Burns is on fire, topples Young in Match Play final
Scheffler, Mcilroy fall in semifinals
AUSTIN, Texas — Sam Burns won the WGC-DELL Technologies Match Play on the 13th green, most appropriate for this unpredictable tournament because that’s where he thought he had lost it.
Some four hours earlier, Burns stood on that same green ready to remove his cap and congratulate defending champion Scottie Scheffler, who had a 4-foot birdie putt to win their semifinal match in overtime.
And then it all changed, quickly and dramatically, like so often in match play.
Scheffler missed. Burns birdied the next hole to win. And then Burns delivered a masterclass performance with eight birdies over his last 10 holes for a 6-and-5 victory over Cameron Young in the final edition of the Match Play. “Crazy week,” Burns said. Rory Mcilroy was 2 up with three holes to play against Young in the semifinals when one swing (into a bunker) and one bad break (into the side collar of a bunker) and one missed putt (on the 19th hole) left him playing a consolation match.
Young went from one of the most satisfying rounds of his career to feeling helpless. He made a few mistakes in the championship match, but there was no stopping Burns and that silky putting stroke at Austin Country Club.
“I was a million under for the week,” Young said. “It’s really easy to think you’re so close. There’s only one guy standing between you and winning a tournament. But that one guy is Sam Burns playing really well.”
Indeed, the final edition of this wild and wacky tournament ultimately turned into a downer for just about everyone but Burns.
Burns went on a tear Sunday afternoon in the championship match, with just enough help from Young at the end for the second-largest margin of victory over 18 holes in match play.
Young had to settle for his sixth runner-up finish in the last two seasons on the PGA Tour, disappointed but not without perspective. With concessions, he was 41-under par for the week. There wasn’t much he could do against Burns.
“There might not have been anybody beating him today the way he played,” Young said.
In the third-place match, Mcilroy held off Scheffler 2 and 1.
■ LPGA: Celine Boutier birdied the 18th hole in regulation to force a playoff, then birdied it again in sudden death to hold off her Solheim Cup partner Georgia Hall to win the Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain in Gold Canyon, Arizona.
Boutier had a fiinal-round 4-under 68 to catch Hall (65) at 20 under and win for the third time on the LPGA Tour. Ayaka Furue’s 65 matched Hall with the low round of the day but left her one shot out of the playoff. Narin An (67) was another shot back in fourth.
Boutier, 29, became the all-time winningest French player on tour, moving past Patricia Meunier-lebouc and Anne-marie Palli.
■ PGA: In Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Matt Wallace ran off four straight birdies on the back nine and closed with two solid pars for a 6-under 66, giving him a one-shot win in the Corales Puntacana Championship for his first PGA Tour title. Wallace, a four-time winner on the European tour, held off Nicolai Hojgaard, whose 20-foot birdie putt on the final hole to force a playoff slid by on the low side.
■ Champions: David Toms won for the second time in four tournaments, completing a wire-to-wire victory at the inaugural Galleri Classic in Rancho Mirage, California. Toms had a final round 65 at Mission Hills Country Club for a four-stroke win over Steven Alker.
■ DP World: Nick Bachem closed with an 8-under 64 for a four-shot victory in the Jonsson Workwear Open in Johannesburg, South Africa.