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Sam Burns stuns Scottie Scheffler, wins Charles Schwab Challenge in a playoff

Ryan Young
Staff writer
·3 min read
13

Sam Burns had to sit in the clubhouse and wait for several hours Sunday afternoon. Yet when he finally stepped back onto the course, it was as if he’d never left.

Burns, after posting a 5-under 65 early in the afternoon, sank a wild birdie putt from just off the green to overtake top-ranked Scottie Scheffler and win the Charles Schwab Challenge.

Sam Burns
Sam Burns drained a huge birdie putt to beat Scottie Scheffler in a playoff on Sunday afternoon. (Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)

Burns has won three times on Tour this season, and matched the biggest comeback in Colonial Country Club history after starting the day seven shots back.

“Just with the conditions today with how tough it was playing, I was just so proud of the way we hung in there,” Burns said on CBS. “I played just such a good round of golf today … I’m just proud of the way we finished, and then to make that putt is just icing on the cake.”

Burns opened his day with three birdies in four holes, and made six of them on his front nine to jump right up the leaderboard and into contention. He then went even on his back nine to get to 9-under on the week, which quickly turned into a share of the lead after Scheffler’s two-shot lead disappeared.

Burns watched in the clubhouse as Scheffler tried to make one last birdie to win the event outright. Scheffler, after making five straight pars, landed his approach in the greenside bunker on No. 18. A clutch up-and-down from there saved Scheffler’s par and forced the playoff, which started nearly two hours after Burns had finished his round.

So the two went back out to the 18th, where Scheffler landed his approach on the far side of the green and Burns’ barely rolled off the back. While his ball sat 38-feet from the cup, Burns rolled his birdie putt in perfectly to claim the win.

This victory for Burns follows his wins at the Sanderson Farms Championship in October and at the Valspar Championship in March. He has nine top-25 finishes, and started the week ranked No. 10 in the world.

Scheffler finished with a 2-over 72 in his runner-up finish. The 25-year-old has won four times on Tour this season after picking up his inaugural win earlier this year. He has 12 top-10 finishes and overtook Jon Rahm to reach No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings.

Brendon Todd took third at 8-under. Only four golfers finished 2-under or better on what was an incredibly hot and windy day in Fort Worth.

“We're probably best friends,” Burns said of Scheffler. “But at the same time I can assure you, he wanted to beat me more than anybody else and I wanted to beat him more than anybody else, and it just happened to be the two of us at the end.

“Yeah, it's going to be a fun story that we'll get to have for the rest of our careers, and fortunately I got the better end of it this time, but hopefully we're at the beginning of these situations in the future.”