Tour Championship: Henrik Stenson jumps ahead of the youth brigade

Henrik Stenson steals the show at the Tour Championship in Atlanta; Young brigade make a less than impressive start

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Henrik Stenson steals the show at the Tour Championship in Atlanta; Young brigade make a less than impressive start

September 25, 2015: It has been two years since he fired up a wire to wire victory to snatch a famous FedexCup victory. At 39, Henrik Stenson might seem like a veteran in a new era driven by players much younger than that. The Swede showed age has no ill effect on golf, shooting a dominant 63 to surge into the lead in the Tour Championship.

Stenson enjoyed a two shot lead over Paul Casey and a three shot advantage on Rory McIlroy and Zach Johnson. The rampant Swede took a meagre 29 shots to make the turn, including an 25 feet monster eagle putt on the par-5 ninth hole.

Stenson was 8-under through just 12 holes, but he made five pars and a bogey on the 17th to end the day at 7-under, raising visions of yet another wire to wire performance.

He will remember that he opened with a 64 in 2013, before drawing away from the pack to enjoy a massive nine shot lead during the third round of that tournament. Stenson and Tom Watson are the only men to have earned a wire to wire finish at the season finale.

“I wanted to get out of the blocks quickly, and I surely did,” Stenson said.

Jason Day began his lessons in hunting in right earnest. Among the first lessons he is learning as the world No.1 is that – it is easy to be the hunter than live as the one that is hunted.

Day made three straight birdies to make another soaring start, but sailed he tee shot at the fourth over the trees and out of bounds at the par-4 fourth hole. Eventually, he made a triple bogey there to concede all of his early bravado.

He did make a 69, but that is six shots too much, measured against Stenson. “I wish I could say that I was a machine and I can hit it straight down the gut every single time, 315 yards,” Day said. “But unfortunately, as humans we’re going to make errors. To make triple was pretty disappointing, but it’s early on in the tournament, so I can’t dwell on that.”

Rory McIlroy benefited from a string of three birdies, signing off with a 66 to remain in touch with the runaway leader. He is tied with Zach Johnson at 4-under.

“I can’t really play the front nine any better – very similar to what I did in 2013 when I started with a good score and shot 5 under on the front,” Stenson said. “So hopefully, the rest of the week can be as successful as it was then.”

Incredibly the man who failed to make the finale last season, could finish as low as third and still walk away with the ten million on offer this week. Stenson is currently fourth on the list and as any of the top five this week, the pot is his so long as he can win this week, but a combination of results could allow him to win the big fat cheque from third place on Sunday.

“I’ll be happy on Sunday if I were to finish second and win the FedExCup,” he said. “I’ll be smiling more if I got two trophies, but I’ll deal with one, as well. But at this point, I’m here to try and win this Tour Championship for the second time, and it would be great to pull that off. Still a long ways to go. We’re only one round down and as we know, a lot of things can happen in 54 holes.”

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