FORT WORTH, Texas — With his longtime coach Randy Smith eyeing each swing, Scottie Scheffler spent a little extra time on the range at Colonial Country Club on Sunday working through low knockdowns, something the world’s top-ranked player hadn’t done particularly well through the tournament’s first three days.
Looking for his fifth win in his last 10 starts — and to become the first player to win five PGA Tour events before June 1 since Tom Watson turned the trick in 1980 — Scheffler knew the final round of the Charles Schwab Challenge would be more about standing strong in the wind than sprinting toward the lead.
With consistent winds in the 30 mph range making the small greens at Colonial even tougher than usual to hit, Scheffler’s strategy was spot on and nearly worked.
But instead, as Scheffler fought to keep his head afloat, Sam Burns found an even better plan of attack — get out early, play well and wait for the pack to come back to him.
Burns earned his third victory of the PGA Tour season by posting an early 65, then waiting as others struggled to deal with the wind. He beat Scheffler in a playoff, dropping an incredible, winding 38-foot putt from off the green for the victory.
Unbelievably clutch.@SamBurns66 drained the 38-footer from off the green to win @CSChallengeFW. pic.twitter.com/DaQmWt5MRe
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 29, 2022
For the few hours before Burns’ heroic putt, however, he wasn’t even at the top of the leaderboard.
At one point on the back nine, five players all sat at 10 under as Scheffler, Davis Riley, Brendon Todd, Harold Varner III and Scott Stallings found themselves all tied. Meanwhile, Burns sat in the clubhouse at 9 under.
Riley, who briefly held the lead, was the first to fade away, dropping a shot on No. 13 and then knocking a drive on the next hole out of bounds through a chain-link fence.
Todd dropped strokes at Nos. 11 and 12 and Varner then had a stretch of triple bogey-double bogey-triple bogey over a three-hole stretch on Nos. 12-14.
And Stallings tried to stay above water but lost single strokes at 12, 14 and 17 to fall off the chase.
Scheffler, who failed to make a birdie through 18 holes, made knee-knocking par putts of nine, six and eight feet in the final four holes to force the playoff. His only previous appearance in a playoff was when he captured his first Tour victory, as he beat Patrick Cantlay on the third hole at the WM Phoenix Open.
Burns, who already had victories this season at the Sanderson Farms Championship and the Valspar, posted the day’s best round, using a 30 on the front nine to finish at 65 for the day and 9 under for the tournament.
Since Burns teed off nearly 90 minutes before Scheffler, and the LSU product took advantage of beating the afternoon gusts, although Burns did play the final seven holes at even par.
He admitted that he wasn’t even thinking about the leaders as he made his way through his final round.
“I never really did, to be honest. When you start the day seven back, I knew Scottie was at 11, I mean, the way that guy is playing right now, who would have ever thought that you’d have a chance seven back?” Burns said. “But I mean, with the wind we had today and the way the golf course is set up, to go out and shoot the score that I did today was really good.”
The nearly two-hour delay didn’t seem to faze him, however, as he piped a drive well past Scheffler on the first playoff hole and then calmly drained the 38-footer for the victory. Scheffler followed by just missing his putt from 37 feet away.
For Burns, this has become a huge season. The 25-year-old from Shreveport, Louisiana, has eight top-10 victories in 17 starts on the year and now is only behind Scheffler in terms of Tour wins on the year.