Lee brilliant – Fox and Scott start well in Atlanta
Min Woo Lee – equals best PGA Tour round – file image PGA of America
Three Australasians, Min Woo Lee, Adam Scott and Ryan Fox, had already confirmed their impressive seasons in 2026 just by being included in the lucrative Tour Championship field, and now all three have made superb starts at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
Tour Championship debutante Lee equalled his best-ever PGA Tour score with an opening round of 8 under par 62 to take the lead in the US$40 million event, the 28-year-old ahead by two over Viktor Hovland, Chris Gotterup and Collin Morikawa while Scott and Fox both recorded rounds of 66 to be well placed heading into day two.
Lee was required to play much of his round alone on day one after his scheduled playing partner J.J. Spaun was forced to withdraw through shoulder injury at the 6th hole. For Spaun, the withdrawal means he will finish the event in 30th place and while he will secure a cheque for US$355,000, he misses out on the potential riches of the US$40 million event and the chances of him making the US Presidents Cup team now look in jeopardy.
“It was a little bit weird, said Lee, referring to playing most of the round on his own. “Yeah, I hope J.J.’s okay, first of all. It’s pretty sad to see. You get all the way here, and you can’t play, and that just sucks for the whole team and obviously yourself.
“It was a little strange at first, just like looking for a playing partner and you’re just there by yourself. It was more just maintaining speeds and not rushing because I would just catch the group in front and wait. So I had to just slow down a little bit. It worked out.
“Yeah, very average the last two weeks. It was probably the saddest I’ve been on the golf course, which is not good. We’re really lucky to be out here and play some good golf to get into the playoffs. It just felt so hard.
“It just got to a point where I was looking at what’s in the bags of everyone else and trying to find out what to do, and ended up changing shafts before the week, on the Tuesday. Even my team was very hesitant about it, but the results were really good when I did practice with it, and it was nice to hit shots that I saw out there, and it was really good.
“That was probably the biggest part of the good scoring. Didn’t miss it in wrong spots, missed them in the right spots, and holed some putts.”
Fox and Scott finished earlier than Lee and, with a back nine of 32, Fox has bounced back from an indifferent start to the playoffs to be right in the mix after day one. The highlight, however, would come at the third hole, when, after bogeys at the opening two holes, Fox holed out for eagle from 135 yards at the par 4 to get things moving in the right direction.
“I was just trying to give myself a birdie putt after those first couple of holes,” said Fox. “To see it go in just kind of settled everything down. Me and Tom were joking about being even through 3. Probably would have taken that in the conditions we started in. The rest of the day was actually pretty solid after that. It’s funny, golf just takes one shot sometimes to kind of find it, and that the one shot for me today.
“I had not looked like hitting a good shot for the first two holes. It was kind of funny — the reason I was laughing was because I’d finally hit a good shot, and the good shot was perfect. Yeah, golf’s a strange game like that sometimes.”
Fox was reminded of his all-but-confirmed place in the Presidents Cup team and enthused over the opportunity to play the event for the first time.
“That was probably the biggest goal of the year to make that team, and I think the extra bit would be to qualify automatically, which I think I should be pretty safe for after this week.
“Look, I felt like I gave myself a pretty good chance the last couple. It might have been a little hard done by four years ago, but yeah, I’m very excited to be a part of it this year. We’ve got a great group of guys involved, captains and players.
“I don’t know — obviously it’s not official yet, but all the extended group outings we’ve had and dinners and stuff like that, we all get along really, really well. I’m excited to be part of the team, and hopefully we can do something special this year.”
Scott is a former winner of the Tour Championship, although that came twenty years ago and before it became the culmination of the FedEx Cup; but any player making this field is a potential winner this week, and Scott was excited by the prospect.
“I’d love to get back and win a tournament. Any tournament would do. This one I’m playing in this week would be fantastic.
“To be a FedExCup champion is really one of those career milestones that I’d like to achieve still. I know time is really not on my side for that, but I’m off to a good start, and it could be three days away.”
Scott was also asked about the Presidents Cup at Medinah in Chicago in four week’s time and had this to say;
“Yeah, absolutely, for sure. To have six of us here this week, I think is a great showing. There’s one guy who’s not here who had four straight top 10s up till this week, Sungjae. He’s kind of back on form.
“I said to all the guys at the last dinner we had in Memphis, for me even coming in just seeing Ryan win, Tom Kim win, Min Woo finish second at the Scottish, Si Woo is playing fantastic every week, Sungjae is back, Hideki is top 10ing every week. The momentum looks really good for us. So fantastic.
“A few guys off to a good start today. The momentum is huge. I don’t know how we carry it three weeks on from now, but I think a lot of us are going to be playing before the Presidents Cup too. Anything we can do to kind of keep that rolling and keep the confidence high.
“I think, just from those gatherings, us seeing another player do well is some extra motivation for the other team members to kind of step up.”
But first things first, Lee, Scott and Fox have made fine starts to what is an event which offers all sorts of rewards for just being in Atlanta, along with huge financial rewards in the form of prizemoney, in which the winner earns US$10 million and even 15th place carries a reward of US$560,000 and last place (30th) US$355,000.
