Burns in contention in LV week after win
LAS VEGAS » Sam Burns won the Sanderson Farms Championship last week and is trying to put it behind him. He’s playing as though it never ended.
Burns made a pair of 6-foot par putts on the only two greens he missed in regulation, ran off eight birdies in the morning for an 8-under 63 that left him a shot behind Sungjae Im and Chad Ramey on Friday in the Shriners Children’s Open.
Not only has Burns won twice in the last six months, he also lost in a playoff at a World Golf Championship and finished one shot out of a playoff at Riviera this year. The 25-year-old is comfortable at the top, and it’s showing.
Key to this week was not to let last week linger.
“What we tried to do is just last week is last week,” he said. “This week is Shriners and preparing for this week, trying to make sure Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday that we are giving ourselves the best opportunity to play well this week.
“Obviously, incredible honored that I won last week and such a fun time, but just trying to kind of leave that there.”
Im and Ramey each closed their afternoon rounds with birdies on the par-5 ninth, with Ramey making a 13-footer after hitting his approach into the right greenside bunker.
They were at 14-under 128 at the TPC Summerlin, each opening 63-65 on a course that was doused with rain.
Im won the Honda Classic last year for his first PGA Tour title.
“There’s two days left to play, so I like to try to keep focused on my game and try to take it one shot at a time,” the 23-yearold South Korean player said. “It’s going to be difficult if it’s windy. I have to be more strategic to the course management.”
Ramey is making third start of the year and fifth in his PGA Tour career. The 29-year-old former Mississippi State player earned his tour card this year through the Korn
Kerry Tour.
“The first tournament of the year I didn’t drive it very good and didn’t putt it very good,” Ramsey said. “So, the last few weeks I’ve kind of been hitting those points pretty hard, and I’ve kind of feel like I got it back under myself a little better right now. I hit it really well off the tee and I’m making putts. You can’t ask for much more.”
Adam Schenk had a 65 to match Burns at 13 under. Aaron Wise was another stroke back after a 62.
Matthew Wolff (67), who lost in a playoff last year, was 11 under with Honda Classic winner Matt Jones (67), Adam Hadwin (64), Andrew Putnam (64), Slovakian silver medalist Rory Sabbatini (66), Harry Hall (65) and Talor Gooch (67).
Sung Kang followed an opening 61 with a 73 to fall six shots back at 8 under. Four-time major champion
Brooks Koepka shot a 67 to get to 7 under.
LPGA TOUR » Jin Young Ko had a three-stroke lead with four holes left when second-round play in the LPGA Tour’s Cognizant Founders Cup was suspended because of darkness.
Play was delayed 2 ½ hours at the start because of fog, the second straight day that fog forced a late start at Donald Ross-designed Mountain Ridge. Sixty-three players were unable to finish.
The second-ranked Ko was 10 under. She opened with an 8-under 63 on Thursday for a three-shot lead. She has 11 consecutive rounds in the 60s, three short of the record that Annika Sorenstam set in 2005.
PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS » Phil Mickelson shot a 6-under 66 for a share of the first-round lead with Matt Gogel in the PGA Tour Champions’ Constellation Furyk & Friends Invitational.
Trying to win for the third time in four career starts on the 50-andover tour, Mickelson had seven birdies and a bogey at Donald Ross-designed Timuquana Country Club in the round interrupted by a rain delay.