First-round notebook – The TOUR Championship
* 2008 Honda Classic champion Ernie Els opened with a round of 2-under 68 on Thursday. Els entered the week at No. 21 on the FedExCup points list and is sitting on only four top-10 finishes thus far in the 2008 season. The three-time major championship winner has recorded at least five top-10s in each of the past nine seasons on the PGA Tour. Should he finish the year on four top-10s, it would tie his career low for a complete Tour season (Note: Els played in six events in 1993 and finished with one top-10).* Els is making his 13th career start at THE Tour Championship this week. His best finish came in 2001 at Champions Golf Club in Houston, TX, where he lost in a four-man playoff to Mike Weir
* Anthony Kim carded a 6-under 64 at THE Tour Championship presented by Coca-Cola on Thursday and will take a four-shot lead over Ernie Els, Trevor Immelman and Phil Mickelson into Friday’s second round as the PGA Tour concludes the Playoffs for the FedExCup.
* This marks the third time in his career that Anthony Kim has held at least a share of an 18-hole lead on the PGA Tour. He held a share of the lead at this year’s RBC Canadian Open (finished T8) and the 2007 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial (finished T18).
* This is only the fifth time in Kim’s PGA Tour career, in his 50th start, that he has been in the top-five through 18 holes of a Tour event.
* Kim is making his first career start at THE Tour Championship and is looking to become the first player since Bart Bryant in 2005 to capture the title in his first start at the event.
* In the first round of the 2007 Tour Championship, 24 of the 30 players managed to break par. In 2008, only five players managed to do so on Thursday.
* In the 21-year history of THE Tour Championship, the first-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win the Tournament 10 times, with the last to do so being Bart Bryant in 2005. Bryant and Vijay Singh (2002) are the only players to have achieved this feat at East Lake Golf Club.
* Phil Mickelson is making his 12th career start at THE Tour Championship which he won in 2000, finished T5 in 2002, but otherwise has no other top-10s.
* Mickelson was T2 through 18 holes of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in May en route to claiming the title on Sunday afternoon. Prior to that, the last time he won on the PGA Tour when sitting in second place through 18 holes was at the 2000 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.
* 2008 Masters champion Trevor Immelman opened with a 2-under 68 in his second career start at THE Tour Championship presented by Coca-Cola. Immelman finished T5 in 2006 after overcoming a first-round 73 with closing rounds of 66-69-69.
* Immelman’s only top-10 finishes thus far in 2008 are the win at The Masters and a playoff loss to Justin Leonard at the Stanford St. Jude Championship. He has remained steady throughout the PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedExCup. Immelman entered The Barclays at No. 20 on the points list and in turn entered THE Tour Championship at No. 19 after finishes of 70th, T50 and T13, respectively.
* The last player to win a major championship and THE Tour Championship in the same calendar year was Retief Goosen in 2004 (U.S. Open). The feat has only been achieved three times in the Tournament’s 21-year history.
* After finishing T5 at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, K.J. Choi (1-under 69) failed to record a single top-10 in 11 starts heading into the PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedExCup; however, Choi managed to find his game and now has 11 of 13 rounds under par through the three Playoff events and Thursday.
* Choi has only one top-15 finish in five prior starts at THE Tour Championship, a T9 in 2002.
* 2008 PLAYERS Championship winner Sergio Garcia rebounded nicely on Thursday for a round of even-par 70. Garcia was four-over par through his first six holes – a stretch which included a double-bogey on the par-4 fifth after a lost tee shot. He fought back to record five birdies and a back-nine 33.
* Jim Furyk recorded an eagle at the par-4 first on Thursday when he holed a gap wedge from 120 yards. This was the second eagle recorded at the first in the eight years that THE Tour Championship has been played at East Lake Golf Club. In 2004, Phil Mickelson eagled the first on his way to a second-round 72.
* What a difference a year makes. At the 2007 Tour Championship, Tim Clark opened with a round of 8-under 62 and held a one-shot lead through 18 holes. Clark carded an 8-over 78 Thursday at East Lake Golf Club and currently sits in 30th place through one round.
* There are five past champions in the field this week: Chad Campbell (2003), Vijay Singh (2002), Mike Weir (2001), Phil Mickelson (2000) and Billy Mayfair (1995). Of those five, only Mickelson (T2) and Weir (T6) find themselves in the top 10 through 18 holes.
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