Dustin Johnson in three-way tie for first-round lead at Tour Championship

Dustin Johnson was in trouble from the start Thursday, just not for very long. The game feels easy for the U.S. Open champion, who began his bid for the FedEx Cup title on Thursday with a four-under 66 to share the lead at the Tour Championship.

Johnson had 165 yards from the sand and worried about getting it over the lip of the bunker. He hit an eight-iron to within two feet for birdie and was on his way to his sixth consecutive round at 68 or lower.

“It was a very nice shot to start the day,” Johnson said with a smile.

Hideki Matsuyama of Japan ran off three straight birdies early in his round and finished with a birdie on the par-five 18th — the nines have been switched at East Lake — for a 66, while Kevin Chappell joined them with a bogey-free round.

Johnson is coming off his third victory of the year at the BMW Championship two weeks ago, and there was no indication that anything has changed. He hit a reasonable amount of fairways (eight out of 14) considering the dry, fast conditions, and only once when he was out of position did he fail to save par.

He is the No. 1 seed in the FedEx Cup, and the top five seeds only have to win the Tour Championship to claim the $10-million FedEx Cup bonus. The top five were all among the dozen players who broke par in the opening round.

Jason Day, the world’s No. 1 player who hasn’t won in four months, dropped his only shot on the opening hole and was at 67, along with Kevin Kisner and Si Woo Kim.

“I’d like to give Dustin a good run for it,” Day said.

Jordan Spieth didn’t look like he would post anything near a 68 after he was 3 over through two holes. The defending FedEx Cup champion let his short game bail him out in a big way. Spieth holed three straight putts from the 30-foot range — one of them for par — and raced back into the mix on the back nine by holing a bunker shot for birdie right of the 13th green and finishing with a pair of 20-foot birdies.

“This is a course I feel very comfortable on,” Spieth said. “I feel if I play really solid golf here — and it doesn’t have to be perfect golf — I can shoot eight under on this golf course. I have no doubt. It fits me really well.”

Also at 68 was Rory McIlroy, who had consecutive double bogeys toward the end of the front nine and pulled himself together with four straight birdies on the back. McIlroy had a 68 without making birdie on either of the par 5s.

That wasn’t the case for Phil Mickelson. He started his day by holing a 95-foot birdie putt. His fortunes turned on the par-five sixth hole when his second shot went over the green and up against a fence, leading to bogey. He hit his next tee shot out of play and made triple bogey, and followed that with a double bogey with a drive into the water.

Mickelson played one under from there to salvage a 74. He didn’t hit a fairway until the 17th hole, and then headed straight to the practice range.

Ryan wins U.S. Senior Amateur championship

Dave Ryan won the U.S. Senior Amateur for his first USGA championship, holding off Matthew Sughrue, 2 up, at Old Warson Country Club in St. Louis.

The 62-year-old Ryan, from Taylorville, Illinois, beat two-time Senior Amateur champion Paul Simson in the round of 16 and two-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Tim Jackson in the semifinals in the event for players 55-and-older.

Against Simson, Ryan had the third known hole-in-one on a par-four hole in a USGA championship, acing the 270-yard 14th.

“I’m still in shock, a state of shock,” said Ryan, the Illinois Senior Amateur winner by nine strokes last week. “For a guy from Taylorville, Illinois, to win a national championship, it’s unbelievable.”

The 57-year-old Sughrue is from Arlington, Va.

Port wins third U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur title

Ellen Port won her third U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur title and seventh USGA championship, beating Andrea Kraus, 3 and 2, at Wellesley Country Club in Massachusetts.

The 55-year-old Port, from St. Louis, also won the event for players 50-and-over in 2012 and 2013 and the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur in 1995, 1996, 2000 and 2011. With seven USGA women’s titles, she’s tied for second place with Carol Semple Thompson and Anne Quast Sander, one behind JoAnne Gunderson Carner.

“Fantastic,” Port said. “It’s always great to win a USGA championship. You work so hard to get here and it’s just so special when you can finish it off.”

Port was two-under par for 16 holes, with the usual match-play concessions.

European Open can’t complete first round

Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger had an eagle and nine birdies in an eight-under 63 to top the European Open leaderboard in the suspended first round at Bad Griesbach, Germany.

Play started 3 hours 25 minutes late because of fog, with many players unable to finish before dark.

Italy’s Renato Paratore had a 64, and American Daniel Im, England’s Steve Webster, Sweden’s Michael Jonzon and Denmark’s Lucas Bjerregaard shot 65. England’s Matthew Southgate also was five under through 11 holes.