{"id":6606,"date":"2023-08-25T19:11:50","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T14:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=6606"},"modified":"2023-08-25T19:11:51","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T14:11:51","slug":"morikawa-fires-61-to-share-lead-at-pga-tour-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/news\/morikawa-fires-61-to-share-lead-at-pga-tour-finale\/","title":{"rendered":"Morikawa fires 61 to share lead at PGA Tour finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two-time major winner Collin Morikawa fired a nine-under par 61 to seize a share of the lead in Thursday’s opening round of the US PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship while top-ranked Scottie Scheffler and injured Rory McIlroy struggled.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scheffler, this year’s Players Championship winner, began the day on 10-under par at East Lake in Atlanta with a two-stroke lead over Norway’s Viktor Hovland thanks to staggered scoring based upon season point totals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the American was undone by a triple bogey at the par-3 15th, finding water off the tee and needing three putts to finish, as his season points edge evaporated after he fired an opening 71.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morikawa, who began on 1-under and nine adrift of Scheffler, fired the lowest first round in Tour Championship history, making seven birdies and an eagle on a bogey-free day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’ve grinded my butt off. I’ve spent way too much time out there,” Morikawa said. “But I figured some things out. It’s obviously nice to see.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the odd scoring format, Morikawa was on 10-under and sharing the lead with fellow American Keegan Bradley, who opened with a 63, and Hovland, who shot 68, with Scheffler fourth on 9-under after firing 71.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Im pretty frustrated with how I played,” Scheffler said. “I guess it’s a little bit of a blessing to have a pretty bad day and still be in the tournament. So go out there tomorrow and just keep fighting.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 61 was Morikawa’s career-low PGA Tour round, one under his final round at last year’s Tournament of Champions, and one off the course record 60 fired by Zach Johnson in 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defending champion McIlroy, the world number two and four-time major winner from Northern Ireland, struggled through back pain with a 70 to finish three off the pace, exactly where he began the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McIlroy suffered the injury while exercising at home on Tuesday and had no practice before his round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My whole lower back spasmed, seized up. I couldn’t move,” McIlroy said. “I honestly couldn’t address the ball this time yesterday. So to get to where I am today is good.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McIlroy was 2-over on the day after 11 holes and eight adrift but made three birdies in four holes and with Scheffler’s fade not even a closing bogey could dim his fightback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I hung in there and I just felt like if I could get through today, it’s better than it was yesterday, hopefully tomorrow’s better than it was today, and just sort of try to keep progressing,” McIlroy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 30-player fight for an $18 million FedEx Cup season points playoff top prize tightened greatly with Morikawa stealing the show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You’ve got to have your foot on the pedal,” Morikawa said. “This is the end of our season for a reason. Even though I had a great round today I want to keep doing that for next few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I haven’t been this pin-high with my irons in quite some time. That’s a sign of control. And then being able to make some putts. I still left some out there but I’m not going to complain at all. I’m very, very pleased with this round.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bradley, who began seven off the lead, was thrilled as well after birdies on three of the last four holes to finish a bogey-free round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was one of those days where everything was going right,” Bradley said. “I made a bunch of putts, I hit the ball great and when I missed some shots I hit them in great spots and got them up and in.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bradley said it was crucial to make the move early to make up his deficit quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was so important,” he said. “When you get here everything sort of amplifies so I’m proud.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morikawa, whose last win came at the 2021 DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, sank a three-foot birdie putt at the first, a 20-foot birdie putt at the fifth then eagled the par-5 sixth after dropping his second shot inside four feet from the hole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added a 12-foot birdie putt at 10, a 36-foot birdie putt at the 12th, a 10-footer to birdie 16, a 13-foot birdie putt at the 17th and a six-footer at 18.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two-time major winner Collin Morikawa fired a nine-under par 61 to seize a share of the lead in Thursday’s opening round of the US PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship while top-ranked Scottie Scheffler and injured Rory McIlroy struggled. Scheffler, this year’s Players Championship winner, began the day on 10-under par at East Lake in Atlanta […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":6607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,53,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sports","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}