MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) \u2014 Scottie Scheffler birdied the first five holes and shot a 9-under 61 on Friday to take a three-stroke lead in the FedEx St. Jude Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally just a dream start,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cProbably one of the best starts I\u2019ve had on tour, to be honest with you. I couldn\u2019t tell you a time where I\u2019ve been lower early in the round.\u201d<\/p>\n
The top-ranked Scheffler had 11 birdies and two bogeys in 100-degree heat at TPC Southwind in the playoff opener. He had an 11-under 129 total.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tournament is halfway over,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cI had two good rounds to start and hopefully continue that over the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scheffler tied the tournament course record.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say golf\u2019s ever easy,\u201d Scheffler. \u201cI did some good things out there. I hit some iron shots in there close and was able to hole a few putts as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
He has played the TPC Southwind more times (seven) without winning than any other course on the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n
Viktor Hovland and Sungjae Im were tied for second at 8 under. Hovland had a 64, and Im shot his second 66.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really nice, really solid,\u201d Hovland said. \u201cHit a lot of fairways, and I think that\u2019s a big deal for my game, but also especially at this golf course. I think it\u2019s really difficult to score if you\u2019re missing fairways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ludvig Aberg was 7 under after a 65.<\/p>\n
Jordan Spieth shot 69 to get to 6 under. He was part of a four-way tie for the first-round lead. Spieth is outside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup who advance to the BMW Championship next week.<\/p>\n
Scheffler entered the week with a 794-point lead over Matt Fitzpatrick in the FedExCup standings. Fitzpatrick was 3 under after a 67.<\/p>\n
So much emphasis is on getting into the top 50 because that locks up all the $20 million signature events for next season. <\/p>\n
Rory McIlroy played alongside Scheffler the first two days. He followed an opening 74 with a 70, leaving him tied for 60th at 4 over.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full golf coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) \u2014 Scottie Scheffler birdied the first five holes and shot a 9-under 61 on Friday…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[352,350,15,82,315,58,1129,17,13,27,858,2056,18,2054,992,158],"class_list":["post-5438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scottie-scheffler","tag-fl-state-wire","tag-florida","tag-golf","tag-jordan-spieth","tag-ludvig-aberg","tag-matt-fitzpatrick","tag-memphis","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-sports","tag-sungjae-im","tag-tennessee","tag-texas","tag-tn-state-wire","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-viktor-hovland","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}