Tour Championship – first spherical
-8 MW Lee (Aus); -6 V Hovland (Nor), C Morikawa (US), C Gotterup (US); -5 R Gerard (US), A Bhatia (US), L Aberg (Swe), S Scheffler (US)
Chosen others: -4 T Fleetwood (Eng), M Fitzpatrick (Eng), R Fox (NZ); -3 R MacIntyre (Sco), W Clark (US); -2 J Rose (Eng), A Fitzpatrick (Eng), R McIlroy (NI)
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Defending champion Tommy Fleetwood shot a four-under 66 to place himself in rivalry, 4 strokes off first-round chief Min Woo Lee on the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
Nevertheless, Northern Eire's Rory McIlroy endured a combined begin in his bid to win a record-extending fourth Fedex Cup, bogeying two of the primary 4 holes earlier than combating again on the again 9 to signal for a 68.
Lee carded a bogey-free 62 to set the tempo at eight underneath as he equalled his greatest spherical on the PGA Tour in its season-ending occasion at East Lake.
Australia's Lee is 2 strokes away from Norway's Viktor Hovland, who triumphed in 2023, and American duo Collin Morikawa and Chris Gotterup.
It was a tremendous show from Lee, who was second from final within the BMW Championship every week in the past and located himself with no accomplice for many of the day, with JJ Spaun withdrawing via harm after 4 holes.
"It was just a little unusual at first, similar to in search of a enjoying accomplice and also you're simply there by your self," mentioned Lee.
"It was extra simply sustaining speeds and never speeding as a result of I’d simply catch the group in entrance and wait. So I needed to simply decelerate just a little bit. It labored out."
Ominously, world primary Scottie Scheffler ended his spherical with a birdie on the 18th to take a seat at 5 underneath, with England's Matt Fitzpatrick within the combine at 4 underneath after additionally making a birdie 4 on the concluding gap.
Scotland's Robert MacIntyre is at three underneath, with the spotlight of his day arriving on the sixth gap when he rolled in a putt from over 30 toes for an eagle.
England's Justin Rose and Alex Fitzpatrick each signed for rounds of 68 on a day when not one of the 29 gamers within the area to finish the spherical went over par.
The winner on Sunday will take house the Fedex Cup and a $10m (£7.4m) prize.
There shall be reside textual content protection of the ultimate spherical on the BBC Sport web site and app from 18:00 BST.
