Burns grabs PGA lead at Riviera with closing birdie binge
Sam Burns birdied the last three holes to seize a twostroke lead over fellow American Max Homa and England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick and after the opening round of US PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational.
Burns, a 24-year-old chasing his first Tour victory, fired a seven-under 64 at Riviera Country Club for his third top-four start in his past four starts.
“I think just being patient out here (is key),” Burns said.
“This golf course at times doesn’t offer you a lot of opportunities, so I think just with that mindset going in we were just going to kind of take what we could get.”
Fitzpatrick matched his best PGA Tour first round with a 66 to equal Homa in second with a pack on 67 including Sweden’s Alex Noren, Australian Matt Jones, Chile’s Joaquin Niemann and American Patrick Cantlay.
“Really pleased,” Fitzpatrick said. “To get off to a start like that in the first round, I’m delighted.”
Burns eagled the par-five first hole on a 19-foot putt and birdied the fifth then answered a bogey at the parthree sixth by dropping his approach inches from the cup for a tap-in birdie
at the par-four seventh.
He closed the front nine with a 16-foot birdie putt.
World No. 147 Burns took a bogey at 12 after finding a greenside bunker but birdied 13 and then reeled off his
fantastic finish – a birdie putt from just inside 20 feet at the par-three 16th, another from 10 feet at the parfive 17th and a final birdie at 18 after leaving his approach within four feet of the hole. “Off to a hot start there with eagle on the first hole,” Burns said.
“We were just pretty consistent throughout the round. We knew we were going to have a tough stretch there to kind of start the back nine.”
Fitzpatrick shined despite only reaching 8-of-18 greens in regulation.
“It was a good day overall,” he said. “I felt like I played probably better than my tee-to-green stats would suggest. My swing actually felt pretty good. There’s a couple loose ones in there, but on the whole it’s a great start, couldn’t ask for any better.” —