A bizarre first round at the 2023 Tour Championship resulted in a three-way tie for the lead between Viktor Hovland, Keegan Bradley and Collin Morikawa. All three golfers sit at 10 under entering Round 2 as pre-tournament leader Scottie Scheffler fell from 10 under to 9 under after shooting 71 on Thursday across his first 18 holes.
Scheffler is by no means out of the mix, but he is operating from a chase position now, as are Matt Fitzpatrick, Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy (-7).
It will be fascinating to see what happens at the top with the co-leaders. Hovland was fine but not amazing Thursday as he shot 68. Morikawa and Bradley were flawless with bogey free rounds. The former shot 61, while the latter shot 63 to get into the mix at this event.
Morikawa and Bradley will play together Friday in the second round as they try to accomplish one of the more difficult things in golf: back up a great round with another one of equal quality.
There are other elite pairings, too. Hovland and Scheffler will play together again, while two potential Ryder Cup duos — McIlroy and Fitzpatrick, plus Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton — will start just before them.
Friday should be great again at the Tour Championship, and hopefully it’s as wild as the first 18 holes.
2023 Tour Championship tee times, Round 2 pairings
All times Eastern
- 11:26 a.m. — Nick Taylor, Emiliano Grillo
- 11:37 a.m. — Sungjae Im, Taylor Moore
- 11:48 a.m. — Tommy Fleetwood, Jordan Spieth
- 11:59 a.m. — Si Woo Kim, Tony Finau
- 12:10 p.m. — Lucas Glover, Corey Conners
- 12:21 p.m. — Sam Burns, Max Homa
- 12:32 p.m. — Sepp Straka, Jason Day
- 12:43 p.m. — Rickie Fowler, Patrick Cantlay
- 12:54 p.m. — Brian Harman, Tom Kim
- 1:05 p.m. — Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark
- 1:16 p.m. — Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton
- 1:27 p.m. — Matt Fitzpatrick, Rory McIlroy
- 1:38 p.m. — Adam Schenk, Russell Henley
- 1:49 p.m. — Viktor Hovland, Scottie Scheffler
- 2:00 p.m. — Collin Morikawa, Keegan Bradley