SOUTHPORT, England — Sam Burns, Scottie’s bud. They play practice rounds together at all your better stops, speak the same language (golf, Southern, Southern golf), married young and had kids young. Burns, like Scheffler, is all church-on-Sunday, plus takeout shakes and whatever else is in the bag. You could see the two of them driving together to Brackenridge Park for the Texas Open, except that the tourney hasn’t been played there since Eisenhower was president. Scottie turned 30 on Father’s Day, last day of the U.S. Open. Burns turns 30 next week. They both seem about a decade short of playing in their first Senior British Open. Burns will be a lifer. You can just tell. According to the guy who won here Sunday night, Ryan Fox, he’ll be a major winner, too.
Burns would not have come here at all, to this posh nook of gritty northwestern England, but the missus, Caroline, pushed him out of the house and into a jet. He was talking about staying home, what with a new-born baby in the crib, in the Burns family home in a little town about an hour’s drive from Shreveport, La. “I’ve got this at home,” wife told hub. “Go over there and give it your best.”
A variation of: I married you for better or worse but not for lunch.
Sam Burns at his best is one of the best in the world and now we now his game travels, too. This Open was his sixth and he has played little links golf. Yet he was the 54-hole leader, here at Royal Birkdale, at 10 under par. He was in the day’s last twosome with Fox, who trailed by two. Fox signed for 68 to get to 10 under and won by one with a stunner, his stiffed approach shot into 18. From seven to the house, Burns made nothing but pars, shot 72 and finished two shots out of playoff.
You know his day is coming because that’s the nature of these things, and because Scottie keeps telling him that that’s the case, and because he’s in the Bryson DeChambeau circle of trust. Burns and DeChambeau have the same agent and are buds. On Saturday night, Burns said more than once how “bad” he felt for DeChambeau, his Saturday playing partner, owing to DeChambeau’s two-shot penalty for violating rule 8.1a on the fifth hole on Friday.
About the only theory of how-to-win-a-major that works is this one: keep knocking and eventually the door opens. Unless it never does. See: Montgomerie, Colin; Westwood, Lee; Cooper, Harry, aka Lighthorse. When Tiger Woods played with Burns for the first time — Honda, 2018 — Woods was impressed. He told him, “Keep doing what you’re doing. You’re going to have a lot of success out here.” Yeah. Burns has five Tour wins. Broadly speaking, big-time talents with long careers win majors at the same rate at which they win ordinary events. Sam Burns wins 2.5 percent of the tournaments in which he plays.
Last year, at the U.S. Open at Oakmont, after two days practicing side-by-side with Scheffler, Burns was the Saturday-night leader but shot a Sunday 78. It stung. Last month, he was tied for sixth on Saturday at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, shot a Sunday 67 and finished one shot behind the winner, Wyndham Clark. It didn’t sting. Nobody had a better year at the majors than Burns: T7 at the Masters, T26 at the PGA Championship, 2nd at the U.S. Open, 3rd here. Knocking on heaven’s door indeed.
“I’ve played a lot of golf with Sam,” Fox said in victory. “His day is coming.”
Yep.
“Ryan played amazing,” Burns said. “He’s a well-earned champion. Hat’s off to him.”
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.
