As a PGA Tour rookie in 2019, Sam Burns started his season at the Fortinet Championship in Napa, California, and he and wife Caroline and fellow Tour pro Kramer Hickock and his better half were sipping wine at the tasting room of winery Silver Oak when they each decided to buy a double magnum of its iconic cabernet sauvignon. Burns and Hickok made a pact that they’d save it and crack it open as soon as they won for the first time in the big leagues.
“Every time I saw that bottle, I’d think ‘gosh, I really want to open that,’” Burns recalled.
It took 76 Tour starts – until April 2021 at the Valspar Championship near Tampa – but Burns finally claimed his maiden victory and as soon as he got home they celebrated with Silver Oak.
“A bunch of friends came over and helped us finish it off,” Burns said with a smile.
Burns has kept on winning, including the 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge, erasing a seven-stroke deficit with a Sunday 65 to force a playoff and poured in a 38-foot putt on the first extra hole to beat his best buddy, then World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
Sam Burns is congratulated by Scottie Scheffler after winning the 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo: Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
For those who have followed Burns, his rise in the game isn’t the least bit surprising. Perhaps the one person who didn’t recognize his raw promise was his dear, old dad, Todd, who had to be convinced by the father of a fellow local golfer that his son was good enough to compete on a larger stage outside of their hometown’s city limits.
“There was a local junior tournament in Shreveport (Louisiana) and we signed Sam up for it,” Todd Burns told the Shreveport Times. “The dad of Phillip Barbaree came over to me after the tournament and said, ‘You need to let Sam play in national competitions.’ I said, ‘Really? I don’t think he’s ready for that. He said, ‘Oh, he’s ready for that.’ ”
Ready enough that he would go on to be named the 2014 AJGA Rolex Player of the Year, an early indicator that he was destined to be a PGA Tour winner.
Brad Pullin, a PGA teaching professional and director of golf instruction at Squire Creek Country Club, is the longtime swing coach for Burns. The first time Pullin watched Burns swing, he had one thought: “Don’t screw it up.”
Collin Morikawa has competed against Burns since he was 12 or 13 years old and beat up on him regularly at the junior and amateur level. Burns proceeded to be a Hogan Award semifinalist in 2017 and was chosen as the winner of the Jack Nicklaus Award at LSU.
“He’s always been a stud,” said Morikawa, a three-time Ben Hogan Award finalist and 2020 Charles Schwab Challenge runner-up. “He’s always had a game that I knew was going to be out here on Tour and will be here for a long time.”
One of the earliest indications that Burns had the moxie of a winner was at the 2018 Honda Classic when Burns was paired with Tiger Woods in the final round. When asked if he had ever played with his childhood hero, Burns answered, “Only on the video game.”
“I don’t even remember feeling the club in my hands,” Burns said of his opening tee shot. “And then he became somebody I had to beat.”
Tiger Woods and Sam Burns walk off the tee on the fifth hole during the final round of the 2018 Honda Classic on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. (Photo: Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press)
Burns settled quickly and even had the chutzpah to say to Woods as they walked down the first fairway, “Man, it’s crazy all these people who came out to watch me today, isn’t it?”
That wasn’t the only burn from Burns. He beat Woods straight up, shooting a bogey-free 68 to Tiger’s 70.
Count Billy Horschel, who has partnered with Burns at the Zurich Classic since 2021, as a believer that Burns is made for the biggest moments. Horschel and Burns finished T-4 in their first go-round as teammates in New Orleans, which nearly had Burns breaking open the double magnum of Silver Oak.
“If it was an individual tournament, he’d have won by five,” Horschel said. “I apologized. I said I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain. I said, ‘You’re playing so great right now. If you do what you did this week, you’re going to have a chance to win.’ In my head I was like, he’s going to win next week.”
Burns did just that and he’s been winning in bunches ever since. He tacked on his fifth career PGA Tour title in March at the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play Championship, besting Scheffler again in extra holes – this time in the semifinals – before dusting Cameron Young in the final by a score of 6 and 5. In doing so, Burns became one of only six players with five victories in the last three years on the Tour. It’s pretty good company to be mentioned in the same breath with Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Rory McIlroy, Max Homa and Jon Rahm.
“I think you go from hoping that you can win or thinking that you can win to believing it when it actually happens,” Burns said.
For Burns, it doesn’t get much sweeter than winning at Colonial Country Club, a victory that held great significance since he had attended the tournament on multiple occasions as a kid. That included joining David Toms and his family on a trip to Fort Worth and witnessing the 13-time PGA Tour winner’s final victory in person at the 2011 Charles Schwab Challenge. Burns still hasn’t forgotten leaning against the rope line and craning his neck as Toms holed a wedge for eagle at the 11th hole.
“That was pretty cool to see,” Burns said. “As a 14-year-old kid watching any PGA Tour player, much less a guy that you knew, that was just a really special moment.”
On his way to victory last year, Burns looked up in player dining and smiled at the sight of the wedge Toms used for his hole-out eagle mounted on the wall. Their connection continues with Burns crediting Toms as a mentor he leans on for advice. And in a neat twist of fate, the same day in March that Burns claimed the Match Play in Austin, Toms won on PGA Tour Champions.
“Growing up, I can remember sitting on the back of the range and just watching him hit golf balls. It’s still one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen, just the way he could hit it. So straight and just like his tempo is amazing. Still is,” Burns said. “But, yeah, to be able to win on the same day is really cool.”
Burns broke into the top 10 in the world not long ago and winning major championships are next on his agenda, but as long as he plays it will be hard to top his Sunday surge at Colonial. His seven-stroke comeback matched Nick Price in 1994 for the biggest in a final round to win at Hogan’s Alley.
“I kind of joked with him at the end, he ruined all the fun making a 40-footer,” Scheffler said. “It was definitely good to see him win. He’s obviously a great player and he’s got a bright future ahead.”
Burns went on to qualify for a second straight Tour Championship and made his debut on the U.S. Presidents Cup team at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. He and Scheffler should have a few more back-nine tussles and it wouldn’t surprise anyone for them to require extra holes once again to settle the score.
“He’s going to do some unbelievable things in this game of golf,” Horschel said. “I’ve been a cheerleader on the side with my pompons trying to tell everyone how great he is and to watch out for this guy.”