Johnson continues impressive run of form to grab share of Tour Championship lead

Dustin Johnson was in trouble from the start yesterday, just not for very long. The game feels easy for the US Open champion, who began his bid for the FedEx Cup title with a 4- under 66 to share the lead at the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Johnson had 165 yards from the sand and worried about getting it over the lip of the bunker. He hit an 8- iron to 60cm for birdie and was on his way to his sixth consecutive round at 68 or lower.

“It was a very nice shot to start the day,” Johnson said with a smile.

Hideki Matsuyama of Japan ran off three straight birdies early in his round and finished with a birdie on the par- 5 18th — the nines have been switched at East Lake — for a 66, while Kevin Chappell joined them with a bogey- free round.

Johnson is coming off his third victory of the year at the BMW Championship two weeks ago, and there was no indication that anything has changed. He hit a reasonable amount of fairways ( eight out of 14) considering the dry, fast conditions, and only once when he was out of position did he fail to save par.

He is the No 1 seed in the FedEx Cup, and the top five seeds only have to win the Tour Championship to claim the US$ 10m ($ 13.7m) FedEx Cup bonus. The top five were all among the dozen players who broke par in the opening round.

Jason Day, the world N 1 who hasn’t won in four months, dropped his only shot on the opening hole and was at 67, with Kevin Kisner and Si Woo Kim.

“I’d like to give Dustin a good run for it,” Day said.

Jordan Spieth didn’t look like he would post anything near a 68 after he was 3 over through two holes. The defending FedEx Cup champion let his short game bail him out in a big way. Spieth holed three straight putts from the9m range and raced back into the mix on the back nine by holing a bunker shot for birdie right of the 13th green and finishing with a pair of 6m birdies.

Also at 68 was Rory McIlroy, who had consecutive double bogeys towards the end of the front nine and pulled himself together with four straight birdies on the back.