Byeong Hun An and Sungjae Im each shot 8-under 62 on Thursday to share the lead after one round at the Wyndham Championship.
Mackenzie Hughes, Rory Sabbatini, Patrick Rodgers and Johnson Wagner were a stroke back of the South Korean leaders in the final PGA TOUR event before the FedExCup Playoffs.
Former Wyndham winners Brandt Snedeker and Webb Simpson joined Jordan Spieth among the nine players at 6-under 64.
The co-leaders shot the best rounds of their PGA TOUR careers. An, a 27-year-old South Korean seeking his first career victory on TOUR, closed with birdies on four of his final six holes and a sand save on the par-4 18th.
An had four birdies on the front nine at Sedgefield Country Club along with those four on the back nine during his bogey-free round. He hit 15 greens in regulation.
‘I’ve got to do a couple more of these rounds,’ An said. ‘One good round won’t do it, so I need to keep it up and make a lot of birdies.’
Im, one of nine players in the field with a chance at finishing in the top 10 on the points list and earning some bonus money as part of the new Wyndham Rewards Top 10 program, had three straight birdies on Nos. 14-16 and also was bogey-free. He started at No. 25 on the points list.
For a while, it looked as though Spieth would join them atop the leaderboard — teeing off on No. 18 one stroke behind the leaders, but he sent his drive out of bounds. After taking the penalty stroke, he placed his fourth stroke 21 feet from the flagstick and rolled in that putt for arguably the best bogey of the day.
‘I got up there and had a putt at it, I was just trying to get the right speed,’ Spieth said. ‘And 5 feet to go, it looked really good, just like they did all day.’
Spieth had just 23 putts during his round.
‘You want putts for birdie. You want to be hitting greens in regulation,’ Spieth said. ‘Really, two bad swings today kept it from being my lowest round on the PGA TOUR. There’s a lot of good in that.’
At No. 67 on the points list, Spieth – the 2015 FedExCup Champion – is in no danger of missing the postseason.
Branden Grace finds himself five off the pace after a 67 that included six birdies. The popular South African hit just five of 14 fairways on Thursday but was able to up that to 13 greens as he looks to build on his FedExCup ranking of 89.
Some way back in Presidents Cup standings too, Friday will be crucial to his cause.
Dylan Frittelli was at +1 but still sits comfortably in 51st place in the FedExCup rankings.
Ernie Els withdrew after just five holes.
