Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, Round 2: Leaderboard, tee times, TV times

Leaderboard: Can Feng fend off challengers?

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HOUSTON - Shortly before Collin Morikawa, Matthew Wolff and Viktor Hovland stormed the PGA TOUR, Sam Burns was the big prospect coming out of the college game. RELATED: Leaderboard | Will Day’s winless drought end in Houston? | Houston win could be unprecedented for DJ Three years ago, he was the Jack Nicklaus Award winner as college golf's top player. That same year, Burns finished in the top 10 of a PGA TOUR event while still an amateur. Then, in one of his first TOUR starts after turning pro, Burns played alongside Tiger Woods, and beat him. Now Burns, still just 24 years old, has a chance to earn his first PGA TOUR victory Sunday at the Vivint Houston Open. He will start the final round at Memorial Park with a one-shot lead. The reigning FedExCup champion, a former World No. 1 and a demanding golf course all stand between him and the trophy, however. Burns got up-and-down for a scrambling par on 18 to shoot 68 on Saturday. He's at 9-under 201, one ahead of Carlos Ortiz and Jason Day. Ortiz and Day both shot 67 on Saturday. Sepp Straka is two shots back, while Dustin Johnson is three behind. Johnson, who is playing for the first time since the U.S. Open, has shot consecutive 66s after a sloppy 72 in the first round. Johnson and Day, who've combined for 35 PGA TOUR victories, won't be the only thing he has to worry about, however. Memorial Park, the municipal course that is making its return to the PGA TOUR after a hiatus that lasted more than a half-century, has proven to be quite the test. Its scoring average this week is more than a stroke over par. There have been 32 triple-bogeys or worse this week, more than there were the entire week at Winged Foot for this year's U.S. Open. Many of those high scores are attributed to the steep slopes of short grass around the greens. They repel wayward approach shots and make recovery difficult. A chip shot caught heavy will roll back to a player's feet, while a bump-and-run hit too hard can scoot across the green. Combine that challenge with the thick rough along the fairways and firm greens and it's easy to see why this public course has put up such a good fight. "It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when this golf course will hit you," Burns said. It's also about how you bounce back from those blows. Burns, who started Saturday with the lead, bogeyed two of his first three holes but also eagled the eighth hole and birdied three of his final six holes to grab the solo lead. Burns has already proven he can handle playing with a future World Golf Hall of Famer in the final round of a PGA TOUR event. It was two years ago that Burns played with Woods in the final round of The Honda Classic. Burns was a Korn Ferry Tour player competing on a sponsor exemption, while Woods was beginning to show the form that led to wins at the TOUR Championship, Masters and ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. No one would have blamed Burns if he succumb to the pressure of playing with Woods, who was adorned in his Sunday red. Burns beat him instead. Burns shot 68, two shots lower than Woods, to finish in the top 10. Burns graduated the Korn Ferry Tour that year. He finished third in his second TOUR event as a member, the Sanderson Farms Championship, and kept his card despite suffering a season-ending ankle injury in July. He broke his right ankle while playing pickup basketball with kids in his neighborhood. Burns returned for the start of the new season but admits that may have been premature. He said it wasn't until this January that the ankle stopped bothering him. Two months later, the season was paused by the coronavirus pandemic. Burns finished 111th in the FedExCup this year, but already has been in contention once in this young season. He held the halfway lead at the season-opening Safeway Open and entered Sunday one shot back. A final-round 70, including a 37 on the back nine, left him four shots back of winner Stewart Cink. On Sunday, Burns will play in the final group alongside Day and Carlos Ortiz, who's also seeking his first PGA TOUR win. Day called his game "a work in progress" as he rebuilds his swing to take stress of his ailing back. "I've got to be patient with it," Day said Saturday. Johnson, meanwhile, could accomplish something he's never done before. He has 23 PGA TOUR wins, but none of them have come after he shot over par in the first round. Johnson, who's making his first start since testing positive for COVID-19, opened this week with a 2-over 72. He's quickly found his form, however, and said his game now feels similar to the FedExCup Playoffs, when he finished 1st-2nd-1st to claim his first FedExCup. Having two of the world's top players in pursuit always makes for a stressful Sunday, but beating Woods gives Burns confidence entering the final round. "That day really challenged me," he said of his round with Woods at the Honda. "I think it was good for me to see that I was capable of being able to do that in a pressure-packed situation like that. Tomorrow’s a similar situation."

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SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda — Brandon Hagy and Chad Ramey avoided the worst of the wind Thursday afternoon, each with a 6-under 65 to share the lead in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship when the opening round at Port Royal was halted by darkness. RELATED: Leaderboard | Weather maintains advantage, but rules staff makes it fair contest | ‘Brutal’ wind and rain lead to wild day in Bermuda For those who started in the morning, it might have been easier playing in the dark. “You see winds like this, but normally you don’t play in them,” said Matt Fitzpatrick of England, who had every right to be satisfied with his even-par 71. The wind and spots of heavy rain were so fierce that play was suspended briefly in the morning. And while it eased slightly in the afternoon, the gusts were strong enough that short putts were nervy and judging the distance on approach shots was key. Ramey managed to finish off a bogey-free round right before play was halted. Hagy made nine birdies to offset his bogeys, one of which was a 2-foot par putt he missed on the par-5 seventh hole. There was not much he could do about it — that was largely due to a gust. Vincent Whaley had a 66, while Congaree Palmetto Championship winner Garrick Higgo, Seamus Power of Ireland and Danny Lee were among those at 67. The group at 68 included Patrick Reed. He opened with three straight birdies only to give most of it back with a double bogey. This was a day for flighting the ball, such as the chip 8-iron from 118 yards. For so much of the day, the actual yardage was irrelevant. Reed was coming off a bogey on the 16th when he drove into a hazard on the par-5 17th. He took a penalty drop, and then hit 6-iron that plopped down near the hole and dropped for a most unusual eagle. His playing partners, Higgo and Willett, all drove into the hazard on the 17th and they managed to collectively play the hole in 3 under. When play was stopped, 33 players were under par, some having to return Friday morning to complete the first round. Only six of those scores under par came from the morning. Russell Knox, who grew up near Inverness in Scotland, was among the early starters and had few complaints with a 72. He was happy to be standing up. “We were down on the ground holding an umbrella. My fingers were cramping I’m holding on so tight, and it was pouring rain as hard as it’s ever rained,” he said. “It was an interesting day.” Hagy got a sense of that when he started in the afternoon and saw so few scores under par. Greyson Sigg and Austin Eckroat had the best rounds of the early starters at 68. They played with Seth Reeves, who had a 69. They represented half of the scores under par from the morning side of the draw. “I think it laid down a little bit for us, but it was still pretty stout,” Hagy said. “But I hit a lot of good putts and they went in. I think there’s going to be some times where you get gusts and the ball doesn’t go in, but you kind of have to keep your head down and keep trying to hit some good shots.” It’s already been a week like no other at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, which is offering full FedExCup points because it is not opposite the World Golf Championships event in Shanghai, canceled for the second straight year because of the pandemic. That means the winner gets a TOUR card for three years and an invite to the Masters, and only four players in the field already are eligible for Augusta National in April. Brian Gay, the defending champion, was bumped from his flight to Bermuda because the plane was too heavy. He arrived on Tuesday afternoon and didn’t get to play a practice round when the pro-am was canceled. Gay opened with a 75. “We definitely got the easier part of the day there in the afternoon, but it’s still a strong enough wind that your score could get away from you if you lost control of your ball,” Power said. “Hanging in there was the thing today.”

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