Did you know you can save your preferences across all your digital devices and platforms simply by creating a profile? Would you like to get started? Yes, I'd like to register/log in Not right now No, never ask again<doc-sep>DALLAS -- Denny McCarthy has some loose connections to Jordan Spieth and Tony Romo, the Trinity Forest Golf Club members in the local spotlight. The former University of Virginia player is on top of the leaderboard after one round at the Byron Nelson. McCarthy shot a career-low 8-under 63 on Thursday, with 10 birdies over a 12-hole stretch after an early double-bogey to take a one-stroke lead over Tyler Duncan and Tom Hoge. Three-time major champion Brooks Koepka, the No. 3-ranked player in the world, was among nine players at 65. "Gives me the confidence that I know that I can shoot rounds like this," McCarthy said. "I've kind of been looking for a round like this just to kind of get me going. I know I can be out here playing with the best, and today kind of showed that." McCarthy was part of the high school Class of 2011 that included three-time major champion Spieth and 2017 PGA Tour player of the year Justin Thomas. That impressive group also produced three consecutive PGA rookies of the year: Daniel Berger (2015), Emiliano Grillo (2016) and Xander Schauffele (2017). All of those now mid-20 somethings have wins, except for McCarthy, who is fully exempt on the PGA Tour this season for the first time after winning the Web.com Tour Championship in September. His best PGA Tour finish in his first 42 tournaments was fourth last year in the Dominican Republic at an event opposite the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. McCarthy played his first two rounds at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club then with Romo, the CBS NFL analyst and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback who missed the cut there in his only two previous PGA Tour starts. Romo, playing on a sponsor exemption as an amateur at home, had a 76 on Thursday. Spieth had a 68 in the afternoon, when the wind picked up after mostly calm conditions for McCarthy and the rest of the morning starters at the links-style course inundated by heavy rain earlier in the week. "Given the tougher conditions this afternoon and then tomorrow morning, it's just kind of about hanging around and trying to make something happen on the weekend," Spieth said. Denny McCarthy shot a career-low 8-under 63 on Thursday, with 10 birdies over a 12-hole stretch. The 10 birdies were three more than he had ever had in a tour round. Ray Carlin/USA TODAY Sports McCarthy began his early round with three consecutive pars before a double-bogey at the 437-yard fourth, when he had to take a penalty stroke after a wayward tee shot and eventually two-putted from 11 feet. He was still 2 over after another par at No. 5. "(The double-bogey) just kind of made me more calm after that," McCarthy said. "I came out with the mindset I wanted to be aggressive and I wasn't, and then after that double I kind of told myself, you know, just play really, really carefree and have fun with it." A 9-foot birdie at the 415-yard sixth was the first of five consecutive one-putt birdies, three of those under 6 feet. McCarthy needed only 22 putts, 10 on the back nine. His 10 birdies were three more than he had ever had in a tour round. "I put in some really nice sessions on the range the last couple of weeks and I didn't come out hitting it like I wanted to," he said. "It's easy just to not make a committed swing, and it cost me a couple shots there. But once I was aware that I wasn't in that aggressive mindset, kind of put me right back in and was able to get the round going." All three of Koepka's major wins have come since his last Nelson in 2017, when the tournament was still at the Four Seasons resort before moving south of downtown Dallas last year. He had never been on the front nine before Thursday, having practiced only on the back nine Tuesday before Wednesday's pro-am was rained out. After four consecutive birdies in the middle of his round (at Nos. 17, 18, 1 and 2), Koepka finished with three birdies and two bogeys on the last five holes. His approach at No. 6 went over the green into a bunker for a bogey, and his missed the green with his approach at No. 9, his finishing hole. "Other than that, I struck the ball beautifully," said Koepka, the two-time U.S. Open winner who next week will defend his PGA Championship title. "Hitting it good and putting it good, it doesn't matter. Played a lot of golf courses where I really haven't seen the golf course and gone to play. You've got a yardage book."<doc-sep>Stuart Franklin/Getty Images Sung Kang won the 2019 AT&T Byron Nelson at Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas, finishing two shots better than Matt Every and Scott Piercy. This is the first PGA Tour victory of Kang's career and his third win overall. He went four under in Sunday's final round to end at 23 under for the tournament. Here's a look at the top 10 finishers, with the full leaderboard available on PGATour.com. 2019 Wells Fargo Leaderboard 1. Sung Kang (-23) T2. Matt Every (-21) T2. Scott Piercy (-21) 4. Brooks Koepka (-20) T5. Peter Uihlein (-17) T5. Kiradech Aphibarnrat (-17) T5. Rory Sabbatini (-17) T5. Tyler Duncan (-17) T5. Matt Jones (-17) T10. Justin Harding (-16) T10. Sebastian Munoz (-16) Video Play Button Videos you might like Kang wrapped up his Byron Nelson with a bogey on No. 18. That was more than enough to clinch his win, though. The 31-year-old celebrated his triumph with his wife and son on the final hole. Contending on the final day of a tournament isn't a familiar experience for Kang. In 158 events entering the Byron Nelson, he had 11 top-10 finishes and one runner-up result. Kang wasn't rattled down the final stretch Sunday. He was two under on the front nine, closing out with a birdie on the ninth hole. His second-shot approach rolled mere inches wide of an eagle. He opened the back nine with a birdie on No. 10 before taking a step backward by bogeying No. 12. A three-hole stretch helped seal the title for Kang. He reeled off three straight birdies between the 14th and 16th holes, which helped him open up a healthy gap on Every, Piercy and Brooks Koepka. Consistency was the key for Kang in the final round. According to PGATour.com, he missed only two fairways and reached 14 greens in regulation. He also averaged 1.643 putts per GIR, his second-best round of the tournament. Kang will savor this win for some time because it has consequences for the 2020 PGA Tour season. He is now qualified for the 2020 Masters, which will be his first appearance at the tournament. Kang is also projected to climb 50 spots to 21st in the FedExCup standings, per PGATour.com. Despite tying for second, Every can take solace in the fact he's projected to move 51 spots higher to 55th. Piercy and Koepka did everything they could to mount a charge on the final day but had too much ground to make up in too little time. Piercy's seven-under 64 was tied for the lowest score of the round, while Koepka was six under over the last 18 holes. With the PGA Championship teeing off Thursday in Farmingdale, New York, many of golf's top stars opted to rest rather than make the trip to Dallas. Jordan Spieth took part but did little to generate some much-needed momentum ahead of the season's second major. Spieth required a miracle Sunday in order to chase down the leaders. He entered the day at 11 under and finished there after an even-par final round, earning a share of 29th place.<doc-sep>Sung Kang let the field back in the game in the final round of the 2019 AT&T Byron Nelson before ending its collective hopes on the back nine with two spectacular birdie runs, a 67 in the final round and a 23-under total for the tournament to win by two over Matt Every and Scott Piercy. Kang entered Sunday's finale with a three-stroke lead over Every and at least five on everybody else in the field. But after a start that saw him even par through the first seven holes and the only player on the leaderboard not in red numbers on the day, what once seemed like an inevitability got a little cloudy. But Kang shined down the stretch like he had all week. He shot a 61 on Friday to take hold of the tournament and found that same game over the final 110 holes on Sunday. Following the tepid start, he birdied Nos. 8-10 though and ran off another three-hole stretch of birdies on Nos. 14-16 to take a three-stroke lead to the final two holes to close it out. The spot where the tournament turned was probably the par-4 15th hole. Kang made a 23-footer for birdie while Every, who was tied with him at that point, made bogey from the middle of the fairway. A two-shot swing -- the same number of strokes Kang went on to win by. The win here is easily the biggest of Kang's career. He's been banging out 30 events a year worldwide as a professional since 2011, but his only wins to this point came on the Korean Tour back in 2013. There were close calls on the Web.com and PGA Tour -- Houston and South Korea in 2017, Quicken Loans in 2018 -- but Kang had never sealed the deal until now. It was a master class in building a lead over the first three days and not having to do too much coming home. Kang was good but not great on Sunday, but good was all he needed to be with such clearance on the rest of the field. "I'm so happy right now," he told CBS Sports' Peter Kostis on the 72nd green after PGA Tour win No. 1. After so many years and over 150 events of futility in the win column on the PGA Tour, I would expect no other emotion. Grade: A+ Here are the rest of our grades for the 2019 AT&T Byron Nelson. Brooks Koepka (4th): You kind of saw what you needed to see from Koepka this week. Top 10 from tee to green: Check. Top 10 in putting: Check. Get in the mix on Sunday without expending too much PGA energy: Check. Take a momentum-building, bogey-free 65 in Round 4 to New York: Check. Make sure everything's tuned up before trying to win fourth major next week at Bethpage: Check. The only negative for Koepka was his short game around these greens where he lost strokes. Everything else looked terrific, and Koepka looks like he should be the favorite to win his second PGA Championship in a row next weekend in New York. Grade: A Jordan Spieth (T29): The three-time major winner played well early in the event with a 68-67-67 before coming unwound a bit with a 71 in the final round. Again, the issue hasn't really been his ability to score (he finished T6 in birdie average), it's been his inability to avoid mistakes. He made a double bogey in each of his first two rounds and had a total of 10 squares (or worse) on his card which put him in the lower half of the field in that category. Loads of clean up needed for Bethpage next week if Spieth wants to grab the career slam. Grade: B Tony Romo (MC): Romo shot 76-74 in his first non-opposite field PGA Tour event and beat just four golfers in the field. Still, he counted it as a win because of the experience and because it helped him realize the serious work he's been doing for the last year has him pointed in the proper direction. He even said his playing partner, Dylan Frittelli, noted that he had "a ton of game." "Really just the ability to continue to improve [is what I'll take away]," said Romo. "I think more than anything, I got a sense to be able to hit a lot of high-quality shots under what is a pressure situation for me. "That's encouraging and shows that the work you're doing holds up when it counts, and from there you just got to find the little things that allow you to keep things going and not derail the round and I think just small stuff but, technique-wise, we're coming on." Grade: B<doc-sep>
DALLAS -- Sung Kang made a 23-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole to finally take the lead for good at the AT&T Byron Nelson and held on for his first PGA TOUR victory on a 27-hole Sunday at Trinity Forest. That was the second of three consecutive birdies for Kang, the 31-year-old South Korean who lives in North Texas. In his 159th career PGA TOUR start, Kang closed with a 4-under 67 to finish at 23 under and beat Matt Every and Scott Piercy by two strokes. Kang pumped his fist when the birdie dropped in at No. 15, making for a two-stroke swing at the 431-yard par 4. Every, who started that hole tied for the lead, was in the middle of the fairway and had a decent approach before three-putting for bogey. Twice over the last two days, Every overcame deficits of at least four strokes and went ahead of Kang. Every finished with a 66. Piercy, also in the final threesome, ended a bogey-free tournament with a 64. Brooks Koepka finished fourth at 20 under after a 68. Jordan Spieth, a member of Trinity Forest, had a closing 71 and finished tied for 29th at 11 under. His best Byron Nelson finish is still a tie for 16th when he played in the tournament for the first time as a 16-year-old amateur on a sponsor's exemption in 2010 at TPC Four Seasons. Spieth is still without a top-20 finish in his 13 starts this season. He last won at the 2017 British Open. Every and Kang played all four rounds together at Trinity Forest, including the extended day Sunday after the third round was delayed six hours by rain and they got in only nine holes before play was suspended by darkness. Kang started the third round with a four-stroke lead, but trailed Every by one when play was stopped midway through that round Saturday night. When they resumed Sunday morning, Kang regained the lead with three birdies on the back nine, while Every had four consecutive bogeys. A third-round 68 put Kang at 19 under, three strokes ahead of Every (67) going into the fourth round after being up by as many as five in that half-round earlier Sunday. Every, whose only two PGA TOUR wins were back-to-back Arnold Palmer Invitational titles in 2014 and 2015, started the final round with three consecutive birdies and was tied for the lead because Kang bogeyed the par-3 second hole. Five birdies and a bogey on the first six holes got Every to 20 under, and a stroke ahead when he rebounded from the bogey at No. 4 with consecutive birdies. Kang also had three consecutive birdies in the middle of the round to go back ahead, but his tee shot missed the green at the par-3 12th hole, with his ball settling in some nasty rough well below the hole. He got the ball out, but it hit the top of the hill and rolled back into a bunker. That bogey put him at 21 under, tied again with Every at the same time Koepka made a short birdie putt at No. 13 to get him within two strokes of the lead. That followed seven consecutive pars for Koepka after he was 4 under in his first five holes following a 36-foot eagle putt after driving the green at the short 301-yard par-4 No. 5 hole. The power-hitting Koepka missed a chance for another birdie when his drive at the 620-yard par-4 14th went into a fairway bunker. He birdied the par-4 15th for the third round in a row, but that was his last birdie of the day.