By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
Former LSU All-American Sam Burns will be celebrating two birthdays this month – one that is keeping him away from golf’s fourth and final major championship, next week’s British Open.
Burns will turn 30 on July 23. His wife — also a Shreveport native — Caroline Campbell Burns, is expecting the birth of their second child soon.
He graduated from Shreveport’s Calvary Baptist Academy. She ran track at C.E. Byrd a couple miles north. They met in church as children and at age 5, he made her his first Valentine.
“And then after that, she wanted nothing to do with me until about high school,” Burns told a Georgia radio station before The Masters a year ago.
They began dating while both were at LSU and were married Dec. 14, 2019.
Their son Bear arrived in April 2024, not long after Caroline’s April 8 birthday.
They live in Choudrant, where Burns plays out of Squire Creek Country Club.
He was entered in this week’s Genesis Scottish Open but after his second-place finish at the U.S. Open last month, his mother confirmed to The Athletic what was widely anticipated: he was not going to travel overseas for the two-week span of the Scottish Open and the British Open. He made it official recently.
Burns has a pair of top five and four top 10 finishes this season, two in majors: seventh at The Masters and the runner-up showing at the U.S. Open, where he barely missed a birdie putt on the 72nd hole that would have gotten him into a playoff.
He stands ninth in FedEx Cup points and owns 17th in the Official World Golf Rankings. He is sixth in United States Presidents Cup team rankings, setting him in strong position for his fifth consecutive international competition (two Ryder Cups, two previous Presidents Cups) at the end of the PGA Tour season.
He’s made 11 straight and 13 of 16 cuts this year with nine top 25 finishes and has $6.4 million in official tour earnings.
In his last four starts, beginning with a fourth-place tie at The Memorial hosted by Jack Nicklaus, Burns has carded scores in the 60s in 12 of his last 16 rounds, including the last five.
Burns, regarded as one of golf’s finest putters, led the PGA Tour in that stat last season and ranks fifth this year. He leads the Tour with a 43.51 percent make rate on putts of 10-15 feet and is third in par 4 scoring average (3.95).
His 69.36 scoring average in 52 rounds is ninth-best on tour.
Following the British Open, three regular-season tournaments remain: the 3M Open outside of Minneapolis July 23-26, the Rocket Classic in Detroit July 30-Aug. 2, and the Wyndham Championship Aug. 6-9 in Greensboro, N.C.
The FedEx St. Jude Championship from Aug. 13-16 in Memphis, on a TPC Southwind Course where Burns has shined in recent years, begins the three-week FedEx Cup playoff slate. The BMW Championship in St. Louis is Aug. 20-23 with the Tour Championship Aug. 27-30 at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com