World No.1 Jason Day remains confident he can reel in the leaders and win the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup despite having a blistering start derailed by a disastrous triple bogey.
Day will be chasing a red-hot Henrik Stenson among others over the last three rounds after he fired a one-under-69 to sit in a tie for 11th, six back of Stenson's impressive seven-under-63.
In his first round since becoming the world's best golfer, Day came out on fire, looking robotic as he made birdies on the opening three holes.
But after barely missing a fourth birdie in four holes, Day proved he is human after all and his round unravelled when his tee shot on the fifth sailed well right, hit a tree and bounced out of bounds over a fence.
Forced to re-tee Day missed the green on the right in four, chipped on for five but missed a 10-foot putt to card a triple-bogey seven, wiping out his earlier blitz.
A couple of birdies in his next 10 holes pushed him into red figures but another bogey on the 16th left him spotting 10 players a head start as he chases a fifth win in seven starts.
"I wish I could say that I was a machine and I can hit it straight down the gut every single time, 315 yards but unfortunately, as humans we're going to make some errors," Day said.
"To make triple was pretty disappointing, but it's early on in the tournament, so I can't dwell on that. I can't think about it. It's done."
While Day will have to find some birdies in round two to get back on track for a chance at the $US10 million FedEx Cup bonus, he knows patience will be the key at the tough golf course.
"Somewhere between nine and 12-under at this tournament almost always has you in the mix and I have three rounds left to make my moves so I'm still confident," Day said.
"I just have to focus on trying to shoot a low score tomorrow and move on from there."
Stenson, who started the tournament fourth on the points list, will win the season-long bonus if he wins the tournament regardless of top-seed Day's finish.
He had everyone on "59 watch" by racing to eight-under through 12 holes but then made four straight pars and a 17th hole bogey to cool his heels.
He still leads England's Paul Casey (65) by two while former world No.1 Rory McIlroy moved into a tie for third with British Open winner Zach Johnson at four-under.
Steven Bowditch, in his first appearance at the Tour Championship, produced an impressive 68 to be tied fifth.
"It's tough out there. There's not much room for error. I guess that's what you get when you get to the last round of the playoffs," Bowditch said.
"Some of the guys out there are playing really well, but par's actually a pretty good score. Not being many par-fives there's not a lot of opportunities so when you get them you got to take them."
South African Louis Oosthuizen withdrew after 13 holes leaving the field at just 28 players after American Jim Furyk did not start.
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