LOS ANGELES – Sam Burns wanted to pay respect to tough Riviera by playing it safe. It led to a 5-under 66 to tie the 36-hole record at the Genesis Invitational and build a five-shot lead among early starters Friday.
Burns kept his bogey-free day in tact 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 5s, 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 5-foot putt. “Whenever we were kind of in a tricky spot, just kind of took what the golf course gave us,” Burns said. “There's