Burns goes low in Napa to take 36-hole lead at Safeway Open

Sam Burns posted a 7-under 65 in Round 2 of the Safeway Open to take a two-shot lead into the weekend in Napa, California.

The 24-year-old rebounded well from an early double-bogey on No. 2 with three consecutive birdies. He added six more red numbers to his card to shoot the lowest 36-hole score of his career.

"I think it pissed me off a little bit, woke me up, I guess," Burns said of his early blunder. "It was early, cold. It was kind of like it picked me up, like hey, let's go. Just kind of stuck with it and the golf course opened up for me the rest of the day."

Burns, who is ranked 171st in the world with only one top-five finish on the PGA Tour, leads the field in strokes gained: tee to green, and ranks sixth in strokes gained: putting.

Harry Higgs closed the gap on Burns with a remarkable 10-under 62 for the lowest round of his career. The 2019-20 Rookie of the Year nominee ended his day with a rare albatross from 230 yards on No. 9, which Higgs revealed may have ruined his afternoon plans.

"I hope that I can calm down in an hour or so so I can take a nap," he said. "My brother and I were joking, I was looking forward to a nap all day long and I might be too jacked up now to actually fall asleep."

Burns and Higgs will make up the final pairing for Round 3.

Here's how the leaderboard stands going into the weekend:

Phil Mickelson shot a bogey-free 67 on Friday to reach 6-under for the week and one clear of the cutline.

A pair of 18 year olds also made their first cut on the PGA Tour. Akshay Bhatia shot even for a 6-under score through two days and Joohyung Kim made the cut on the number at 5-under.

Jordan Spieth (1-under), Shane Lowry (3-under), and Sergio Garcia (3-under) all failed to advance to the weekend.