The wolves are at Dustin Johnson’s door. And they are hungry.
After one round of the Tour Championship, the FedEx Cup leader who came to this playoff finale already atop the leaderboard at 10 under because of a unique staggered scoring system still is in the lead. But not by himself anymore, after shooting a first-round 67 on Friday.
Circling is a pack of players who went lower and drew ever more uncomfortably closer after a day when par-70 East Lake played to a scoring average of 68.7 for this elite field of 30 players. Nobody’s going to steal away with a $15 million payoff this week.
Based on the evidence of Friday, Johnson concluded, “If I want to win this week, I’m going to have to bring my best.”
After all the math was done, and Friday’s work was factored into everyone’s differing advantages entering the tournament, the leaderboard went something like this: Johnson 13 under; Jon Rahm (who shot 65 on Friday) 13 under; Justin Thomas (66) 11 under and Rory McIlroy (64) 9 under.
That would be the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 players in the world bunched within four strokes of Johnson, the top-ranked guy.
The most dramatic mover of the day was the defending FedEx Cup champion McIlroy, who rushed here from Florida one day before the start of the tournament following the birth of his first child. His wife, Erica, was the one doing the pushing Monday. Now it is Rory’s turn, pushing Johnson and everyone else after putting up the day’s low round of 64 (tied by Abraham Ancer, who’s in fifth place at 6 under).
With another mouth to feed, a rejuvenated McIlroy played Friday like he needed the money. McIlroy has been off his game since golf returned from its coronavirus hiatus, but Friday was his lowest round in a month, his lowest in his past 23 rounds.
It’s not like anybody saw this low number coming, even from a player of his stature. Just the way McIlroy likes it.
“Whether I don’t feel like my game is in a good place or I’m not the favorite coming into a tournament - all that stuff - I feel like that’s when I usually play my best,” he said. “I can play with a bit of freedom. And that’s what I did today.”
A spot-on iron game apologized for the fact that he hit only six of 14 fairways Friday. “I played well today. I played really well. I played as good as I have in a long time, and that was very encouraging,” he said.
Thomas, who a year ago was where Johnson was Friday – leading the field before the first shot was struck – looked far more comfortable as the pursuer than the pursued. For the first time in 17 rounds at East Lake he birdied No. 1 and off he went. Thomas was 3 under after his first four holes, reeling in Johnson like a tuna. But his pace slowed, shooting 1 under from there to finish with a 66.
Meanwhile in the featured pairing at the end of this birdie train, Johnson and Rahm were engaged in a fine little sweaty tete-a-tete.
If a scorecard ever matched a player’s personality, that would have been Johnson’s ledger after the first eight holes. Low stress. No fuss. Just a collection of nice calm, cool numbers. Two birdies. The rest pars. He was on cruise control.
Then his easy day went sideways with back-to-back bogies on No. 8 and 9. And then when Rahm, who began the tournament two back of Johnson, birdied No. 12 thanks to a 29-foot putt, the two were temporarily tied. That seemed to slap some sense into Johnson, who immediately made a 27-footer behind Rahm on that hole to retake the lead.
Rahm birdied Nos. 2, 6, 12, 13 and 15. Johnson birdied 2, 6, 12, 13 and 15. Sense a trend?
Rahm messed that up when he tied for the lead for good with a fourth birdie over a five-hole stretch, hitting to 17 feet from the rough on the par 4 16th, then converting the putt.
“So many times we usually play good when we play together,” he said. They’ll be paired together again in Saturday’s second round.
Johnson will have to sleep on a missed 5-foot birdie putt on No. 18 that would have given him back the outright lead. Other visions of gnarly Bermuda rough might haunt his dreams as well.
“It was OK,” he said of his round. “I mean, I scored well. I gave myself a few looks, but I need to hit some more fairways. That’s just the key out here is driving. If you can drive it in the fairway, you can shoot a good score.” Johnson hit only five of 14 fairways.
When Billy Horschel and Cameron Champ teed off at noon Friday, they were the first to experience the faint sound of 60 or so hands clapping that is the norm now on the golf traveling circus. Coronavirus restrictions don’t change for even really big events like this Tour Championship.
The audience these days consists of various PGA Tour officials, volunteers, scoring personnel, family and a few folks with connections (in one case Friday, Falcons and Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank).
As a result, it remains up to the players to provide all of the light and heat. Many obliged Friday, aiming a good deal of that heat directly upon Johnson’s back.
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