Sam

Burns

Burns entered the week off back-to-back missed cuts but flipped the script at Colonial Country Club. His short game and course management where the start of the show this week as he put himself in position to gain 6.1 strokes around-the-green (3rd) which was needed as he ranked just 41st in approach and 48th putting. This was his fourth time defending a title on the PGA TOUR and he’s now finished T30 or better in all four attempts (Win at 2022 Valspar Championship, T30 at the 2022-23 Sanderson Farms Championship, 6th at the 2023 Valspar Championship).

Burns was sloppy at times today but did well to hold his round together. “I wouldn’t say I had my best stuff at all, but just was able to get it around and shoot a score. I think that’s the beauty of this game. You don’t have your stuff all the time, and it’s the ability to be able to push the good number when you don’t have your A-game.” He lost more than 0.4 strokes on six of his approach shots today but made up for it with his short game. He gained 2.8 strokes around-the-green and 1.4 strokes putting. Burns was just T57 after round one of his 2022 CSC win so he’s well ahead of last year’s winning pace.

The LSU product has a long relationship with this event, “A lot of really good memories from last year, and even memories as a kid. We were just talking about David Toms, and I remember being here in 2011 when he won. I can remember a lot of the shots that he hit that day. This was always an event that I grew up coming to as a kid, so it’s really special.” His pro appearances have returned a missed cut,T31, and a win. It’s been a mixed bag for him. More recently he’s missed back-to-back cuts but hopes that Colonial is the cure, “I love this golf course. It’s very similar to a golf course that I grew up on, kind of small, tree-lined. It’s very penal in certain spots.”

The LSU product opened birdie-eagle-birdie but slowed his pace from there (2 birdies, 2 bogeys). “Overall solid. A little frustrated in the way I putted it, but other than that, solid.” Burns walked off the course losing about half a stroke with the putter. Burns missed the cut in his 2022 Masters debut but is off to a much better start this time around. He’ll start day two just three shots off the leaders at the top (Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Viktor Hovland).

The LSU product gave Young a headstart but sprinted to the finish line with eight birdies in a 10-hole stretch. “I’ve been putting it well all week and I knew that if we could just get the ball in position, give ourselves lots of chances, hopefully they would go in.” He definitely caught fire with that flat stick, splashing home a trio of putts from outside of 20 feet today. While Burns now has finishes of T11 or better in four of his last seven starts, his game hasn’t been firing on all cylinders this season, “Professional golf is hard. It’s not easy at times and I’ve been really struggling with my golf swing. Just didn’t quite have the command that I wanted. Wasn’t able to hit some of the shots that I usually am able to. So a huge thank you to my coach Brad, he’s just been rock solid and helped me a lot.” This was his first start at the WGC-Match Play and unfortunately will also be his last with the event being scraped from the schedule next year.

Burns raced out to a 3UP thru 4 lead against his good buddy but Scheffler clawed right back to tie the match thru 8 holes. “It was nice getting off to a great start there. I knew Scottie would battle back. I struggled midway through the round. But just was able to battle back and kept myself in it and you know at the end of the day it came down to making putts.” It would have been easy to hang his head after Scheffler built a 2UP lead thru 10 but Burns circled birdie on four of the last six holes to force extra holes. He then birdied two of the next three to play his way into a championship match against 15-seed Cameron Young. Burns is making his tournament debut this week and now owns a 6-0-0 record for the week.

Burns was up and down this week but saved his best for last (69-73-70). He ranked top 33 in all four sub-categories of strokes gained but didn’t gain more than 3 strokes in a single category. Burns is projected to climb from 68th to 52ndin the FedExCup race. That’s nothing to panic about, but certainly well behind his 2022 pace.

Burns arrived as the back-to-back champ at the Valspar and he piled up five birdies on day one of the 2023 edition, to erase a trio of bogeys. He landed 12 GIR today and gained 1.5 strokes putting to maintain momentum. Asked about his round, “Hit my irons really well. I think that was probably what I did best.” Burns lost strokes on approach today but did gained strokes with his irons on 11 holes, so it was just a trio of bad holes that really made those numbers look bad. Currently T13 on the live leaderboard, he’s now been T30 or better after 12 of 13 rounds played at the Copperhead Course.

The LSU product tried to talk about what suits his eye at the Copperhead Course, “There’s holes where you could hit four or five different clubs off tees and kind of play it whatever way you want. So I think there’s a lot of flexibility here. There’s certain holes where you have to hit a lot of really quality shots. I think it’s just a very demanding golf course and when you hit the correct shots you get rewarded.” it certainly helps when you putt the lights out, gaining 31 strokes putting over his four appearances at the Valspar. He’s also gained strokes putting in nine of his last 10 events played, while his tee-to-green play has been more streaky. He’s starting the week as a 16/1 outright betting option, behind only Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth in the betting market.

Burns entered the week off back-to-back missed cuts but flipped the script today. Steady driving got things started, as he gained strokes off-the-tee on 10-of-14 driving holes. From there, he landed 12 greens and let his short game do the heavy lifting. Burns walked off the course ranked 6th in strokes gained around-the-green while also gaining 1.2 strokes putting. “I would say it was really good for the game that I had today. I drove it pretty well. Other than that, I did not hit my irons very good. Just kind of battled and kind of kept the ball in front of me and hit some good chips around some greens, and just kind of put together a decent round. But I didn’t feel like I had my best stuff today. It feels good to shoot that score.” There was only one round lower recorded from the afternoon wave today (5-under from Ben Griffin).