Burns Holds Lead Into Final Round at AT&T Byron Nelson
Sam Burns holds his fourth 54-hole lead of the season after carding a 69 in the third round of the AT&T Byron Nelson. The 24 year old has a career-low score of 20-under 196, taking a one-stroke lead into the final day. His 3-under 69 follows a career-low 10-under 62.
The last time Burns held a 54-hole lead, he made the most of it, winning the Valspar Championship. He knows what it will take to finish with the win on Sunday. “Yeah, I think for starters, I don’t have to play perfect.” Burns explains, “Always felt for a long time I had to play perfect on Sunday to win. That’s just not the case. You’re going to make mistakes. You need to limit those, but, yeah, just go out there knowing I don’t have to play perfect, sticking to the game plan, and see what happens.”
K.H. Lee moved into second place on the leaderboard with a 5-under 67. Lee is searching for his first PGA TOUR win, hoping to become the third Korean-born player to win the AT&T Byron Nelson. (Sangmoon Bae/2013, Sung Kang/2019)
Jordan Spieth moved into a tie for 3rd with an eagle on the 18th hole. “Once it got on the green. It looked good. Started the putter raise and I wasn’t positive it was going in because the angle it was coming in at. I wanted to do the no look to the crowd, but, I mean, it was a really cool moment” explained Spieth. “Starting to feel a little bit normal once you get to the last few holes. It’s always fun to have — especially in Dallas, but anywhere — just to get the roars and feed off of them. Maybe some confidence into tomorrow.”
The Dallas native is in position to improve upon his previous best finish at the AT&T Byron Nelson which was a T16 in his first start (2010).
Charl Schwartzel posted a 6-under 66 to move into the T3 spot.
Matt Kuchar hit 4 birdies in a row to share the T3 position at 17-under in his 12th AT&T Byron Nelson start. “Yeah, you never know when the birdies are going to come. You take them when they come, and I was grateful to get them early. Couple scoring holes, I think the third hole is a scoring hole, was able to take advantage there.” explained Kuchar. “Then the 5th hole is a par-5, so those two are good. The 6th hole is also almost a drivable hole. So kind of took advantage of those three really easy holes and threw another birdie in as well.
Alex Noren rounds out the T3 spot. The Swedish golfer hopes to become the 12th international player to win the AT&T Byron Nelson since 2000.
The best rounds of the day went to Harris English and Scott Stallings, who posted scores of 9-under 63 to move into the T9 position.
