Chris Kirk (-6) is the sole leader of the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first play off of the FedEx Cup. The hole in one he achieved on the 14th greatly helps to shoot up in the table, but what helps even more is to get more greens in regulation than anyone else and, on top of that, to putt outstandingly: he started by missing a short birdie putt on hole 1, it’s true, but then he was going to sink up to four putts from distances ranging from three to six meters.
Right behind him are perfectly positioned Scottie Scheffler (-4) and Xander Schauffele (-4), the formidable Sche-Scha duo, world numbers one and two, who have scored seventy-five percent of the Majors this year, the gold medal at the Games, as well as The Players and a few designated PGA Tour tournaments… As if they were not to be considered favourites in every tournament they appear in and for the final big prize of the FedEx Cup. For now, today they have lived up to expectations without apparently doing anything out of the ordinary, both relying on a great start to the round, full of birdies.
Scheffler has been seen at times a bit uncomfortable, and it is that to date, at the TPC Southwind in Memphis, there always seems to be some unforeseen event. Remember that he has never finished in the top ten on this course, a circumstantial situation that he will surely remedy this very week. This time nothing can be blamed on the Texan’s performance on the greens, as he appears high in the putting statistics.
It is worth highlighting the start of Hideki Matsuyama (-5), as well as that of Matthieu Pavon (-5). Just when one begins to think that the season is starting to get long, the Frenchman comes along and shows you that he still has gunpowder in the arsenal. The record of Patrick Cantlay (+2) in this first round stands out more, given how well the play offs usually go for him and the excellent form he has shown in the last stretch of the season. The performance of Rory McIlroy (-2), again quite irregular, who is not quite rearming himself, although a rebound is always expected from him, perhaps in these very playoffs, at the same time; or that of Viktor Hovland (PAR), who came to this event as the defender of the FedEx Cup, but with the urgent need to do well to get into the second play off, which he by no means has assured (the top fifty get in, he is currently 57th and the table projection after the first round sends him to 63rd).
