Sam Burns already turning heads in Ryder Cup debut

ROME – Sam Burns insists he’s gotten many haircuts the past few months.

“Just I haven’t cut the back,” the 27-year-old Burns said with a smile.

As for the “USA” engraved into the side of Burns’ buzz, Burns’ Ryder Cup teammate Brooks Koepka, who also took quite a bit off the sides himself, was left scratching his head.

“Sam has got a nice Kentucky waterfall going,” Koepka said. “It’s pretty solid, although the ‘USA’ that’s inscribed in the side of his head, I don’t know if he was doing that looking in a mirror because ‘USA’ doesn’t look the best, but it makes it even better.”

Burns revealed Wednesday that a buddy of his carved the letters with a straight razor. The Ryder Cup rookie then was pressed by the European press, who for days now have been asking for comments from captains and players on both sides.

Burns had no trouble explaining the decision.

“When you start shaving things into the side of your head, you’re kind of asking for it, I guess,” Burns said. “But it’s been fun.”

Added U.S. Captain Zach Johnson: “He’s got great hair. I mean, I’d do it if I could do it. I just don’t have any hair to do it.”

Once he sticks his first tee in the ground on Friday, though, Burns will look to shift the focus toward his golf. This is his second team match following last year’s Presidents Cup but first Ryder Cup. Two years ago Burns got a tough phone call from Steve Stricker informing him that he wasn’t picked. As an amateur, Burns was the reigning Nicklaus Award winner as the national player of the year in college golf when he was snubbed for the 2017 Walker Cup.

But this time Burns was delighted when Johnson phoned him with some good news.

“It was a lot better than the other one,” Burns said of that call. “Yeah, it was really special. Coming into this year, making this team was very high on my goal list I guess you could call it. After the Tour Championship, I wasn’t really sure. I knew I was close and thought it could go a couple different ways.”

In the months leading up to Johnson’s Captain’s picks, Burns, knowing he was getting a call either way, tried to prepare himself for both potential outcomes, particularly the disappointing one.

“I think for me, throughout the year, it was just trying to process how do I respond to something that necessarily doesn’t go the way I want it to,” Burns explained. “Kind of always checking your heart of, OK, if I don’t make it, can I be OK with that? I think that was something I kind of battled with all year. Just at times I felt like yeah, I think I’d be all right, and other times it felt like, no, that would be the end of the world, which kind of showed me that maybe it meant a little too much.

“So really just kind of going through the process of how can you be content with either scenario.”

Burns didn’t have to deal with heartbreak this time.

He’s on the team.

And he’s got quite the flow, too.