Stenson stretches lead at East Lake as Spieth makes a surge

Or what about Henrik Stenson?

JASON Day is losing his grip on the US PGA Tour’s $US10 million ($A14.22 million) FedEx Cup bonus and world No. 1 ranking as Henrik Stenson took command at the halfway mark of the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Jordan Spieth hopes a pair of three-under rounds at the Tour Championship can be enough to win the FedEx Cup.

Rory McIlroy, who relinquished his world number one place to Australian Jason Day at the start of the week, also responded to the challenge as back-to-back birdies on the 14th and 15th moved him in the right direction only for him to find a greenside bunker on the 18th for a finishing bogey for a 71 which left him on three-under 137.

McIlroy reached the turn at one over for the day, and bogeyed the 13th to move to two over par. “That’s why I live in Arizona. It’s overcoming that battle and going out there and executing golf shots”. The forecast calls for swarms of mosquitos as more rain is en route to Atlanta.

Spieth said after his 2-under opening round he needed to work on squaring his clubface at impact.

“It was huge”, Spieth said, noting that his third shot through a tree at the fifth “wasn’t necessarily smart” but was still the best option.

It was the best score of the round on a tough day.

“Today was definitely an off day and I was able to get in at two-under”, Spieth said.

“Putts aren’t quite going in as they were over the last seven or eight tournaments”.

While Stenson said there’s a lot of golf to be played, he’s three clear of the field.

A handful of birdie chances critically went by the wayside and then his tee shot on the penultimate hole found water leading to a bogey. ” … Potentially, it’s easier to hang on to three shots in that sense, if you keep on making pars around here”.

“I think if I can double what I’m at now – this golf course even though it seems like you can shoot some really low scores, it doesn’t tend to yield them”.

Day, coming in off his win at the BMW Championship – a fourth win in his last six starts – showed early signs he might put on a run with an opening hole birdie but it proved a false dawn.

“I wanted to shoot four under”.

“That’s what Michael (Greller, caddie) mentioned today when we had just finished the round”, Spieth explained. Spieth missed nine greens in regulation but got up-and-down each time.

Justin Rose’s 68 sees him in seventh, while Rickie Fowler is at one under – a shot ahead of Day, J.B. Holmes and Brandt Snedeker. “All I can do is try to win this tournament”. I love the tough rough.

“So, if we can hit a few more greens and not rely on 9-for-9 that would be fantastic”. “To shoot 4 under hitting nine greens is another thing that I can take as a positive”. He said he wasn’t mentally as sharp as he has been in recent weeks, and the conditions didn’t help matters.

“It’s very wet out there”.

And yet, you get the feeling that Spieth isn’t satisfied.

“The grass is different here. I saw Jordan shot 66-which was a great round”.