torrential downpour.

The bleeding continued with a bogey on two after a poor tee shot.

First Round Leaderboard

• 1. Scottie Scheffler, 15-under
• 2. Xander Schauffele, 10-under
• 3. Matt Fitzpatrick, nine-under
• T4. Joaquin Niemann, eight-under
• T4. Patrick Cantlay, eight-under
• T6. Sungjae Im, seven-under
• T6. Cameron Smith, seven-under
• T6. Rory McIlroy, seven-under

McIlroy got his round moving in the right direction with a birdie on three and then thrilled the crowd by chipping in for an eagle on six.

More birdies and bogeys followed, and a birdie on the difficult 15th got him under par for the day.

Further birdies on 16 and 18 took him to seven-under, which was some achievement after shipping four shots in two holes.

“It was a weird day,” McIlroy said. “We teed off in that really big downpour and I tried to guide a driver down the fairway, body stopped and it went OB.

“Not the ideal way to start, but I thought of Tom Kim a few weeks ago when he started with a quad and won the tournament.

“It is a long tournament, it is the first hole. Obviously starting six shots back so to be nine back after one hole is not ideal.

“But I battled back really well, showed a lot of resilience there and was proud of that.”

US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick was a big forward mover on the opening day.

On an afternoon when players were tripping up on a tough layout, Fitzpatrick was blemish free and a superb eagle on 18 yielded a round of 64 and moved him to nine-under.

“I think there are golf courses that suit me more than others,” Fitzpatrick said. “Last week is a perfect example. I did not have my A game but I just never felt comfortable on the golf course last week and those two added together were a bit of a disaster.

“To come here, a course I have not seen before, and feel comfortable straight away was a positive.”

Collin Morikawa was one of the big movers on day one as he carded a 66 to climb to five-under for the tournament.

Joaquin Niemann rolled in a superb eagle putt on 18 to match Fitzpatrick’s low round of the day, a 64, to get to eight-under.

“Last two times I’ve been here I’ve not played great so it is nice to see a nice score out there,” Niemann told Sky Sports “I am happy I played well today.”