East Lake Grows Easy Button; Scottie Scheffler Shoots 65 to Lead by 7

After all the comments from PGA Tour players about how greens at East Lake GC, were unhittable, somehow, by magic or greens keeping trickery, it grew an easy button overnight. In addition, Scottie Scheffler’s ball-striking genius returned, much to the consternation of the field. He even birdied the last hole to put an exclamation point on it. He’s now seven shots ahead of the field.

“I feel like I did a lot of things well today,” he said after his round. “If you're coming out of the rough to these pins it's still very difficult to hold the green. Anytime you're in the rough you're really struggling to try and make par. I thought it was an appropriate setup today.”

Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Adam Scott, Aaron Rai, and Taylor Pendrith posted 5-under par scores which, if nothing else, let everybody else in the field know that the course was getable.  

“I don't know if they just put a lot of water on them or what,” Justin Thomas said after being one of five players to post a 66. “The par-3s, if they had the pins tucked up front they moved the tees up.”

Morikawa admitted it was very hot and that even making six birdies in a row didn’t make it feel better.

“After nine I told myself to start only thinking about my shot and not worrying about if the ball is going to be perfect or not,” Collin Morikawa told Golf Channel.

The historic course, where Bobby Jones played his last round of golf, was playable, scorable, and just not as impossible as predicted.

What didn’t change was the brain-melting heat.

Golfers and fans were probably wishing the East Lake renovation hadn’t eliminated so many trees. 

Adam Scott, who had such a great week, nearly winning at Castle Pines Golf Club in the BMW, was 5-under for his round and 8-under for the Tour Championship.    

“I don't know if they were the easy pins they just warmed us up with today or what,” Scott said after his round of 66. “I didn't think there would be so many mid-60s scores.”

Scott was playing with his collar turned up, which wasn’t a fashion statement.

“I've just burned that neck too many times,” he said. “It feels like the sun has got a bit of bite here more so than the humidity. It's skin-burning sun.”

Wyndham Clark made a 4-under par run at the leaders, but it was an impossible task to catch Scheffler in just one round.  

“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,” Clark said when he finished his round.  

Schauffele continued his no-give-up style of play, making few mistakes in a round that included two birdies on the front, at the 1st and 6th. He did go on to find two bogeys on the back nine, at the 11th and the 16th. Everything else was a par.

Scottie Scheffler, after struggling a bit with his game on the front side and falling into a tie with Xander Schauffele, regained his lead with a birdie at the 7th and never looked back. He marched on. Through the new zoysia grass, the lack of shade trees, the burning sun, and everything else, and shot the low round of the day, a 65.

The new grasses at East Lake:

• Greens: TifEagle bermudagrass

• Collars: Prizm zoysiagrass .200”

• Approaches: Prizm zoysiagrass .200”

• Tees: Zorro zoysia/Tahoma 31 bermuda

• Fairways: Zorro zoysia .325”

• Rough: Tifway 419 bermudagrass 2.5”