{"id":854513,"date":"2026-08-14T03:20:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T03:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/854513\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T03:20:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T03:20:41","slug":"sets-me-up-hot-scott-eyes-golfs-tour-championship-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/854513\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Sets me up&#8217;: Hot Scott eyes golf&#8217;s Tour Championship \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[Photo: AP PHOTO] Adam Scott follows his ball during his four-under 66 in the first round of the St Jude Championship.<a href=\"https:\/\/photos.aap.com.au\/search\/20260814182419712749\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Adam Scott is hoping to set himself up for more major opportunities after making a hot start to the PGA Tour\u2019s opening FedExCup playoff event in Memphis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scott navigated the stifling conditions to fire a first-round four-under 66 to be tied for fifth, just one stroke off the pace at the FedEx St Jude Championship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Min Woo Lee, the only other Australian to make the 70-man field, is also well placed in a share of 13th after starting with a three-under 67.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786677641_430_.jpeg\" alt=\"Lee\"\/>[Photo: AP PHOTO] Min Woo Lee eagled the 16th during his round of 67. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Americans Michael Thorbjornsen, Kurt Kitayama, Michael Kim, Jake Knapp and triple major winner Jordan Spieth all carded 65s to set the pace at five under.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Only the top 50 players in the season-long point standings after Sunday\u2019s final round will progress to next week\u2019s BMW Championship in St Louis before the top 30 qualify for the $US40 million ($56.3 million) Tour Championship in Atlanta from August 27-30.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scott, though, is playing for more than money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As well as the $US10 million ($A14.6 million) winner\u2019s cheque in Atlanta, the 45-year-old former world No.1 knows the perks on offer at the season-ending showpiece.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The benefits include entry to next year\u2019s mega money Signature events, a further two-year full exemption to the PGA Tour and a start at the 2027 US Open.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They are all great lures for a man riding an astonishing 101 straight majors streak already.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s so much to gain from a good week right now,\u201d Scott said after offsetting a bogey at the first hole on Thursday with five birdies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy only feeling has been like make the most of this week, then it\u2019s all upside for me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNot only for the remainder of this season. It\u2019s possible to lock up a spot in the Tour Championship this week, but also what it does into next year \u2013 the Signatures and all the majors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt sets me up for what can be a year on my terms, which will be nice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 2013 Masters champ started the week in 29th spot in the FedExCup standings and has provisionally risen to 27th after round one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lee began in 17th position and has slipped back to 20th, still comfortably inside the top-30 zone for a Tour Championship start.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Co-leader Spieth and Kim are sitting not so comfortably, both outside the top 50 and in need of a strong finish just to make it to the season\u2019s penultimate event, let alone the finale.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is the second straight season that Spieth, at No.54 and winless in more than four years, has been on the bubble going into the playoffs. He was at No.48 a year ago and fell out of the top 50.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jordan Spieth brought a new approach to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FedExChamp?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">@FedExChamp<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>After an opening-round 65, he shares an 18-hole lead on TOUR for the first time since 2023 \u2014 and he\u2019s the only bogey-free player in the field! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZaefCOC5wY\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/ZaefCOC5wY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PGATOUR\/status\/2088027553780883652?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">August 13, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said the difference is the way he feels he is playing, even though he is the only player from the top 70 who qualified yet to register a top 10 this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m just in a very different place about the game of golf than I was the last couple seasons heading into this event,\u201d said the former No.1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAgain, if it\u2019s going to work out, great. If it doesn\u2019t, I know next year is going to be an awesome year for me. So it takes a lot of the stress off this week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: AP PHOTO] Adam Scott follows his ball during his four-under 66 in the first round of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[5487,64,63,48016,424706,755,15817,5488,1747,85],"class_list":["post-854513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-adam-scott","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fedex-st-jude-championship","tag-fedexcup-playoffs","tag-golf","tag-jordan-spieth","tag-min-woo-lee","tag-pga-tour","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854513","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=854513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}