Thankfully It's Still 2018: Tiger Opens Tour Championship With 65, Tied For Lead

Golfweek’s David Dusek has the details of Tiger’s first round at East Lake in five years and it was a beauty.

“This was by far better than the 62 at Aronimink,” Woods said, referring to his opening round at the BMW Championship two weeks ago. “Conditions were soft there. It’s hard to get the ball close here. There’s so much chase in it. If you drive the ball in the rough, you know you can’t get the ball close.”

If this were 2019 and Tiger came into the Tour Championship/FedExCup finale 20th in the standings, things would have been different after round one given the new “strokes-based” handicap system announced this week. As Joel Beall notes for GolfDigest.com, “thank the golf gods the system doesn't come to fruition until next fall.”

Beall posts the full top 8 and Tiger would be five back of Justin Rose after one round.

Of more note for those wanting to consider how the system will work for the Cup leaders, there is Bryson DeChambeau—winner of two playoff events and the FedExCup leader—already three back following an opening 71.