ATLANTA — Is anyone going to catch Scottie Scheffler from now on?
The world number one shot a six-under 65 on Thursday, the lowest score of the day, to keep him in a commanding seven-stroke lead in the Tour Championship over Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele.
His big lead was also PGA TOUR RECORDS.
He was the first player to hold a seven-stroke lead or more after 18 holes in a PGA Tour event since records began in 1983. Indeed, Scheffler started with a two-stroke advantage because of the Tour Championship's starting stroke format. Scheffler has spoken about how he doesn't like the format, but it's not up to him to determine how things play out at East Lake.
But while out on the track Thursday, Scheffler wasn't thinking about taking the lead.
“I wasn't thinking about being ahead today,” Scheffler said after the game.
“There's no reason to do that. It's the first day of the tournament. 72 holes. That's a long time to play with a lead. I just stayed in my own world and focused on continuing to work hard and executing.”
He did it.
A bogey on the par-4 first hole dropped Scheffler to 9 under and into a tie for the lead with Schauffele, who birdied the opening hole. But Scheffler then played the final 17 holes at East Lake in 7 under. 7 birdies He then recorded 10 pars to put himself in a sizeable lead with three rounds remaining.
“I try not to think too much about my starting stroke,” Scheffler added.
“I think it's still a little strange not being a traditional tournament, but yeah, it was good to start off well in the first round and I felt like a lot of things went well today.”
Two years ago, Scheffler was five strokes back after the first round at East Lake. Like this year, Scheffler started the championship two strokes back, but Rory McIlroy finally caught up on Sunday to win Scheffler's third FedExCup title. Scheffler, meanwhile, is yet to win the FedExCup, which comes with a $25 million bonus purse on Sunday.
But Scheffler isn't dwelling on the past or dwelling on the peculiarities of this week's format; instead, he's doing what he does best: focusing on the present, knocking down shot after shot and churning out birdies.
“If I came here at 2-over par and this was a regular stroke-play tournament, I'd be sitting pretty far back in the lead,” Scheffler added.
“So, just like any other tournament, I'm just going to stay in my lane and do what I do best, which is focus on the task at hand and let the rest of it take care of itself.”
Through 18 holes, that was certainly the case. Scheffler looked unstoppable from tee to green, converting one golden opportunity after another. He also gained 1.43 strokes on the greens Thursday, good for fifth in the field and made putts from nearly 100 feet. When his putter is working well, he's a dominant force, and that was on full display Thursday in Atlanta.
But the question now is whether Scheffler will go all the way to a medal, or whether someone else will come from behind and catch him, like McIlroy did two years ago. At this point, the former seems much more likely than the latter.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow For more golf articles, follow us on Twitter Jack Mirko In the same way.
