ATLANTA – Neither Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy started the TOUR Championship with the advantage they would have enjoyed in previous years. That doesn’t mean they were without help.

McIlroy finished his round with a fortuitous break that benefited both him and Scheffler. His bladed bunker shot on the par-5 18th sailed over the green but bounced off a hospitality tent and back onto the putting surface. Instead of needing to take relief from the temporary structure, McIlroy made the 17-footer for a closing birdie.

The minutes that were saved allowed the top two players in the FedExCup to finish their first rounds Thursday. It will still be an early start Friday, though, as the second round will begin at 8 a.m. Friday because of inclement weather in the forecast.

McIlroy’s break on 18 was beneficial to both players in Thursday’s final group.

“I have never rooted so hard for somebody's ball to come back, outside of my partner in a team event,” Scheffler said. “Because we're walking to 18 and Bones told us they were going to blow (the horn) at any second, so I'm watching his ball fly towards the grandstand. I'm like, oh, my gosh, we've got no way of finishing this thing, so I was relieved when I saw it come back on the green.”

McIlroy’s 4 on 18 was a bounce-back birdie in the truest sense. Not only did it carom off of a tent, but it came after a bogey at the par-4 17th (McIlroy also followed his only other bogey of the day, on the par-4 14th, with a birdie on the island 15th). McIlroy is in eighth place, five shots behind leader Russell Henley, after shooting 66 on Thursday.

Scheffler is the TOUR’s king of the bounce-back stat, which measures how often a player makes birdie or better on the hole following a bogey. He has finished first or second in that stat in each of the past three seasons, and is leading the TOUR this year (36.4%).

He didn’t need to deploy that skill Thursday, though, as he went bogey-free in his 63 that has him alone in second place, two strokes behind his friend and Presidents Cup partner, Russell Henley.

Scheffler was helped by his putter, leading the field in Strokes Gained: Putting in the first round. He made three putts outside 25 feet, including a 26-footer to save par on 16 after hitting his approach down a steep slope right of the green that beguiled the players who preceded him there.

“I knew going down there right of 16 was a huge penalty,” he said. “We had talked about it in the practice rounds, and our job was just to get the ball back on the green, which I did, and it was nice to hole that long putt.”

He followed that save by making a 27-footer for birdie on 17 and a 4-footer for birdie on East Lake’s par-5 finishing hole. Scheffler ranks 16th in SG: Putting this season, turning what once was a weakness into yet another strength. He is seeking to become the first player to win consecutive FedExCups and to earn a sixth win that would nearly match his win total from his historic 2024, when he won seven times.