Rory McIlroy (https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rory-mcilroy/) got off to a positive start at the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta, carding an opening round 66 to sit joint-eighth on four-under-par. McIlroy held par for the opening holes before landing an eagle on the par-5 sixth and birdieing the seventh. On the back nine, he managed three further birdies, but bogeyed the 14th and 17th. Russell Henley of the US leads on nine-under in what is the final event of the FedEx Cup playoffs – with a $10 million pay-day to the ultimate winner in the limited 30-man field, two shots ahead of his compatriot Scottie Scheffler (https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/scottie-scheffler/). Shane Lowry (https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/shane-lowry/) was steady without firing on all cylinders, signing for a round of 70 which featuring two birdies and two bogeys. This PGA Tour (https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/pga-tour/) finale doesn’t offer him any Ryder Cup (https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/ryder-cup/) points as that European qualifying process finishes at the British Masters on Sunday. Lowry, currently sixth and occupying the final automatic place, has his focus on the Tour Championship, aware that his Ryder Cup automatic qualifying largely depends on what happens in the English midlands where Rasmus Hojgaard has the chance to leapfrog him. If that happens, Lowry will require a wild card pick. In the British Masters at The Belfry, Hojgaard – currently eighth in the European Ryder Cup standings and needing a tied-29th finish or better to overtake Lowry – carded an opening round 69 to sit in tied-12th, three stokes behind a quartet of co-leaders. Thomas Aiken, Matthias Schwab, Haotong Li and Marcel Siem all signed for six-under-par 66s in the tournament which marks the conclusion of the year-long qualifying for Luke Donald’s team to face the Americans at Bethpage in New York next month.
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