Min Woo Lee played most of the first round of the Tour Championship by himself Thursday, and nobody in the field played better before him. He finished with a career-best 8-under-par 62 and left the course as the leader.
His partner for the day, J.J. Spaun, hit his tee shot on the sixth hole at East Lake Golf Club, felt something in his shoulder and walked off with an injury. Golfers play in pairs, which left Lee with 13 holes and no one to play them with.
Lee made eight birdies and no bogeys in the rain, and he went into the clubhouse in sole possession of the lead with the higher-seeded players still on the course. The rain was so bad the Tour went to preferred lies on all 18 holes, letting players clean their ball and set it back down.
“It was one of my first times that I had to play by myself,” Lee said on the Golf Channel. “It was a little rattling on that first hole that I was solo, but it’s nice that there’s pacing out here, so … if I played fast, I think I would have caught up to the group in front pretty quick. So I could play calmer and talk it through a little bit more, and obviously it worked out. It was a little weird, but hopefully J.J.’s fine.”