By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
NEWTON SQUARE, Pa. – Sam Burns opened the 108th PGA Championship Thursday with an even-par round, despite making three birdies, and is within three shots of the Day 1 lead at golf’s second major championship of the year.
But there are lots of players between him and the seven who are bunched at the top of the leaderboard entering today’s second round at Aronimink Golf Club. Burns sits in a tie for 34th and tees off today at noon CDT with his playing partners, Jason Day (-1) and Gary Woodland (+2).
Among the co-leaders are defending champion Scottie Scheffler and 2010 winner Martin Kaymer.
Burns had a mediocre day – especially for him, after leading the PGA Tour in putting last year – on the greens, ranking 61st in the field, needing 31 putts. His 1.9 strokes in the approach-to-the-green stat ranked him 18th among all players Thursday. He was 107th in driving accuracy after hitting just half the fairways, and 100th in average driving distance (305.7 yards) although he cranked the third-longest drive of the day, 370 yards.
The 29-year-old Choudrant resident built his even-par score by hitting 72 percent of the greens in regulation, 19th-best in the field.
Burns birdied his seventh hole, the par-5 16th, with an 8-foot putt but missed an 8-footer on the next green, the tough par-3 17th, to drop back to even par.
After making the turn to holes 1-9, the Shreveport native birdied the par-4 first with a 5-footer, then drained a 28-footer on the par-4 fourth hole to get to 2-under in mid-morning. But bogies on his 16th and 17th holes, Nos. 7-8, brought him back to even for the day. His 20-foot par-putt on 7 lipped out, and he missed the green on the par-3 8th hole and couldn’t save par.
Television coverage of Burns today will be on ESPN, which is on air beginning at 11 CDT. Weekend coverage is on ESPN in the mornings for the final two rounds. CBS has the contenders playing in its broadcast window from noon-6 Saturday and Sunday.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com