JOURNAL SPORTS
While home in Choudrant for the birth of his first child April 22, once things settled down Sam Burns got to polish his game, and returned to the PGA Tour very competitively last week.
Burns flirted with a top 10 finish at the Wells Fargo Championship last week in Charlotte, winding up 13th at 2-under after climbing as high as fifth on the leaderboard. Today, he tees off at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville in his fifth PGA Championship.
The Shreveport native and Calvary Baptist graduate will start at 1:35 CDT alongside 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed and three-time majors winner Padraig Harrington, the 2008 PGA champ.
In 2022, Burns finished 20th at the PGA Championship won by Justin Thomas at Southern Hills in Tulsa for the former LSU star’s best performance in a major to date.
He hopes to become the third Shreveporter to win the PGA crown. Hal Sutton won the 1983 PGA in Los Angeles, and David Toms was the 2001 winner in Atlanta.
The 2023 USA Ryder Cupper stands 27th in the Official World Golf Rankings and is 34th in the FedEx Cup standings this season.
Burns has been up and down in 2024, with a torrid start followed by five less successful outings before his son, Bear, was delivered by wife Caroline, also a Shreveport native. After a restless first week with the baby, Burns said he was able to get clubs in hand for several days and the polish was apparent last week.
He had four top 10 finishes by the end of February at the American Express in La Quinta, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, WM Phoenix Open, and Genesis Invitational. He shot a closing 78 and dipped to a 30th place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, then followed a third-round 65 at The Players with a 76 and tied for 45th.
As the two-time defending champ at the Valspar, he missed the cut and also didn’t reach the weekend three weeks later at The Masters. The following week, he was 44th at the RBC Heritage, then headed home to begin parenthood.
He has played 11 events and made nine cuts in 2024 while racking up S2.5 million in earnings this season, pushing him over the $24 million mark since he turned pro seven years ago.
Burns is also 27th in total strokes gained on tour with an average of 0.729 and 31st in putting strokes gained with an average of 0.398. Burns is scoring well this year as he is currently 22nd on tour in scoring average with an impressive tally of 69.59. Another notable statistic is his birdie average of 4.59 per round which is ranked fourth on tour.
Burns’ last time in the winner’s circle was in 2023 at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play event where he rolled over Cameron Young after dispatching Rory McIlroy in the semifinals.