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SAN DIEGO – Rory McIlroy is done with conservative thinking on the golf course. He’s done with trying to fit a square peg self in a round hole. He’s done with worrying about where he sits in the world rankings. Of course he came to this realization late last season after missing the cut at The Open Championship in Ireland. And from that point on McIlroy would find a new groove and push on to win the FedExCup. It’s incredible given he’d already won twice prior in 2019 including at THE PLAYERS Championship. And the start to the new 2019-20 season did not slow things down either as he claimed the World Golf Championships–HSBC Champions in China. After some time off for the holidays, the 18-time PGA TOUR winner has not pulled back from his new aggressive mindset. He will continue to go down the new mental path he has forged, knowing it is his best chance to be the first player to earn the FedExCup trophy in back-to-back seasons and the first to win it three times. RELATED: Tee Times | Power Rankings | Expert Picks “It doesn’t serve me as a golfer to try to be careful, to try to play conservatively or the way maybe some other people play,â€� McIlroy explained of his lessons learned at Royal Portrush last year. “I have my own style of play and most of the times it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but sometimes I get into situations and I become a little too conservative and I become a little too careful. “I basically said to myself after Portrush, ‘I’m 30 years old, I have basically achieved everything that I’ve wanted to achieve in the game, like why would I be careful?’ Why would I not go out there with the most carefree attitude and think everything beyond this is just gravy. That’s something that I’ve learned, that’s a mindset that I’m going to try to replicate each and every time that I tee it up.â€� This mindset will also mean McIlroy will approach the major championships differently in 2020. He has obvious desired to win a fifth major, and first since 2014. A win at the Masters would clinch a career grand slam. “When I look back at the majors that I’ve won and I’ve done well in, I’ve always started well,â€� McIlroy says. “Sometimes you go out in the first draw and you’re trying to sort of play your way in the golf tournament, make a few pars, play sort of protective golf a little bit and that’s never really been in my nature. I’m the other way, right? I start aggressively, and if I do and I play well, I usually keep myself up there in the tournament for the most part. “So it was just slow starts for the most part that held me back last year and that’s something that I’m going to try to improve on this year.â€� McIlroy can overtake Brooks Koepka as the No. 1 player in the world again if he wins this week at the Farmers Insurance Open, where he was T5 a year ago. But that is a number he says is not even on his list of goals. Instead he looks at figures like what he achieved last season statistically. He was just the fourth player to finish a PGA TOUR season ranked inside the top 25 in all four Strokes Gained stats (Off-the-Tee, Approach-the-Green, Around-the-Green and Putting). “When I set myself goals, I set myself goals like – I want to be plus‑one strokes gained approach play… it’s all about the process, it’s all about the game, it’s all about trying to make improvements,â€� McIlroy said. “If I do that and I achieve those goals, then hopefully inevitably I get to (world No. 1). The two stats that I have been proudest of over the past year were around the green and putting; I made huge strides in those. For me going forward, I’ve always driven it well, I’ve always hit my irons pretty well, but if I can keep those two around the green and on the greens as strong as I did last year, I’ll be pretty confident about the season.â€� With all this confidence brimming from the Northern Irishman one wonders if there are any challenges he is concerned about as he moves on from being the player of the last decade into this new one. Life always throws curveballs and being relatively recently married McIlroy may one day be tasked with juggling children of his own with his career. This is something many TOUR pros acknowledge can be a steep learning curve. McIlroy, though, has his eyes on the course. “If you look at when I first came out on TOUR and started winning majors, nearly a decade ago, eight years ago, you could probably count the guys on one hand that played a similar game to the way I played. I think that was part of the reason why I did so well in that stretch,â€� McIlroy says. “Now the likes of a Matt Wolff – they grew up obviously watching Tiger a little bit but (also) watching guys like myself and Dustin and that’s the type of player that’s coming out on TOUR now. So where I used to get to the golf course and think, okay, maybe five or 10 people have a chance, nowadays it’s 40, 50, 60 guys that play that sort of game. “That’s going to be the biggest challenge going forward over the next 10 years. There’s always fresh blood coming through and new talent. It’s trying to keep up with them.â€� With this aggressive and fresh outlook, you have to think McIlroy won’t have a problem with that.

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LOS ANGELES — Sam Burns wanted to pay respect to tough Riviera by playing it safe. It led to a 5-under 66 on Friday to tie the 36-hole record at The Genesis Invitational and build a five-shot lead going into the weekend. RELATED: Leaderboard | Dustin Johnson lurks at Riviera Among those chasing is Dustin Johnson, the reigning Masters and FedExCup champion and a past winner at Riviera. Another shot back was Jordan Spieth, who is starting to make himself at home near the top of the leaderboard. Burns kept his bogey-free day intact 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 definitely times where I’ve tried to force it a little bit, but this just is not a golf course you want to do that.” Burns was at 12-under 130, matching the record last set in 2004 by Mike Weir and Shigeki Maruyama. Johnson led a group at 7-under 135 despite playing the three par 5s in only 1 under for the week. Part of the problem is that Johnson has hit only one fairway on the par 5s. That was the final one he played Friday, the 17th, and it set up a simple up-and-down that moved him a little closer. He also has a simple solution to improve his par-5 performance. “Drive it in the fairway,” he said. “I feel like I’m playing really well. Just need to get a little bit more out of the rounds.” Joaquin Niemann finished with eight pars for his round of 68 and was five shots behind. He and Johnson were joined by Tyler McCumber and Jason Kokrak, who each shot 68 in the morning. McCumber is the miracle worker this week. His finger got caught trying to open a window is his hotel room Tuesday, and his best option was for a doctor to remove the nail on his left index finger. He did that Wednesday, hit about five balls and figured he could give it a shot. “It’s pretty wild how quickly the body does adapt to things,” McCumber said. “I thought it was a little better today just to focus on the golf and not really worry about the finger.” Riviera injured some of the games best players. Rory McIlroy made only one birdie in his round of 76 and missed the cut. Justin Thomas followed his opening 77 with a 73 and missed the cut. So did U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau after a 69. McIlroy had the PGA TOUR’s longest active cut streak at 25 events dating to the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush. The streak now belongs to Xander Schauffele at 22. Burns is a 24-year-old from LSU who has what it takes to win when it falls into place. He tied for sixth at the Barbasol Championship when he was still an amateur, and it took him only one year on the Korn Ferry Tour before he was in the big leagues. Now it’s a matter of breaking through, and he’s off to a strong start at Riviera. “I’d like to think that I have all the tools to win out here,” Burns said. “There’s a lot of good players — really, really good players. I try not to get caught up in that and just trying to get better each week.” Riviera is playing fast and difficult this year with such beautiful weather and occasional gusts of wind. Aside from Burns and his great play over 36 holes, no one else was better than 7-under par. Ten players in the 120-man field had two rounds in the 60s while playing in ideal weather. “It’s one of those rare weeks where you can’t get away with firing at flagsticks,” Spieth said. “There’s not much rough, but when you get in the rough it takes the spin off enough to where you can’t get into pins. A lot of times when you miss the greens, it’s harder to get it closer than where you could have hit your approach. “It’s such a different experience from what we normally have on TOUR.” Spieth was three shots behind going into the weekend in the Phoenix Open, shot 61 and shared the 54-hole lead. He tied for fourth. Last week at Pebble Beach, he had a one-shot lead after 36 holes and led by two going into the final round before tying for third. Now he’s six shots behind Burns, but in reasonable position on the leaderboard. It’s an upward trend. “It’s not like you can go chase people on this golf course,” Spieth said. “So I’m happy with where I’m at, but just eliminate a couple of the minor mistakes here and there and try to keep clean cards on the weekend and let the rest of it take care of itself.”

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Kizzire holds off furious Fowler charge

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