Who is leading the 2023 Tour Championship after Round 1? Day 1 leaderboard explored
The first day of the TOUR Championship brought several interesting surprises. An outstanding day by Collin Morikawa and a not-so-good one by Scottie Scheffler, combined with solid performances by Keegan Bradley and Viktor Hovlan, flipped the top of the leaderboard.
Morikawa, Bradley and Hovland lead the TOUR Championship in a tie, all with scores of -10. The highlight of the day came from Morikawa, who started at -1 but pulled a -9 from under his sleeve to climb to the top.
Morikawa played his first round at the TOUR Championship bogey-free, with seven birdies and a spectacular eagle on hole 6. He maintained a very steady game, closing the front nine with 31 strokes and the back nine with 30.
Bradley also played the first day of the TOUR Championship at a high level, carding a -7 round. Like Morikawa, he played bogey-free, with seven birdies.
Hovland had a good, though not spectacular, first day. He closed with a score of -2 but, as he started with -8, given the characteristics of the TOUR Championship, he climbed to the first position.
Both Morikawa and Bradley are potential selections for the Ryder Cup's American team.
The other side of the coin was Scottie Scheffler, who lost one of the strokes of the lead he started the round with. The world number one finished at -9 in solo fourth place.
Scheffler started his round well, with three birdies in the first six holes. However, from hole 8 onwards, he went out of the game completely; three bogeys and a triple bogey affected his performance greatly.
Adam Schenk and Tyrrell Hatton also did well during the round, with -7 and -6, respectively. Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, on the other hand, played for even and -1, respectively.
TOUR Championship leaderboard after Round 1
Below is the leaderboard of the 2023 TOUR Championship after round 1
T1 Collin Morikawa -10
T1 Keegan Bradley -10
T1 Viktor Hovland -10
4 Scottie Scheffler -9
T5 Adam Schenk -8
T5 Russell Henley -8
T7 Matt Fitzpatrick -7
T7 Rory McIlroy -7
T7 Jon Rahm -7
T10 Tyrrell Hatton -6
T10 Xander Schauffele -6
T10 Wyndham Clark -6
T10 Brian Harman -6
T14 Tom Kim -5
T14 Rickie Fowler -5
T14 Patrick Cantlay -5
T17 Sepp Straka -4
T17 Jason Day -4
T17 Sam Burns -4
T17 Max Homa -4
T21 Lucas Glover -3
T22 Corey Conners -2
T22 Si Woo Kim -2
T22 Tony Finau -2
T22 Tommy Fleetwood -2
T26 Jordan Spieth -1
T26 Sungjae Im -1
T28 Taylor Moore E
T28 Nick Taylor E
30 Emiliano Grillo +3