Tour Championship 2021 R1
September 02-05
East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, Georgia
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

FedEx Cup top seed Patrick Cantlay started his round at 10-under and shot a 3-under 67 at East Lake on Thursday to take the opening lead of the Tour Championship.

Tour Championship 2021 R1

“What goal I really have for this week is being process-oriented and being very present. 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.”

Tour Championship 2021 R1

World number 1 Jon Rahm lies two shots back in second place after an opening round 65 firing four birdies in his last seven holes to recover from a pair of bogeys on the front nine.

"Played really good 14 holes, and then I think there was a bit of a slump on 7 through 10, but I was able to manage really well those. The up-and-down for bogey on 8, the up-and-down for par on 9, and the up-and-down for par on 10 were key three in a row to limit the mistakes or the damage and from then I played amazing golf.

"It's very easy to get caught up on how far back you start. 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 I can control.

Tour Championship 2021 R1

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."

Harris English was even par after the 14th, having produced a birdie and a bogey, when he shot a hole-in-one at the par-3 15th with a 5-iron from 224 yards. This was the first ace since the Tour Championship moved to East Lake in 1998. English finished birdie-birdie-par for a 4-under 66.

"I had been hitting it really good [before his ace] and not making a whole lot. Had a lot of good chances and, I mean, you don't think you're going to step up to 15 and make a 1. I mean, trying to make par there.

Tour Championship 2021 R1

"It's not easy. I mean, you have to really zone in on target. I was aiming middle of the green and kind of I guess pulled it a smidge. But it's one of those holes where I'm just picking a spot in the middle of the green and taking 20 feet every single time and getting out of there.

"It was just one of those days where I was really close to taking it deep and just couldn't get it going. I usually putt these greens really well and was really close, had my speed a little off today. But it just gave me momentum. Birdieing 16, 17 and should have birdied 18, kind of gives you that momentum that you can birdie every hole.

Tour Championship 2021 R1

"I'm still chasing the lead, still got to play aggressive. I feel like I'm playing good golf, I really like this golf course, I feel like my strategy worked today. You just got to keep hitting fairways, this rough is pretty brutal. I know it's going to get firmer and faster, great weather today, we're going to have some more weather like this and it's just going to be one of those where you got to hit more and more fairways because the rough's going to get longer, the greens are going to get firmer and faster and you got to hit it well out here."

Tied alongside him in fourth place at 8-under, Bryson DeChambeau made the turn in 1-over par after producing three bogeys and two birdies. He made one more bogey at the 15th before closing with three consecutive birdies to finish at 1-under.

Tour Championship 2021 R1