Superb first-round leader Russell Henley quipped that the scrapping of the stroke advantage system at the Tour Championship is better than giving superstar Scottie Scheffler shots.
Dating back to 2019, the leader in the FedEx Cup standings started with a two-stroke lead over second place and up to 10 over the rest of the field.
However, this year's tournament sees everyone at a level playing field from the off as the world's top 30 players compete for the season-long title and the $10million (£7.4m) prize fund.
Henley was in magnificent form in round one at East Lake Golf Course in Atlanta, Georgia, carding a blistering nine-under-par 61 to take a two-shot lead from the typically outstanding Scheffler, who won two majors in 2025.
Asked by Sky Sports about the rule change after his round, Henley - who made a whopping 207 feet of made putts - joked: "It's better than having to give Scottie shots!"
Scheffler made birdie at the last to shoot 63 and sit two shots back, while Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, Justin Thomas, Robert MacIntyre and Tommy Fleetwood are all three back.
In a stacked leaderboard, Rory McIlroy is one of four players in a tie for eighth and five shots adrift.
Only Scheffler has more top-10 finishes than Henley on the PGA Tour this season and the round-one pacesetter says he has been battling hard to maintain that consistency.
He added: "Yeah, I mean that's kind of always been my goal is to see if I can get consistent, we play a lot of tournaments and I want to play well in all of them.
"So, the last two weeks were really great for me, I felt a little bit off and still finished 17th and 15th.
"I'm just trying to get up the top of the leaderboard as much as possible but on my bad weeks just hope for decent tournaments too."
