Scottie Scheffler leads East Lake

East Lake presumably was made tougher but not on Thursday. Birdies were made in bunches, including by Sahith Theegala, who stormed home with five circles on the card in his final six holes to shoot 67. Collin Morikawa did one better, reeling off six birdies in a row to start the back nine, his longest string as a pro, and shot 66 to improve to 9 under. 

Adam Scott, who finished second last week to advance to the FedEx Cup finale, picked up where he left off and recorded his eighth consecutive first round under par, shooting 5-under 66, and expressed his surprise at the low scoring.

“Yeah, absolutely,” he said. “I thought it was definitely playing tougher. I don’t know if they were the easy pins they just warmed us up with today or what. I didn’t think there would be so many mid-60s scores.”

“I think they did a good job with how the greens are to put some relatively benign pins just because the greens are so firm,” said Wyndham Clark, who started slowly and was 2-over through his first five holes before making an eagle and six birdies in his round of 67.

Justin Thomas, who started the day 10 back, carded seven birdies including at his final two holes, to shoot 5-under 66.

“I don’t know if they just put a lot of water on them or what,” Thomas said. “They definitely were holding better than I thought.”