Staggering loophole in golf\u2019s $215m playoff frenzy as \u2018Rory Rule\u2019 causes stir<\/a><\/p>\nAkshay Bhatia leads after the first round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship.Source: AFP<\/p>\n
Fleetwood played in more sultry afternoon conditions and saved his best for last. Three-under through 14 holes, he launched his closing burst with a nine-foot birdie at 15, rolled in a seven-footer at 16, made a five-footer at 17 and drilled in a 15-foot birdie at the last.<\/p>\n
He said staying patient through the first seven holes, when he felt he played well but didn\u2019t make much headway, was key to the round, but 17 and 18 were his highlights of the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cEighteen, you\u2019ve obviously still got work to do … You\u2019ve still got to stand up and hit a golf shot on the last. Felt really good on the tee, but to hit a golf shot like that, it was literally exactly where I was aiming, so obviously that one,\u201d he said in choosing his best shot of his four-birdie burst.<\/p>\n
Scottie Scheffler tees off on the 18th hole during the first round of the St. Jude Championship.Source: AP<\/p>\n
The tournament is the first of three playoff events and features the top 70 players in the points standings.<\/p>\n
Scheffler, playing his first event since capturing his fourth major title \u2014 and his second major of the year \u2014 at the British Open at Royal Portrush, came in atop the standings.<\/p>\n
He was four-under through 17 holes but made his only bogey of the day at 18, where he missed a short par putt.<\/p>\n
Masters champion Rory McIlroy, second behind Scheffler in the playoff standings, opted to skip the event, confident that he would remain high enough on the list to advance to next week\u2019s BMW Championship.<\/p>\n
The top 50 at the conclusion of this week\u2019s tournament advance to the BMW, with the top 30 after that tournament qualifying for the Tour Championship in Atlanta.<\/p>\n
Min Woo Lee of Australia hits a tee shot on the seventh hole during the first round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship.Source: AFP<\/p>\n
AUSTRALIAN SCORES<\/p>\n
Cam Davis -1 (69) =27th<\/p>\n
Jason Day +1 (71) =48th<\/p>\n
Min Woo Lee +6 (76) 69th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Akshay Bhatia picked up four strokes in the last three holes as he surged to an eight-under par…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[2620,6954,2095,43491,4131,64,63,42313,43486,1208,2057,43490,42330,2105,755,8462,43488,43484,43485,5499,43489,6920,733,43487,2041,2067,3583,43480,42343,31664,42303,43483,756,42309,35448,757,42319,85,42307,43481,973,3370,43482,2614],"class_list":["post-51745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-akshay-bhatia","tag-america","tag-andy-lyons","tag-atlanta","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bayerische-motoren-werke-ag","tag-birdie-putt","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-fairway-bunkers","tag-fedex-corporation","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-golf","tag-golf-ball","tag-golf-shot","tag-golf-shots","tag-horror-day","tag-jason-day","tag-jude-classic","tag-justin-rose","tag-memphis","tag-nightmare-round","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-northern-europe","tag-playoff-events","tag-playoff-frenzy","tag-playoff-standings","tag-playoffs-cut","tag-points-standings","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-rory-rule","tag-round-leaderboard","tag-royal-portrush","tag-season-standings","tag-sports","tag-state-of-georgia","tag-sultry-afternoon-conditions","tag-tennessee","tag-texas","tag-tour-titles","tag-united-states-of-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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