Min Woo Lee's 62 Leads TOUR Championship After Round 1

Min Woo Lee opened the TOUR Championship with an 8-under 62 at East Lake Golf Club, the low round of the tournament's first day and the best position of his TOUR Championship career. He's two shots clear of a three-way tie at 6-under: Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa, and Chris Gotterup each posted 64s. Scottie Scheffler sits three back at 5-under after a 65. It's the final event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, and the only one of the three where the winner also claims the season-long Cup, so a fast start at East Lake carries weight beyond just this week's field.

Round 1 leaderboard at East Lake

J.J. Spaun's line reads WD across the board. He left after five holes with a shoulder injury, the tournament's only walkoff of the day. No word yet on severity or whether it affects the rest of his season, but losing a player from the field entirely, rather than just a bad round, is the kind of story that tends to get lost under a leaderboard this crowded.

The 30-man field crossed over from BMW week to close out the FedEx Cup season, as previewed Wednesday. East Lake has run as straight stroke play since the format dropped staggered starting strokes in 2023, so Thursday's card is a clean read of who's actually playing well, not a FedEx Cup points adjustment. There's no cut at East Lake, all 30 players in the field tee it up in each of the four rounds, so nobody in the group above is playing for their tournament life this weekend the way they would be at a regular TOUR stop. What separates them now is purely the leaderboard.

Min Woo Lee sets the pace

An 8-under 62 is a serious number at East Lake, a course that has a way of punishing anything loose off the tee and rewarding a player who's finding fairways and greens at the rate Lee did on Thursday. It's the low round of the week so far and puts Lee two shots clear of the field's next-best score, with a five-shot cushion over the group tied for 15th. That's a meaningful gap this early, but it isn't a verdict on the tournament, and I'll admit the pull to over-read a Thursday 62 is one I check for every time a round like this shows up on the board. A two-shot lead through 18 holes is a strong starting position, not a locked outcome, and East Lake has flipped 36-hole leaders before. The course has hosted the TOUR Championship every year since 2004, and its finishing stretch along the water has undone plenty of leads that looked safer than this one after a single round.

Hovland leads the chase pack

Hovland's 64 puts him in a three-way tie for second, alongside Collin Morikawa and Chris Gotterup, who each matched that score to sit two shots back at 6-under. Scottie Scheffler's 65 lands him a shot further back, tied for fifth at 5-under alongside Gerard, Bhatia, and Ludvig Aberg. It's a lower spot than Scheffler's used to holding by Thursday evening, and it means his weekend starts with real ground to make up if Lee keeps playing anywhere close to this pace.

The group at 4-under is worth watching for a different reason. Ryan Fox, Adam Scott, Gary Woodland, Tommy Fleetwood, Sam Burns, and Matt Fitzpatrick all carded 66s to sit tied for ninth, and Woodland's round continues a run of form that started at last week's BMW Championship, where he was one of the bubble movers who played his way into this week's field. A week ago Woodland wasn't a certainty to even be at East Lake; now he's inside the top 10 after a single round. Robert MacIntyre, another of that BMW bubble group, sits a shot further back at 3-under, tied for 15th alongside Tom Kim, Alex Smalley, Xander Schauffele, and Wyndham Clark, a reminder that last week's cutline drama is still shaping this week's leaderboard.

Where the late finishers landed

Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Schauffele, Morikawa, Fleetwood, and Matt Fitzpatrick were all still on the course when Lee posted his target Thursday afternoon, and none of them caught him. Morikawa's 64 was the best of that group, good enough for a share of second. Scheffler and Schauffele landed further back, at 5-under and 3-under, and McIlroy's 68 leaves him tied for 20th, six shots off the lead. Fleetwood and Fitzpatrick both posted 66s to sit tied for ninth at 4-under. None of it changed who's actually leading after Thursday: Lee's 62 stayed the low number in the field all day.

Round 2 tees off Friday with Lee's 62 the number everyone else is chasing, and Hovland, Morikawa, and Gotterup sitting closest at two back. With no cut and four rounds guaranteed for all 30 players, there's still a long way for the leaderboard to turn over before it means anything for the FedEx Cup. For now, Lee is the story East Lake has actually finished telling.