Burns secures Match Play with lopsided win over Young
AUSTIN — The finl ahours of the last WGCDell Technologies Match Play turned into a dud for everyone but Sam Burns.
Burns went on a tear Sunday afternoon in the championship match with eight birdies on his final 10 holes and enough help from Cameron Young for a 6-and-5 victory. It was the second-largest margin in an 18-hole match in this tournament.
Burns won for the fifth time on the PGA Tour. Young, who had a late rally with clutch birdies to eliminate Rory McIlroy in the semifinals, had to settle for his sixth runnerup finish in the last 18 months.
“What a week,” Burns said. “I’m so tired.”
Burns made it to the championship match Sunday afternoon only when defending champion Scottie Scheffler missed a 4-foot birdie putt on the 20th hole of their semifinal match. Burns made birdie from a fairway bunker with a 15-foot putt to advance.
Young had an early lead. Burns squared the match on the fifth hole and took the lead with a chip-and-putt birdie on the par-5 sixth.
Young pulled his shot from rough into the water on the par-5 12th, and then he came up short of the green and into the water on the reachable par-4 13th. Burns chipped to just inside 3 feet, and Young removed his cap without making him putt.
“It’s easy to think you’re so close,” Young said. “There’s one guy standing between you and winning the tournament. And that one guy is Sam Burns playing really well.”
The highlight was his semifinal win over McIlroy.
McIlroy was 2 up with three holes to play.
McIlroy and Scheffler wound up in the consolation match, which McIlroy won, 2 and 1.
Burns moved to No. 10 in the world and collected $3.5 million.
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Boutier forced a playoff by making a testy birdie putt at the par-5 18th to close out a 4-under 68, matching Hall (65) at 20-under 268 in the LPGA’s first full-field event of the season.
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Bachem triumphs at South Africa
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