Kim rides the wave at East Lake

American Ryder Cup star Anthony Kim stormed to the top of the leaderboard after the first round of the Tour Championship.

In-form favourite Singh slumps to 73

American Ryder Cup star Anthony Kim stormed to the top of the leaderboard after the first round of the Tour Championship. Kim - whose rookie display at Valhalla was one of the highlights of the United States' victory last weekend - shot an opening six-under-par 64 to move into a four-shot lead over Phil Mickelson and South Africans Ernie Els and Trevor Immelman. The 23-year-old from Los Angeles had eight birdies and two bogeys to grab the early lead at East Lake, as pre-tournament favourite Vijay Singh endured a rare off day. The Fijian - who has almost certainly wrapped up the $10million bonus for winning the FedEx Cup whatever happens this week - slumped to an opening 73. That was a big surprise since Singh had won two of the three FedEx Cup play-off events - and was not involved in last week's sapping high drama in Louisville.

Right direction

But at least he will feel he is moving in the right direction; he was five over par at one stage before making birdies at 14 and 15. American Phil Mickelson - who also played in the Ryder Cup but was not one of America's success stories - roared into the early lead with four front-nine birdies to be out in 31. But he mixed four bogeys with just two birdies on the back nine and had to settle for a share of second. Spaniard Sergio Garcia - who endured a miserable time at Valhalla, failing to win a match - battled his way to a level par 70 after being four over par through six holes. Garcia is the only member of the defeated European Ryder Cup team playing at East Lake.