Patrick Cantlay remains the man to beat as he consolidated his position as FedExCup favourite with an opening 67 at the Tour Championship in Atlanta, where Jon Rahm fired a best-of-the-day 65 to get within two of the leader
Friday 3 September 2021 23:56, UK
Patrick Cantlay preserved his two-shot lead as Jon Rahm emerged as his biggest threat for the FedExCup title in the first round of the Tour Championship.
Cantlay arrived at East Lake in Atlanta as the leader in the FedExCup standings following his dramatic playoff victory over Bryson DeChambeau at the BMW Championship last week, and started the season finale on 10 under par - two ahead of Tony Finau.
But while Finau lost ground on the leader after a 72, Cantlay consolidated his lead with a solid 67 which kept him on course for a $15m payday on Sunday, although Rahm made an ominous early move with a 65 - the low round on day one.
Harris English lit up the tournament with a superb hole-in-one at the 224-yard 15th and added birdies at 16 and 17 as he jumped to eight under, five behind the leader, alongside Bryson DeChambeau, with Viktor Hovland, Justin Thomas and Cameron Smith a further shot behind.
Cantlay was wary of straying from his game plan as he resisted the temptation to get overly aggressive in a bid to extend his lead, and he was happy to plot his way cautiously around East Lake while still picking up four birdies, his only blemish coming after a wayward drive at the fifth.
"What goals I really have for this week are being process-oriented and being very present," said Cantlay, whose win in Baltimore also cemented his place on the US Ryder Cup team for Whistling Straits later this month.
"I think being in the spot that I'm in, it would be easy to get ahead of yourself and easy to maybe stray from your game plan because you feel like you're ahead, and that's just not helpful.
"So I'm not going to do that. I'm going to stay present and I'm going to stick to my game plan and I'm going to take what the golf course gives me."
Rahm started the final event of the season four shots behind Cantlay, but he made good early inroads as he pitched in four birdies at the first and picked up further shots at the fourth and sixth, only to take two steps back with bogeys at the seventh and eighth.
But the world No 1 got back on track with birdies at 12 and 13, and he picked up two more on the final two holes to replace Finau in second place, and Rahm echoed Cantlay's comments in avoiding being too distracted by the staggered scoring system.
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"It's very easy to get caught up on how far back you start," said Rahm, who has previously stated he is not a fan of the scoring format for the Tour Championship, especially with $15m on the line.
"I don't think I really once thought about it out there. I was just trying to post a score. My job is to hit the best shot I can each time and that's all can I control.
"So I can't be thinking of what the people ahead of me are doing. And I think that applies to tomorrow as well. Maybe on the weekend you think about who is leading, who is not, but try to think about it as a regular event and not how much distance I got to make up. Obviously, 72 holes, it's a lot of holes and four shots is not that much."
English was level par for his round with only four holes to play, but he suddenly raced up the leaderboard with his perfect five-iron finding the target at the 15th before he converted excellent approaches to the next two holes, although he was unable to take advantage of the par-five last.
DeChambeau slipped to two over par for his round when he blocked his tee shot to 15 into the water, but he bounced back to birdie each of the final three holes and get back to within five shots of Cantlay with his battling 69.
Hovland's 66 featured an astonishing shot at the fifth, where he manufactured a hooked wedge from deep in the trees and was rewarded for his bravado with an eagle-two that eclipsed an equally inventive shot from McIlroy at the fourth.
The two-time FedExCup champion was in a tricky position close to a tree on the right, but he faded a bold second that just cleared the front bunker and settled 10 inches from the hole, setting up the second of his five birdies in a 68 blighted by three bogeys in four holes on the back nine.
"It could have been really good," said McIlroy, who is nine shots behind Cantlay on four under. "I was four under through 10, missed a good opportunity on 12, and then from there I just went on a little bit of a bogey run, bogeyed three of the next four, so it was nice to birdie the last.
"But I'm going to go to the range here and work at it. I didn't drive the ball particularly well and when you do that, I actually got quite lucky a couple of spots that I hit it off line, I was able to make birdies from a couple of those, so just need to try to put it in play a little more tomorrow."
