FedEx St. Jude Classic preview

LOS ANGELES — The wind stopped Sam Burns right when he was about to get started with a five-shot lead Saturday at The Genesis Invitational. Darkness stopped him right after two straight bogeys narrowed his lead to two. RELATED: Leaderboard | High winds suspend play at Riviera Thus ended a wild afternoon at Riviera, where the wind was raging so strong that it blew Keegan Bradley’s putt off the green at No. 10 and nearly blew Max Homa’s shot into the hole at the par-5 first. A four-hour delay didn’t make Riviera any easier. Burns, the 24-year-old from Louisiana, went 31 consecutive holes without a bogey and kept Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and everyone else at a distance. When the streak ended on No. 8, it was the start of three inevitable bogeys over six holes. “It’s a hard course with no wind,” Burns said. He was at 10-under par through 13 holes, two shots ahead of Matt Fitzpatrick, who had a most bizarre round by going 10 consecutive holes without a par — six birdies, four bogeys. Johnson, Homa and Wyndham Clark were at 7 under, with Patrick Cantlay another shot behind. The third round was set to be completed Sunday morning ahead of the final 18 holes. Tiger Woods showed up right about the time play was halted. Woods is the tournament host who is not playing as he recovers from a fifth back surgery. The wind was blowing golf balls on the green, and then the PGA TOUR said a piece of communications equipment toppled near the 14th tee and they brought everyone in. Not much changed with the wind when they resumed. Everyone was dropping shots and hanging on for dear life. Johnson had three bogeys against three birdies and was only three shots behind. The greens were so firm, the wind whipping so hard, that even from 99 yards away on the 13th hole he landed the ball some 50 feet short and hoped it rolled out enough to give him a chance. Spieth opened with two birdies, including a 40-footer on the third hole. But he hit two fairway bunkers on the seventh and eighth holes that led to bogey, missed a 3-footer on the 12th and his chip on the 15th was a little firm, and with the wind and slope it rolled out some 40 feet. He dropped six shots behind. For so much of the day, Burns looked impervious to it all. He opened with a steady dose of pars, including one amazing escape on the par-3 sixth, where his tee shot was close to a boundary fence. He played it into the rough and onto the back of the green, and the ball rolled down to 3 feet. But he missed an 18-foot par putt on No. 8, ending his streak of bogey-free holes. Burns missed a short birdie on the ninth, hit a superb bunker shot for a tap-in birdie on the 10th and stretched his lead back to five shots. It all changed so quickly. He three-putted from 50 feet on the 12th. And then his wedge on the 13th was far enough left that it caught a ridge and rolled down a bank into the rough. He chipped to 6 feet and missed the par putt. That’s when play was stopped. Fitzpatrick made a 20-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole to reach 8 under, and suddenly was two shots behind. Fitzpatrick was at 3 under for the day through 17 holes, the low score of the round so far. Only 12 other players were under par for their rounds, none better than 2 under The average score when play was suspended was 73.3.

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JACKSON, Miss. - Ignorance was bliss for Cameron Davis when he won the 2017 Australian Open. He figured he'd shot himself out of the tournament and didn't even bother looking at the leaderboards in the final round. Someone had to tell him afterward that he'd won. That won't be the case at the Sanderson Farms Championship on Sunday, because after making five straight birdies and shooting a 9-under 63 in the third round, Davis will go into the final round tied at the top at 14 under with Sergio Garcia (66) and J.T. Poston (69). Davis, 25, would be the tournament's seventh straight first-time winner. "It’s a different story when you know you’re in the lead or near the lead," he said. Well, yes. He's never entered the final round of a PGA TOUR event higher than T6. His best result in 51 TOUR starts is a T8 at The Honda Classic earlier this year. He's in uncharted territory. Poston cooled off with the putter Saturday but made a 13-foot par putt on the last hole to retain a piece of the lead. "Three guys tied for the lead and a bunch of guys right behind us," he said, "so I think you’re going to have to go shoot something pretty low because out of that group somebody is going to shoot probably 6-, 7-under I would guess, maybe even lower." Garcia is putting with his eyes closed in an effort to revive his career. A 10-time TOUR winner, he hasn't won since the 2017 Masters. He's fallen out of the world top 50 and is coming off a season in which he recorded just one top-25 finish, a T5 at the RBC Heritage, in 12 starts. To put that in perspective, he had never recorded fewer than four top-25s in 21 previous TOUR seasons, and he missed the Playoffs for just the second time in the FedExCup era. "Obviously Sunday it’s always a little bit more difficult," said Garcia, who is making his first start at the Sanderson, "but I’ve got to go out there and go through the same routine and just go with it, even if you stumble a little bit early on or something like that, just believe that what you’re doing is right, and that’s what I’m going to try to do." The no-look putting is working; he's gaining over a stroke on the field on the greens. Eight players are within two shots of the lead. Kristoffer Ventura (68, 13 under, one back) is 11 for 11 in shooting par or better rounds this season, and also would be a first-time winner. He's tied with 2012 FedExCup champion Brandt Snedeker (67), who is 11 under for his last 36 holes and seeking his 10th victory. "Probably as excited and confident as I’ve been about my golf game in a long time," Snedeker said. "I’m talking years. I’m really excited to see how it holds up tomorrow." No player, though, will go into Sunday with as much momentum as Davis. After buying a home in his U.S. base of Seattle earlier this year, he and longtime girlfriend Jonika Melcher got married on Sept. 5. Now he's flattening out the peaks and valleys of his career. His 63 was the lowest round of his TOUR career and was just one off the tournament course record. In retrospect, winning the Australian Open win at 22 may have been a mixed blessing. He announced himself as a force to be reckoned with, beating stars like Jason Day and Jordan Spieth, but the flip side was he had created huge expectations and struggled to meet them. "I felt like I tried way too hard," he said. "But I knew I had enough game to be out here, and this last season (while finishing 84th in the FedExCup, I knew it) a lot more. ... I feel like I can compete out here. It’s just putting four rounds together for me now." Having experimented with the driver the first two rounds, Davis went back to a stock shot and improved Saturday, hitting 10 of 14 fairways. He missed just two greens, saving par both times, and needed just 26 putts. As for the streak of six first-time winners, he said, "I don’t know why it’s come down to every single one being a first-timer, but hopefully there’s another one." There's still plenty of work left to do.

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The PGA TOUR’s first full-field event of 2022 takes place this week at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Round 2 gets underway Friday from Waialae Country Club. The deep field includes Cameron Smith, who won last week at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, Webb Simpson, Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, Marc Leishman, Corey Conners and Kevin Kisner. Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action, including Featured Groups for PGA TOUR LIVE and newly expanded and extended coverage on ESPN+. Click here for more details. Leaderboard Full tee times HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Saturday, 7 p.m.-10:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Sunday, 6 p.m.-10 p.m. (Golf Channel). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 12 p.m.-7 p.m. ET (Featured Groups), 7 p.m.-10:30 p.m. (Featured Holes). Saturday, 4 p.m.-7 p.m. (Featured Groups), 7 p.m.-10:30 p.m. (Featured Holes). Sunday, 4 p.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Groups), 6 p.m.-10 p.m. (Featured Holes). PGA TOUR LIVE is available exclusively on ESPN+ Radio: Thursday-Saturday, 5 p.m.-10:30 p.m. ET. Sunday, 5 p.m.-10 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio) FEATURED GROUPS Kevin Na, Cam Smith, Talor Gooch (Tee times) Marc Leishman, Sungjae Im, Matt Jones (Tee times) Hideki Matsuyama, Kevin Kisner, Webb Simpson (Tee times) Abraham Ancer, Billy Horschel, Harris English (Tee times) MUST READS Kevin Na shoots 61 to lead Sony Open in Hawaii Jim Furyk, 51, makes ace in opening 62 at Sony Open Five things to know about Waialae Country Club

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