Tiger Woods and England’s Justin Rose bloomed on day one of the PGA Tour Championship shooting four under par 68s as World No. 1 Rory McIlroy trailed three shots back in signing for a 71.

Woods easily scored a points win over McIlroy while Woods also wound up finishing the tournament ahead of McIlroy in each of the first 10 PGA Tour events in which Woods and McIlroy both played.

Woods also has posted a lower first-round score (excluding events from which Woods withdrew).

In the last two such events, however, McIlroy has come back to finish ahead of Woods (at the Deutsche Bank Championship and The Barclays).

Woods has dominated the first round this year in the FedExCup Playoffs. Woods has made 27 birdies or better (including six Thursday) through the four events that make up the Playoffs. It’s the most par-breakers in the first round of the FedExCup Playoffs events since its inception in 2007.

Robert Garrigus shot a 2-under par 68 despite a triple-bogey 6 on the par-3 sixth hole in the first round. It’s the second time in the last 10 years at the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola that a player has finished a round under par despite having a triple-bogey in that round; Justin Leonard did that in the final round in 2008.

Since the FedExCup began in 2007, no first-round leader at the Tour Championship by Coca-Cola has held on to win. Since 2007, four players with at least a share of the first-round lead have held on to lead in a FedExCup playoff event; three at the BMW Championship (2008, 2011 and 2012) and one at the Deutsche Bank Championship (2009).

The last first-round leader at the Tour Championship by Coca-Cola who went on to win was Bart Bryant in 2005.

Rose, who will join McIlroy and Woods heading to Medinah next week, was delighted with his effort.

“Yeah, for sure, absolutely delighted,” said Rose.

“Just being here at this tournament is a good feeling.  You get to play, I think 21 of the top 22 players in the world are here this week, so that gets your juices flowing to be able to play in a tournament like this and compete against the best.

“From the FedExCup point of view, it’s a position of having nothing to lose, really.  Obviously, I’d like to be much higher up the rankings and that’s the scenario from last year.  Last year I didn’t factor in the tournament, and this year maybe being a little bit looser out there is going to help me.  I think I’ve only got this tournament on my mind.

“A lot of the other guys have two trophies on their minds. So I think I’ll steal it if I end up winning both of them.  But it will be nice to know.  I’m happy for Bill Haas last year.”