San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Five winless players in top 16 have title shot.
Five players with zero wins are within four shots of lead
The leaderboard at the Farmers Insurance Open through 54 holes is filled with the usual suspects, which you’d expect from one of the PGA Tour’s toughest courses and a tournament where, history tells us over and over, experience definitely matters.
Former Masters champion Patrick Reed is tied at the top at 10 under. Jon Rahm, the 2017 Farmers champion and former world No. 1, is two shots back. So is Adam Scott, also a Masters winner and former world No. 1.
Rory Mcilroy — you might have heard of him — is three back.
Xander Schauffele is four back.
So who are these other guys?
Five players with zero career PGA Tour wins are in the top 16, all within four shots of the lead. History tells us they don’t have much of a chance. Rahm is the only person in the last 25 years to notch his first PGA
Tour title at the Farmers.
Not listening are Sam Burns, Sam Ryder, Will Zalatoris, Henrik Norlander and Robby Shelton.
That’s 163, 313, 61, 158 and 178 in the world golf rankings.
“Nothing in the past,” said Burns, tied for third at 8 under, “has anything to do with this week out here.”
Their career arcs have a similar trajectory. A successful college career. A few years on the Mackenzie Tour in Canada followed by a few more on the Korn Ferry Tour in the States. A win at the Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Heartland Chevy Dealers in Omaha, Neb., (Ryder) or the Hotel Fitness Championship in Fort Wayne, Ind., (Norlander) or the Golfbc Championship in Kelowna, B.C. (Shelton).
They’ve all played at the Farmers before. None has finished higher than 36th.
But here they were Saturday, chasing the leaders, hanging around the “names,” making birdies, saving pars from horrendous lies, refusing to go away.
Especially Shelton, who somehow is a manageable four shots back despite playing the back nine Saturday
in 3 over.
He turned pro in 2016 after an illustrious career at Alabama, where he won more college tournaments (seven) than fellow alum Justin Thomas (six). A win on the Mackenzie Tour propelled him to the Korn Ferry Tour, and a win on the Korn Ferry Tour propelled him to the PGA Tour.
He started Thursday on the 10th tee at the harder South Course and opened with a birdie. Then went bogey, bogey, par, double bogey, bogey, bogey and was 5 over after seven holes.
When he made the turn Saturday, he was 9 under. The math: He played 38 holes in 14 under.
Even more impressive: He shot a 64 on the North Course on Friday in the wind, rain and hail … without a jacket.
“I just don’t swing well in a jacket,” Shelton explained. “I was a little cold, but I was fine.”
Norlander is 31. He has five top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour and $2.84 million in career earnings, but no titles. His four previous appearances at the Farmers ended missed cut, missed cut, 43rd and missed cut.
A birdie on the 18th hole Saturday gave him a 68 and also put him at 6 under, tied with Schauffele.
Zalatoris and Ryder are tied with Mcilroy at 7 under after both birdied 18 — Zalatoris on a slippery 12-foot putt and Ryder after his wedge sucked back, hit the flag stick and nearly dropped for a hole-out eagle.
Burns would have been alone in third at 9 under had he not bogeyed 18 after chunking his third shot out of the rough (and nearly in the pond). But when you have no PGA Tour wins, when your three previous trips to the Farmers ended in 40th, 49th and a missed cut, you don’t complain.
Today, he’s in the final group with the two leaders, Reed and Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz.
His bio says he likes hunting. And he’s in the hunt.
“The biggest thing is just not to get ahead of yourself out here,” Burns said. “This is a golf course where you have to focus on every single shot, can’t really take a shot off out here. I think we’ll just continue to try to keep executing, hitting in the right places and see if we can make some putts.”