- FedExCup Points: 50,000
- Purse: $1.26 million
- Winning Share: $1,260,000
- Yards: 7,154
Weather: 0.52" of rain fell Thursday. High 85. Low 69. Winds: light and variable. Remnants of Hurricane Humberto will be pulled northeast into Alabama by tomorrow afternoon as a cold front continues to move south out of the Midwest. Deep tropical moisture will produce heavy rainfall in the Atlanta area.
| WEATHER UPDATE |
PGA TOUR on-site meteorologist Stewart Williams has the forecast for the remainder of the weekend at East Lake.
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Play was suspended from 2:17 5:20 p.m. (3 hours, 3 minutes) due to heavy thunderstorms that rolled through the area on Thursday.
Play was suspended for the day at 7:09 p.m. due to darkness. Round one will resume with players "in position" at 8 a.m. Friday. There are a total of 20 players who have not completed round one.
Due to the threat of inclement weather tomorrow, second-round tee times for THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola have been moved up. Tee times for the second round are 9-11:20 a.m. and players will be in same pairings as the first round -- rather than being re-paired by score as originally scheduled. Players were paired based on their position in the FedExCup standings -- meaning Tiger Woods (ranked No. 1) and Steve Stricker (No. 2) play last. Gates will open to the public at 7 a.m.
The television times for THE TOUR Championship will remain the same: 1-6 p.m. ET on GOLF CHANNEL tomorrow, tape delayed; 12:30-2 p.m. GOLF CHANNEL and 2-6 p.m. NBC on Saturday, live; and 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. GOLF CHANNEL and 1:30-6 p.m. NBC on Sunday, live.
Tim Clark tied the East Lake Golf Club course record with his opening 8-under 62 on Thursday. Bart Bryant set the course record in the first round in 2005 when he went on to win by six-strokes with a tournament record 17-under 263 total.
It is the fifth time that a player has posted a score of 62 or better on TOUR in the first round of a TOUR event this year. Hunter Mahan fired a 62 in the first round twice this year (Canadian Open, Travelers Championship), Fred Funk opened with a 62 at the Mayakoba Golf Classic and Brandt Snedeker posted the season low for the year with his opening 61 at the Buick Invitational.
The 8-under 62 for Tim Clark is a career best for the six-year TOUR player.
Tim Clark, who has made the cut in two of the first three FedExCup playoff events, has recorded eight out of 11 rounds in the 60s, including four rounds in the 60s last week at the BMW Championship, where he finished T5 and jumped into the top-30 on the FedExCup Playoff to qualify for this week's TOUR Championship.
Padraig Harrington's longest putt on the front nine was an 8'9" putt for birdie on No. 3. On the back nine he made six birdies with his shortest birdie putt being 8'11" (No. 18) and the longest 17"9" (No. 10).
The top 30 from the FedExCup points list are fully exempt for the 2008 season. In addition, they are eligible for all Invitational tournaments in 2008 (i.e. Arnold Palmer Invitational, Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, the Memorial Tournament, THE PLAYERS Championship, Verizon Heritage, etc.). Every player in the top 30 of the final FedExCup standings will be exempt for the 2008 Masters as well.
Despite the successes of international golfers on the PGA TOUR this year, more than half of the 30 golfers who made the final event are Americans. Seventeen golfers from the United States teed it up today at THE TOUR Championship (up from 15 last year), four from Australia, three from South Africa and one each from South Korea, Fiji Islands, Spain, England, Colombia and Ireland.
Colombia's Camilo Villegas, who finished 3-under 67 in round one, is the first player from his country to play in the TOUR Championship and only the second from South America, joining Paraguay's Carlos Franco, who played in the 1999, 2000 and 2004 events.
In years past, THE TOUR Championship was the top 30 yearly money leaders on the PGA TOUR who played in the season-ending TOUR Championship. Of the current top 30 on the earnings list, only four did not make this year's event:
These players are here this week, but they WOULD NOT have made the field if we had gone off the top-30 on the money list:
Jonathan Byrd (25th on FedExCup - 35th on money)
Tim Clark (27th on FedExCup - 31st on money)
Camilo Villegas (28th on FedExCup - 37th on money)
Heath Slocum (29th on FedExCUp - 36th on money)
These players are not here this week, but they WOULD have made the field if we had gone off the top-30 on the money list:
Luke Donald (25th on money - 31st on FedExCup)
David Toms (26th on money - 33rd on FedExCup)
Henrik Stenson (29th on money - 39th on FedExCup)
Jerry Kelly (30th on money - 32nd on FedExCup)
Camilo Villegas, Brandt Snedeker and Hunter Mahan are making their first appearances at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola. The trio played in the 2001 U.S. Amateur, also at East Lake Golf Club. Villegas finished fourth in the stroke-play portion and lost in the third round to the eventual champion and his teammate at the University of Florida, Bubba Dickerson. Snedeker tied for 63rd in the stroke-play portion but did not make it to match play after a 15-player playoff for two spots. Mahan finished 110th in stroke play.
