Min Woo Lee was the biggest winner during Round 1 of the 2026 Tour Championship, and Rory McIlroy led a contingent of stars who couldn't capitalize on low-scoring conditions to start the PGA Tour's season-ending event.
This year's Tour Championship began with rain falling and preferred lies allowed on Thursday, Aug. 27 at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. But once the weather improved and thunderstorms in the forecast held off, the lift, clean and place conditions produced an early leaderboard full of golfers who finished with low scores. It just didn't feature a lot of the betting favorites.
Lee is the leader heading into Friday's second round, but there are plenty of contenders within striking distance at this year's winner-take-all Tour Championship.
McIlroy is among the large majority of the 29 golfers starting Round 2 under par but sits five shots back of the lead and behind more than half the field on the leaderboard.
Here are all the winners and losers to emerge from Round 1 at the 2026 Tour Championship:
2026 Tour Championship Round 1 winners
Min Woo Lee (-8)
One of six golfers making his Tour Championship debut this year, Lee navigated East Lake like a veteran and tied his lowest score on the PGA Tour (62) despite playing alone for the final 13 holes after playing partner J.J. Spaun withdrew from the event with a shoulder injury.
Lee had back-to-back birdies three different times during Round 1, including at No. 12 and 13 when he first took the solo lead. He then closed with an iron shot within 3 feet of the hole at No. 16, a 14-foot putt to save par at No. 17 and his eighth birdie of the round on No. 18. Lee gained more than 2.6 strokes on the field in putting during Round 1, according to datagolf.com.
Min Woo Lee takes the lead on his own at East Lake with a dialed approach to within three feet on 16 🔥🎯 pic.twitter.com/O4i7HeofkD
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) August 27, 2026
Collin Morikawa (-6)
Morikawa was the best putter at East Lake on Thursday and it helped him to recover from a bogey on his first hole. He had three-straight birdies to kickstart a strong opening round, gaining more than 3.4 shots on the field with his putting and closing with a birdie at No. 18. Morikawa got his first win since 2023 earlier this season and has now positioned himself ahead of every other former major winner at the Tour Championship after 18 holes.
Viktor Hovland (-6)
Hovland hasn't been able to consistently recapture the form that allowed him to win the 2023 Tour Championship and become the FedEx Cup champion, with only three top-10 finishes this season. But his comfort at East Lake makes him a threat to win there again after another strong round on Thursday. Hovland sits two shots back of Lee after six birdies on his opening 16 holes and a birdie at No. 18 to bounce back from his only bogey of the day.
No bugging out here 😎🐞
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) August 27, 2026
Viktor Hovland blows away a bug then re-focuses to make birdie for a first-round 64 pic.twitter.com/rOF4TZ6uBH
Ryan Fox (-4)
The last man in the Tour Championship field and the defending Open champion looked set for a disastrous debut at East Lake when he bogeyed the first two holes of the day. But Fox was jolted to life by a hole-out eagle from 135 yards out on the par-4 third hole. He followed with six more birdies to finish his round in contention.
2026 Tour Championship Round 1 losers
Rory McIlroy (-2)
McIlroy recovered enough from a poor start with two bogeys on the opening four holes, carding five birdies and only one bogey the rest of his round to remain in the mix behind the leaders heading into Friday. He finally got under par with a short birdie at No. 12, but this could have been much more. McIlroy finished his round leading the field in shots gained from the tee and third in shots gained on approach, but he was one of the worst golfers on the course around the green on Thursday.
Cameron Young (E)
Young was the only golfer not under par until he birdied No. 16 after bogeys on three of his first five holes on Thursday. Despite driving the ball longer on average than anyone else in Round 1, he finished among the worst in the field in greens in regulation. It extends a late-season swoon for Young, who's ranked No. 3 in the world but finished outside the top-35 in his previous three starts leading into the Tour Championship.
J.J. Spaun (WD)
Spaun's Tour Championship lasted just five holes before he withdrew from the tournament due to a shoulder injury. Though the 2025 U.S. Open champion missed out on a share of the $40 million purse, the greater repercussion to this ailment could be related to the Presidents Cup. Spaun, a member of the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team, was in 10th place in the 2026 Presidents Cup standings and missed out on an automatic qualifier spot. Even if this ailment isn't serious, he could have used a strong final impression at East Lake as Brandt Snedeker ponders his potential captain's picks.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2026 Tour Championship winners and losers after Thursday's Round 1
