East Lake (US), Aug 30 (IANS): Sahith Theegala, who started the event at a 4-under start shot 3-under in first round for a 7-under total that placed him in the Top-10 at ninth place after the first round of the Tour Championship.

Indian-American Theegala, who has picked an automatic qualifying spot for the 2024 President’s Cup, is making his debut at the Tour Championships, as are Akshay Bhatia and Aaron Rai.

Rai, who started at even par shot 5-under and was 5-under to be T-14, while another Indian-American Bhatia, starting at 2-under shot 1-under 70 and was now 3-under and 25th from among the 30 players at the Tour Championship.

At the Tout Championship, leading players get starting strokes based on their finish in the FedExCup standings the BMW Championships, the second Play-offs event. This is year six of the Tour Championship’s handicapped format.

Scheffler will start this week at East Lake with a two-stroke lead on Schauffele and a 10-stroke lead on Justin Thomas, the last man in the field at No. 30 in the standings. So, Scheffler started at 10-under and Schauffele started at 8-under and Hideki Matsuyama at 7-under.

Scheffler shot 65 to get to 16-under, Schauffele carded 1-under 70 to get to nine-under and Morikawa, starting at 4-under, added 5-under 66 to get to nine-under with Schauffele.

Matsuyama, who carded a 1-under 70 in the first round of the Playoffs finale at newly-restored East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta and declared he was pain-free, just six days after withdrawing from the BMW Championship due to a lower back injury.

Matsuyama started the first round on 7-under and three back of top-ranked Scottie Scheffler (65) in the staggered-scoring format based on FedExCup positions heading into East Lake. However, the American World No. 1, who started at 10-under, fired the day’s best of 65 and moved to 16-under and Matsuyama, who began three behind, now finds himself trailing by eight.

Lying tied second with Morikawa (66) was Xander Schauffele (70) and both were at 9-under.