Late Fleetwood charge lights up FedEx play-offs

Tommy Fleetwood's last win came in Dubai last year

St Jude Championship - first-round leaderboard

-8 A Bhatia (US); -7 T Fleetwood (Eng); -6 H Hall, J Rose (Eng), B Cauley (USA); -5 S Kim (Kor)

Selected others

-4 R Fowler, C Morikawa (USA); -3 W Clark, S Scheffler (USA), M Fitzpatrick (Eng)

Full leaderboard

Tommy Fleetwood hit four birdies in the final four holes at the St Jude Championship, the first round of the FedExCup play-offs, to finish one shot off the lead on day one.

Englishman Fleetwood, 34, was two under at the turn but hit a superb run of form coming in to end the day with a seven-under 63 - one behind leader Akshay Bhatia in Memphis.

Fleetwood's compatriots Harry Hall and Justin Rose are a further shot back in joint-third, along with USA's Bud Cauley.

American Bhatia came into the tournament 45th in the FedExCup standings, with a top-50 finish qualifying players for the following seasons signature events.

After Memphis, the top 50 will advance to the BMW Championship in Maryland on 14-17 August.

The season-ending Tour Championship, featuring the top 30 players, takes place in Atlanta the following week.

Bhatia said: "Im just really trying to have a little more peace on the golf course.

"I think this game can consume your life, your happiness, and so I'm just trying to figure out ways to change that because I feel like I don't really want to live my life based off of an unstable game."

Bhatia's remarks are similar to those made by world number one Scottie Scheffler before he won the Open last month.

Scheffler is five shots off the lead after a bogey at 18.

Three-time FedEx Cup winner Rory McIlroy, 36, struggled at the St Jude Championship last year, finishing joint-second last on nine over par, and is not playing this week.