LOS ANGELES – Sam Burns watched his lead with five shots shrinking to two in a two-hole affair late Saturday afternoon on the Riviera, which is why you feel discouraged until you realize no one he had it easier at Genesis Invitational.
Riviera is enough as a test on your own. Throw a raging wind that caused a four-hole delay and was hard for everyone.
Burns made 31 consecutive holes with a bogey, a streak that ended in 8th place. When the third round was stopped by darkness, he made back-to-back bogeys that dropped him to 10 under equal, with two shots in front of Matt Fitzpatrick.
Dustin Johnson, Max Homa and Wyndham Clark were also shot back.
The third round was to resume early Sunday.
“Even the holes in the wind weren’t much easier, because it was hard to stop it there on the green,” Burns said. “There just aren’t many opportunities today.”
It was the first time a PGA Tour event was suspended by strong winds at Torrey Pines in 2016, when only 23 players finished the final round before a 40 mph gust knocked down trees and blew tent windows.
This wind was strong enough to blow Keegan Bradley’s well on the 10th green and almost blew Homa’s splendid iron in par-5 first into the hole, leaving an eagle.
When the game resumed, it was not much easier.
Only eight of the 67 players managed to hit the green on the fourth hole of 242 yards. The 14th Par-3 was played at 189 meters in the wind direction, leaving the players 8-iron and 9-iron. Only 10 hit that green.
“It’s very difficult, no matter the wind, in the wind,” Johnson said. “It’s very difficult to judge the distance. But I feel like I’m playing pretty solid. I didn’t do any putt, but I’m happy with where I am.”
Burns, the 24-year-old from Louisiana, who is about to win his first PGA Tour victory, starts Sunday in the 14th hole.
“It’s a tough, windless course,” Burns said.
Fitzpatrick had an extremely bizarre round, making 10 consecutive holes without a number of six birds, four bogeys.
“This golf course does it for you,” Fitzpatrick said. “You really have to get in, you have to make a route around you and miss in the right areas, even missing fairways in the right areas with this wind to give you a slightly better angle. I just have to be very smart in this place. “
Tiger Woods appeared just as the game was coming to an end. Woods is the host of the tournament that does not play, as he recovers after a fifth back surgery.
The wind blew golf balls on the green and then the PGA Tour said a piece of communications equipment crashed near the 14th tee and brought them all.
They didn’t change much with the wind when they resumed. Everyone was throwing fire and clinging to the dear life.
Johnson had three bogeys against three birds and was only three shots back. The greens were so firm, the wind whipping so hard, that even from 99 meters away, in the 13th hole, he landed the ball about 50 meters short and hoped it would run far enough for you would give it a try.
Spieth opened with two birds, including a 40-foot foot on the third hole. But he hit two fairway bunkers on the seventh and eighth holes leading to the bogey, missed a 3-foot leg on the 12th, and his chip on the 15th was a little firm and, with the wind and the slope, unfolded. about 40 feet. He left six shots behind.
For most of the day, Burns seemed impervious to all. He opened with a steady dose of pars, including an amazing escape on par-3 six, where his tee shot was close to a border fence. He played it hard on the back of the green, and the ball rolled up to 3 feet.
But he missed an 18-foot well on 8th place, ending his string of bogey-free holes. Burns missed a short bird on the ninth, hit a superb bunker shot for a 10-footed bird and extended his lead to five shots.
Everything changed so fast.
It took him from 50 feet to 12. And then to his 13 he stayed far enough away to catch a ridge and roll on an asphalt bench. He took off at 6 feet and missed the power of the hair.
Then the game was stopped.
Fitzpatrick made a 20-foot putt on the 16th hole to reach 8 below and suddenly was left with two shots behind. Fitzpatrick was 3 under for this day through 17 holes, the lowest score of the round so far.
Only 12 other players were under par for their round, none better than 2 under. The average score at game suspension was 73.3.