By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
ST. LOUIS – Sam Burns is on a roll that takes a back seat to no other player on the PGA Tour.
And that includes his pal and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who ran away with last week’s FedEx St. Jude championship.
Not even Scheffler can match this: Burns has finished in the top three in three of his last four tournaments – and those top threes came in the last three “biggies” — the U.S. Open, the British Open and last week’s initial FedEx Cup playoff event, played 280 miles down the Mississippi River in Memphis.
Or this. Burns’ heater is not a flash in the pan: he has top-five finishes in his last six starts. And it goes further back, into mid-March.
Notes Mike Glasscott of Golfbet News: “Since The Players (March 12-15), over that frame, which spans 13 starts, Burns has gained +1.73 strokes per round. The only player better than that is Scottie Scheffler … “(and Burns’ putting is) gaining nearly a stroke per round during that same 13-event stretch.”
Those are among the reasons many analysts have the 30-year-old Choudrant resident rated among the favorites again this week at the BMW Championship on the 7,448-yard, par-70 Bellerive Country Club course.
Burns tees off at 10:49 this morning paired with two-time U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, who also ranks among the PGA Tour’s best putters.
Their round will finish on Golf Channel, which begins its coverage at 2 o’clock. Until then, keeping an eye on the Shreveport native will require tuning in to the ESPN+ stream.
Burns has climbed to seventh in the Official World Golf Rankings, moving up from 11th into a career-best position. He stands sixth in the FedEx Cup rankings and is assured of moving on to next week’s Tour Championship in Atlanta.
His career-best $8.7 million in official winnings this season has lifted his career earnings to $43.5 million since he turned pro in 2019 on the heels of two All-America honors and the Jack Nicklaus Award as the collegiate player of the year while starring for LSU.
Outside of that figure, Burns recently added another major sponsorship deal with financial giant iCapital. That adds to his portfolio that includes agreements with brands including Raising Canes, Callaway Golf, Peter Millar, PAYNTR Golf, Mastercard, NetJets, Topgolf, and ADP.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com