Spieth shares first-round lead at FedEx St. Jude Championship as McIlroy stumbles to 74

Spieth finds form at the right time

Jordan Spieth shot a bogey-free 5-under 65 at TPC Southwind on Thursday to share the first-round lead of the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the opening event of the PGA Tour's three-tournament postseason. Spieth, ranked 54th in the FedEx Cup standings and winless on tour in more than four years, was joined at 65 by Michael Thorbjornsen, Jake Knapp, Michael Kim and Kurt Kitayama. Spieth is the only player among the top 70 qualifiers who has yet to register a top-10 finish this season, having gone 21 tournaments without one.

The stakes are acute for Spieth because only the top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings advance to next week's BMW Championship at Bellerive in St. Louis, and a top-50 finish locks up entry into all the $20 million signature events for the following season. This is the second straight year Spieth has entered the postseason on the bubble; he was 48th a year ago and fell out of the top 50.

I'm just in a very different place about the game of golf than I was the last couple seasons heading into this event. Again, if it's going to work out, great. If it doesn't, I know next year is going to be an awesome year for me. So it takes a lot of the stress off of this week.

McIlroy's late collapse

Rory McIlroy, playing his first competitive round since last month's Open, endured a wretched finish to his opening round. The world No. 2 and Masters champion turned in 1-over 36 and briefly returned to level par with a 15-foot birdie putt at the 11th. From there, his round unravelled. He bogeyed the 16th after driving into the trees and semi-topping a fairway wood 89 yards, bogeyed the 17th after his second shot bounced past the green towards the stands, then hooked his tee shot into the water at the 18th and ran up a double bogey.

The sequence of bogey, bogey, double bogey left McIlroy at 4-over 74, nine strokes off the lead and near the bottom of the 69-man field. McIlroy, currently 12th in the FedEx Cup standings, had decided against skipping the event for a second straight year, admitting he could not afford to head into next week's penultimate playoff event without a competitive round since The Open.

Scheffler steady on return

World No. 1 and FedEx Cup leader Scottie Scheffler, returning to action for the first time since finishing runner-up at the 3M Open, posted a 2-under 68. He missed just one green in regulation despite hitting only four fairways all day.

I felt like I hit a lot of quality shots with my irons. I did a good job of being patient and not trying to force it too much. I feel like I was right on the edge of having a good day, so I felt like patience-wise, I did a pretty good job.

Chasing pack and European struggles

Seven players sat one shot off the lead at 4-under 66, including defending FedEx Cup champion Tommy Fleetwood, Hideki Matsuyama, Gary Woodland and Adam Scott. Fleetwood chipped in from the edge of a bunker at the third for an eagle. For Woodland and Scott, both just inside the top 30 in the standings, a strong week could lock up a place in the Tour Championship at East Lake.

My only feeling has been make the most of this week, then it's all upside for me. There's so much to gain from a good week right now, not only for the remainder of this season. It's possible to lock up a spot in the Tour Championship this week, but also what it does into next year, the signatures and all the majors.

Ireland's Shane Lowry, who entered the tournament 62nd in the standings and needing to break into the top 50 to progress, signed for a 1-under 69 despite a double-bogey at the par-3 11th where his tee shot found the water. Scotland's Robert MacIntyre fared far worse, crashing to a 12-over 82 with four double bogeys to prop up the entire field.