Burns leads at Byron Nelson
He shoots a threeunder 69 for a stroke lead over K.H. Lee. Four others are three strokes back.
Sam Burns still has the lead going into the final round of the AT&T Byron Nelson despite more magic on the 18th green from local favorite Jordan Spieth.
Now it’s a race to beat the weather in McKinney, Texas, in the final round with a good number of the players headed to the PGA Championship in South Carolina.
Burns shot a three-under 69 for a one-stroke lead over K.H. Lee, who had a 67. Spieth, Matt Kuchar and Charl Schwartzel each shot 66 and were three strokes back along with Alex Noren, who shot 70.
Burns, trying to become first player since Camilo Villegas in 2008 to get his first two PGA Tour victories in consecutive events, had his first bogeys of the tournament and missed an eagle by inches on 18.
The players will switch from twosomes back to threesomes going off the first and 10th tees soon after daybreak Sunday with heavy rain in the forecast. Without delays, the tournament will finish about four hours earlier than normal.
Spieth rolled in another eagle at the par-five 18th, this time a shorter, bending putt from the fringe behind the hole. This time it just trimmed his deficit after Spieth’s 55-footer gave him a share of the first-round lead.
The roar was the same, though, from the biggest gallery on the new course of his hometown event, the TCP Craig Ranch in McKinney, about 30 miles north of Dallas. It’s the third venue in the past four Nelsons.
“Once it got on the green, it looked good,” Spieth said. “Started the putter raise and I wasn’t positive it was going in because the angle it was coming in at. I wanted to do the no look to the crowd, but, I mean, it was a really cool moment.”
Seamus Power holed out on a 35-foot bunker shot on the par-four 15th for a 67 and was tied with 2017 U.S. Amateur winner Doc Redman at 16 under. Redman shot 69.
Scott Stallings and Harris English shot matching 63s after making the cut on the number at six under, a record low for the Nelson on a course that hosted Korn Ferry Tour Championships but looks overmatched against some of the game’s best.
Champions
Paul Goydos shot a bogey-free three-under 69 to take a one-stroke lead over Billy Andrade into the final round of the PGA Tour Champions’ Mitsubishi Electric Classic at Duluth, Ga.
The 56-year-old Goydos had an eight-under 136 total at TPC Sugarloaf. He has five senior victories after winning twice on the PGA Tour.
Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz bogeyed the final three holes for a 77. He opened with an 84 and was 76th among the 78 finishes at 17 over.