Burns grabs five-shot lead

LOS ANGELES — Sam Burns wanted to pay respect to the toughness of Riviera Country Club by playing it safe. It led to a 5-underpar 66 on Friday to tie the 36-hole record at the Genesis Invitational and build a five-shot lead going into the weekend as he pursues his first PGA Tour victory. Burns was at 12-under 130, matching the mark last set in 2004 by Shigeki Maruyama and Mike Weir, and among those chasing the 24-year-old former LSU standout was Dustin Johnson. The No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Ranking and a winner at Riviera four years ago, Johnson shot a 67 on Friday and was tied for second with Jason Kokrak, Tyler McCumber and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, who each posted a 68. Another shot back was Jordan Spieth, who is starting to make himself at home again near the top of the leaderboard. His second straight 68 had him tied for sixth with Wyndham Clark (69) and Max Homa (70) at 6 under. Burns kept his bogey-free day intact toward the end of the round when he came up short of the eighth green, his 17th of the morning. He chipped it about 10 feet short — anything too strong could lead to big trouble — and made the par putt. He also handled two of the par-5 holes and picked up so much roll on the firm turf at the 476-yard 12th hole that he had only a pitching wedge into the green and made a five-foot putt. The cutline was par, and Baylor School graduate Luke List missed it by a stroke after a second-round 73, coming closer than third-ranked Justin Thomas, who also shot a 73 but had opened with a 77, and seventh-ranked Rory McIlroy, who went 73-76. McIlroy had the PGA Tour’s longest active cut streak at 25 events dating to the 2019 British Open. The streak now belongs to Xander Schauffele at 22 cuts made; he was tied for 28th at 2 under after a 69.

MOTORSPORTS

› DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Alvin Kamara, a young NFL star and a new NASCAR fan, has put some of his own money into racing as a team sponsor this weekend at Daytona International Speedway. The New Orleans Saints running back agreed to sponsor Ryan Vargas in today’s Xfinity Series event. Vargas had no funding for the road course race but now will be sponsored by The Big Squeezy, the Louisiana juice bar chain owned by the 25-year-old Kamara, who during his college football career spent a redshirt year at Alabama and two seasons at Tennessee. The deal was initially brokered over Twitter, where Kamara posted frequently last weekend from the Daytona 500, the season opener for the top-tier Cup Series. NASCAR president Steve Phelps told him about the avenues for participation, and Kamara tweeted his surprise at the many options. Vargas, meanwhile, had crowd-sourced for funding for the race, and that tweet was flagged to Kamara. He replied to Vargas, the 20-year-old driver from California put the football player in touch with his team, and a deal was negotiated as Kamara drove home from Daytona. It took roughly 36 hours for Big Squeezy to become a NASCAR sponsor. Each team negotiates its own rates, but sponsorship for one race in the second-tier Xfinity Series typically costs anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000.

BASEBALL

› MESA, Ariz. — Ian Happ, a 26-year-old outfielder, defeated the Chicago Cubs on Friday in Major League Baseball’s final salary arbitration case this year and will receive a raise from $624,000 to $4.1 million for the 2021 season. A day after hearing arguments, arbitrators decided in favor of Happ’s figure rather than the team’s $3.25 million. Teams finished with a 5-4 advantage in cases that went to a hearing, their second straight winning record after two consecutive years in which players had an advantage. Overall, teams are 325-247 since arbitration began in 1974. Tampa Bay Rays first baseman Ji-Man Choi, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty and Atlanta Braves pitcher Mike Soroka also won their cases, while teams beat New York Mets third baseman/outfielder J.D. Davis, Baltimore Orioles outfielder Anthony Santander, San Francisco Giants infielder Donovan Solano, Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson and Rays pitcher Ryan Yarbrough.