Power keeps rampant Scheffler and PGA spot in his sights in Dallas
'I wouldn't say anxious or eager,' said Scheffler, who took advantage of preferred lies and made five birdies and a spectacular eagle after a three-wood to four feet at the ninth to turn in 29 before picking up three birdies coming home.
'I got off to a good start today, and there are three more days of the tournament. I'm just focused on going home, getting some rest, and getting ready for tomorrow.'
Scheffler's iron play has been far below its best this year.
He's had five top ten finishes in eight starts but after putting the green jacket on Rory McIlroy at Augusta National, he's added next week's Truist Championship in Philadelphia to his schedule before heading to Charlotte for the PGA Championship.
'Yeah, feel good,' Scheffler said. 'I played nice today. Had the good front nine; was able to put together a solid back nine as well. Overall very pleased with the results of today.'
Seamus Power had to birdie his last two holes to keep a rampant Scheffler in his sights and his hopes of qualifying for the PGA Championship alive.
Power is 65th in the PGA Championship points list and must remain inside the top 70 after this week to clinch his place at Quail Hollow.
The West Waterford man followed an early bogey at the third with an eagle three at the fifth before ending a run of pars with birdies at the 17th and 18th.
Power's three-under 68 left him tied for 59th behind Scheffler, whose 61 gave him a two-shot lead over the Philippines' Rico Hoey and Colombia's Jhonattan Vegas.
Meanwhile, Douglas' Sara Byrne made six birdies, but four bogeys and two double bogeys saw her open with a two-over 74 in the Epson Tour's Reliance Matrix Championship in Las Vegas.
She was tied for 81st, nine shots off the lead as she bids to win one of ten LPGA cards at the end of the season.
Byrne is 81st in the Race for the Card standings, with two cuts made from her first four starts.
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Irish Examiner
15 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Rory McIlroy: 'I've waited 17 years to sign that flag in the middle, and I will never complain about doing it'
Rory McIlroy is back in Georgia for the first time since winning the Masters in Augusta in April, and he still gets emotional thinking about winning the green jacket. McIlroy bought out the remaining inventory of 1,100 Masters flags from the merchandise shop last April before he left, and says the requests to autograph them will never get old. 'It's been a lot,' McIlroy said of the flag-signings. 'But I'll never get sick of signing them. I've waited 17 years to sign that flag in the middle, and I will never complain about doing it.' By tradition, only Masters champions are allowed to sign in the middle of the Masters logo outline of the United States. McIlroy never violated that unwritten rule before finally donning a green jacket. The Masters proved to be McIlroy's third and final victory of the 2025 PGA Tour season, capping a run when he ruled the top of the FedEx Cup standings after wins at Pebble Beach and the Players Championship. Since then, Scottie Scheffler regained his dominant form from 2024 and won five times including two majors and last week's BMW Championship playoff event to roll into the Tour Championship at East Lake as the points leader for the fourth consecutive year. Scheffler has more than twice as many points (7,456) as McIlroy in second (3,687). But none of that matters this week, as the PGA Tour scrapped its staggered tarting strokes system that had Scheffler beginning the Tour Championship at 10-under and at least two strokes ahead of anyone else. 'I'm in a better position than I have been the last few years, so that's a nice thing,' McIlroy said. Despite having his best chance to win a fourth FedEx Cup since the starting strokes started, he kind of misses the discarded format. 'I'm maybe part of the minority. I didn't hate the starting strokes,' McIlroy said. 'I thought that the player that played the best during the course of the season should have had an advantage coming in here. But the majority of people just didn't like the starting strokes – whether it were players or fans. I was on the PAC when we were trying to go through that, and really it was just a way to try to simplify the advantage that the top players were going to get over the course of the week instead of [Golf Channel's] Steve Sands doing calculations on a white board. 'But you could also argue if it was starting strokes this week, Scottie with a two-shot lead, it probably isn't enough considering what he's done this year and the lead that he has in the FedEx Cup going into this week. … 'Look, it's a 72-hole stroke-play event, and that's what we play week in and week out. That's what's going to determine the winner. I don't know if it's the best format, but it's the one that we have for this week.' McIlroy skipped the playoff opener in Memphis two weeks ago as well as three of the eight signature events in 2025 – the season-opening Sentry, the RBC Heritage after the Masters and the Memorial ahead of the U.S. Open. On Wednesday, the PGA Tour announced its 2026 schedule and the biggest surprise is the addition of a ninth signature event right in the middle of the busiest stretch of the season. The tour, like so many corporate entities, chose to bend the knee to the American president and place an as-yet unsponsored signature event on the Blue Monster course at Doral in April. That means there will be five signature events and four majors in four months from April to July, including a six-week stretch with five marquee tournaments from the Masters to the PGA with the Truist Championship at Wells Fargo and new Miami Championship in consecutive weeks ahead of the PGA. Only the Zurich Classic team event in New Orleans resides in the middle of that run. McIlroy, surprisingly, endorsed the even more crowded schedule. 'I think it's all positive when you have – golf builds through the January, February, March months, and obviously golf gets a huge popularity spike or whatever through Augusta,' he said. 'And then to try to keep that momentum going, keep that momentum going through the next few weeks, through the PGA, U.S. Open, I think it's a good thing. 'It's quite a bit of a workload for the players to play that much golf in that stretch, but I think it's not as if we're having to travel halfway around the world to do it. These are all pretty easy stops on the East Coast for the most part. But I think it'll be good. It'll be a good schedule.' Will he continue to skip some of the events designed to bring all the best players together? 'I'll always choose the schedule that best fits me, and this year that meant skipping a few signature events,' he said. 'I might skip less next year. I might skip the same amount, I don't know. It's all just – the luxury of being a PGA Tour player is we are free to pick and choose our schedule for the most part, and I took advantage of that this year and I'll continue to take advantage of that for as long as I can.' As for this week, McIlroy is ready for his 12th Tour Championship and seventh in a row since 2018. 'Anytime you make it back to East Lake you've had a good year, so it's always nice to come back,' he said. 'I'm on a nice little streak of playing some consistent golf over the last few years and getting myself back here. 'We've played this event and this golf course in a bunch of different formats. There's been a lot of different ways that we've played it. The nines have changed, have flipped. There's been a golf course renovation (in 2024), which I think is actually very, very good. I'm refamiliarizing myself with that today. 'Look, it has a different feel. Any one of the 30 has a chance to win the FedEx Cup this year, which is obviously a lot different than it's been in previous years. I think with that, it's a clean slate for everyone, and it's a great opportunity for one of the guys that maybe wasn't a huge part of the season to put their hand up and have a chance to win the big prize at the end of the year.'
Irish Independent
15 hours ago
- Irish Independent
‘I still get a little emotional over it' – Rory McIlroy reminisces about Augusta glory ahead of bid for fourth FedEx Cup
The world No 2 tees it up with FedEx Cup leader Scottie Scheffler in the first round knowing he's in a better position to win the season-long race than he would have been had the staggered start not been eliminated this year. It means that any one of the 30 players in the field, which includes Shane Lowry, will lift the FedEx Cup if they win the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta on Sunday. But while he also touched on the newly announced 2026 PGA Tour schedule and did not rule out skipping more signature events now that there are nine with the addition of the new Miami Championship at Trump National Doral, he recalled on his historic Masters win. 'I've already planned a couple of trips with some friends or some members beforehand,' said McIlroy, who revealed that he bought out the remaining 1,100 Masters pin flags that in Augusta National's merchandise store following his dramatic play-off win over Justin Rose in April. 'It'll probably be a little emotional. I've planned one trip that my dad's going to come on as well. My dad wasn't there for when I won, so I think that'll be a cool moment to be with him. 'And yeah, it'll be emotional. I still get a little emotional thinking about it, but it'll be really cool to go there. 'A lot of members there have become good friends over the years, and to be able to enjoy that with them and play the golf course again and sort of reminisce over the good on the bad that happened over the course of the week. That'll be really cool.' McIlroy is allowed to take the green jacket away from Augusta National during his year as champion and keeps it in a prominent place in his wardrobe. He wore it to the Association of Golf Writers' award at Royal Portrush in July and has already lost count of how many Masters flags he's signed. 'I've no idea, it's been a lot,' he beamed. 'But I do know that they had 1,100 extra left in the merchandise facility at the end of the week, and we took all 1,100. ADVERTISEMENT 'So it's been a lot, but I'll never get sick of signing them. I've waited 17 years to sign that flag in the middle and I will never complain about doing that.' McIlroy quickly corrected himself about signing the flag 'in the middle' which is one of Augusta's no-nos. As for the FedExCup's Tour Championship format, which has changed this year to give all 30 players a chance to win the title, McIlroy had no complaints. 'It's a clean slate for everyone, and a great opportunity for one of the guys that maybe you know wasn't a huge part of the season, to put their hand up and have a chance to win the big prize at the end of the year,' he said. Although, McIlroy pointed out that even if Scheffler had a two-shot lead over him this week, it still might not be fair given the world No 1's stellar year. 'It's also a great opportunity for some of the guys that have had great years to sort of rubber stamp the season a little bit, and end on a really, really positive note.' After skipping two signature events this year as well as the first of the FedEx Cup Play-offs, McIlroy did not rule out out skipping more signature events in 2026. The PGA TOUR announced the 2026 FedExCup Regular Season schedule yesterday with Trump National Doral set to stage one of nine Signature Events, the Miami Championship, from April 27 to May 3. 'I'll always look at the schedule at the start of the year and see what best fits me and my life and everything else that I that I sort of do, whether it's with family or other opportunities that I'm pursuing outside of golf,' he said. 'So I'll always look at that, I'll always choose a schedule that best fits me, and this year that meant skipping a few signature events. 'I might skip less next year, I might skip the same amount. I don't know. The luxury of being a PGA Tour player is we are free to pick and choose our schedule for the most part. 'I took advantage of that this year, and I'll continue to take advantage of that for as long as I can.'
Irish Examiner
16 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Scheffler and McIlroy paired again at Tour Championship
The top two players in the world will play at least one more round together this PGA Tour season, as Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy will make up the final pair of the first round of the Tour Championship. Scheffler and McIlroy finished 1-2 in the FedEx Cup standings following Scheffler's victory at the BMW Championship on Sunday. The Texan and Northern Irishman also played together on Thursday and Friday at the BMW. The Tour Championship had used a staggered start based on "starting strokes" since 2019, in which No. 1 in the season-long standings would begin the tournament at 10 under par, No. 2 would be 8 under and so on. That was eliminated this year - all 30 players in the field will begin at even par, and the top player after 72 holes will win both the tournament and the FedEx Cup. Despite that change, the PGA Tour opted to pair golfers up for the first round based on the points standings. Scheffler and McIlroy will tee off at 7pm on Thursday at East Lake Golf Club, with Scheffler vying to win back-to-back FedEx Cups and McIlroy aiming for the fourth of his career. Just before them are another duo that's seen plenty of one another this summer. U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun and Englishman Justin Rose are 3-4 in the points standings and will tee off together at 6:49 p.m. Spaun and Rose went to a playoff at the FedEx St. Jude Championship two weeks ago, with Rose winning on the third hole. Then they were paired together to start the BMW. Other notable pairings are No. 5 Tommy Fleetwood of England and No. 6 Ben Griffin; Harris English and Justin Thomas; Cameron Young and Sweden's Ludvig Aberg; Collin Morikawa and Norway's Viktor Hovland; and Hideki Matsuyama of Japan and Offaly's Shane Lowry. Tour Championships Tee Times 4.16pm: Chris Gotterup, Akshay Bhatia 4.27pm: Jacob Bridgeman, Sungjae Im 4.38pm: Nick Taylor, Harry Hall 4.49pm: Hideki Matsuyama, Shane Lowry 5.00pm: Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland 5.16pm: Corey Conners, Patrick Cantley 5.27pm: Sam Burns, Brian Harman 5.38pm: Andrew Novak, Keegan Bradley 5.49pm: Cameron Young, Ludvig Aberg 6.00pm: Harris English, Justin Thomas 6.16pm: Robert MacIntrye, Maverick McNealy 6.27pm: Russell Henley, Sepp Strake 6.38pm: Tommy Fleetwood, Ben Griffin 6.49pm: JJ Spaun, Justin Rose 7.00pm: Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy
