ATLANTA — Will anyone catch Scottie Scheffler now?
The World No. 1 posted a 6-under 65 on Thursday, the lowest round of the day, as he now holds a commanding seven-shot advantage over Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele at the Tour Championship.
His massive lead also sets a PGA Tour record.
He is the first player to hold a lead of seven strokes or more after 18 holes at a PGA Tour event since 1983, the year the record book dates to. Granted, Scheffler did begin with a two-shot advantage via the Tour Championship’s starting strokes format. Scheffler has talked about how much he does not like the format, but it’s not up to him to decide how things will play out at East Lake.
Yet, having the lead did not cross Scheffler’s mind while out on the course on Thursday.
“I wasn’t thinking about the lead out there today,” Scheffler said after.
“There’s no reason to. It’s the first day of the tournament. It’s 72 holes. It’s a long time out there to be playing with a lead or whatever it is. I was just focused on staying in my own world and continuing to just try and execute.”
Execute, he did.
After bogeying the par-4 1st, Scheffler dropped back to 9-under and into a tie for the lead with Schauffele, who birdied the opening hole. But Scheffler then proceeded to play East Lake’s final 17 holes in 7-under, making seven birdies and 10 pars to open up a massive lead with three rounds to go.
“I’m trying not to think much about the starting strokes stuff,” Scheffler added.
“I think it’s still a bit weird that it’s not a traditional event. But yeah, it was nice to get off to a good start in the first round, and I feel like I did a lot of things well today.”
Two years ago, Scheffler held a 5-shot advantage after the first round at East Lake. Like this year, he began the championship with a two-shot lead, but Rory McIlroy ultimately tracked him down on Sunday and won his third FedEx Cup title. Scheffler, meanwhile, has not yet won the FedEx Cup, which will award $25 million in bonus money on Sunday.
Yet, Scheffler continues to not dwell on the past nor think about the peculiarity of this week’s format. Instead, he’s doing what he does best: staying in the process, executing shot after shot, and making a ton of birdies.
“If I came out here and shot 2-over par, and this was a regular stroke play event, I’d be sitting pretty far back from the lead,” Scheffler added.
“So I am treating it like I would any other tournament, just staying in my lane and doing the things I’m good at, and that’s just trying to focus on the task at hand and let all the other stuff take care of itself.”
Through 18 holes, that has indeed been the case. Scheffler looked unstoppable from tee to green, giving himself excellent opportunity after opportunity. He also gained 1.43 strokes on the greens Thursday, good for fifth in the field, while making almost 100 feet worth of putts. When his putter cooperates, he dominates, and that was on full display on Thursday in Atlanta.
But now the question is, will Scheffler keep the pedal to medal, or will someone come from behind to catch him like McIlroy did two years ago? Right now, the former looks much more possible than the latter.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
