Russell Henley takes lead and manages to break Tour Championship record on day one at East Lake

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Russell Henley leads the Tour Championship after day one at East Lake following a scintillating round of nine-under par 61.

Unfortunately for Henley, that will not count as a new course record due to the fact that the PGA Tour opted to enforce preferred lies on day one of the Tour Championship due to the heavy rain that had passed through at East Lake.

Ironically, the 36-year-old is already the course-record holder at the newly restored East Lake Golf Club, after he fired a round of 62 on the final day in 2024.

Henley proved on day one of the Tour Championship he will be a key player at the Ryder Cup in September at Bethpage Black.

He won earlier this season at Bay Hill, pipping Collin Morikawa to the title.

Henley then cooled off significantly and missed the cut at The Masters and the PGA Championship.

However, he has managed to turn that poor form around, with two top-10 finishes in the final two majors of the year, and two top-five finishes in Signature Events.

Russell Henley breaks Tour Championship record at East Lake

What a round of golf that was from Henley.

His first round 61 gave him a two shot lead over world number one Scottie Scheffler heading into the final three rounds of the tournament.

As mentioned earlier, his 61 didn’t count as a course record because of the lift, clean and place rules in play.

However, one of the records he set on Thursday did count officially.

Henley holed just over 207 feet of putts on day one of the Tour Championship on Thursday – the most feet of putts recorded in a round at East Lake since tracking began in 2004.

It really was an incredible display of skill on the greens from Henley and he proved once again that distance off the tee is not the be-all and end-all on the PGA Tour.

Russell Henley’s stats from day one of the Tour Championship

Henley’s putter was red-hot at East Lake on Thursday.

Here are all of his stats from round one of the FedEx Cup finale:

As you can see from those stats, Henley’s putting was the bedrock of his opening round of 61 at the Tour Championship.

He is widely regarded as one of the best putters on the PGA Tour, although he can be streaky at times with the flat-stick in hand.

Henley certainly wasn’t streaky with the putter on day one of the Tour Championship though, and if he continues that form on the greens, he will be a hard man to beat this week.