Min Woo Lee's career-low 62 takes him to the top of the Tour Championship leaderboard

The Australian was flawless with his eight-under 62 around the soft and toothless East Lake course, enough for a two-shot lead over a resurgent Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa and Chris Gotterup.

It was a strange round for Lee. After back-to-back birdies on the fourth and fifth, his playing partner, JJ Spaun, withdrew from the tournament on the next hole with a shoulder issue. That left just him, his caddy and the usual entourage. Lee drained a 20-footer for birdie on the eighth and another gain on the ninth. Crisp iron shots kept giving him birdie chances and he took four more coming home.

For Lee, it was a welcome change of pace. A solo second finish at the Scottish Open is his only top-ten result in his last ten outings, to go with two missed cuts.

"Very average two weeks the last two weeks," he reflected.

"It was probably the saddest I've been on the golf course, which is not good," Lee said. "We're really lucky to be out here and play some good golf to get into the playoffs. It just felt so hard."

Meanwhile, Hovland's putter was red-hot. The 2023 TOUR Championship winner holed 141 feet of putts, the most among the 29-man field.

“I think this is - even though the greens are different the last couple years - I do feel like this is a putting surface I have putted well on. I just happen to feel really comfortable with my reads,” said the Norwegian star.

“I didn't second-guess myself a whole lot. When I was over the ball, it was just one look and go, and the ball started on line and tracked in the hole.”

Defending champion Scottie Scheffler is three shots back after a bogey-free 65

"Outside of the first hole, I wasn't really battling for par very much," said the world number one.

"That's always good around this place. Every time you miss a fairway out here, you're going to be struggling for par. Gave myself some opportunities and was able to make a couple birdies there at the end."

Rory McIlroy, Open champion Ryan Fox, Gary Woodland and Adam Scott all opened with 68s.