ATLANTA – About midway through Charles Howell III’s round on Thursday at East Lake he began to see how the new scoring format would impact play at this week’s Tour Championship.
“As the day went on and the scores started shuffling around it felt more like a normal event,” said Howell, who finished with a 68 for a 2-under total which at the time left him nine strokes behind leader Justin Thomas.
Under the new strokes-based scoring, Thomas, the FedExCup points leader, began the Tour Championship at 10 under par. The next four players on the points list started at 8 under through 5 under, respectively, while Nos.