Burns’ playoff birdie stuns No. 1 Scheffler at Colonial
Sam Burns made a 38-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole at Colonial, which came just more than two hours after he had finished his round, to beat top-ranked Scottie Scheffler on Sunday in Fort Worth, Texas.
After finishing his 5under 65 to get to 9 under, Burns was done in the clubhouse when, at one point, Scheffler was among five players tied at 10 under.
The gusty wind and a strange sequence changed all that. And Scheffler needed three clutch putts for a 72 just to get into the playoff matching 25-yearold standouts and close friends.
Burns’ seven-stroke comeback matched Nick Price in 1994 for the biggest in a final round to win Colonial.
The playoff began with both driving into the fairway at No. 18, the same hole where just moments earlier Scheffler made a 6-foot par after his approach on his 72nd hole went into the bunker.
Scheffler got on the green with his approach in the playoff, but was 36 feet away. Burns hit just off the back edge of the green and used his putter, with the ball curling the last few feet into the cup. Scheffler made a good run with his putt, but didn’t have a birdie all day.
It was the third win this season for Burns, and his fourth overall in his past 27 starts. The world’s 10thranked player won at Valspar for the second time in March.
The Colonial win was worth $1,512,000, along with a plaid jacket and a custom-built Schwab Firebird Trans Am.
Masters champion Scheffler was going for his fifth victory in his past 10 starts. He missed becoming the first player since Tom Watson in 1980 with five wins in a PGA Tour season before the start of June.
Burns was 5 under on the front nine to make his turn at 9 under. He had birdie at No. 11, but then had bogey after a wayward tee shot and a penalty stroke. He parred out and then waited.
After Scheffler’s first putt at the 17th went 8 feet past the hole, he pumped his fist when he made the par save. That was even more emphatic than his reaction when he also pushed a birdie attempt 9 foot past at No. 15 and also saved par there.
Brendon Todd (71), who played in the final group with Scheffler, gave up his share of the lead with back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 11 and 12. That dropped him to 8 under, where he stayed to finish in third alone. That was a stroke ahead of Tony Finau (67), Davis Riley
(69) and Scott Stallings
(72).
Temperatures were again in the mid-90s with sustained winds of more than 20 mph gusting to more
than 30 mph, much like Saturday. The greens got firmer, and the wind made it even more difficult to get on — and to putt when players did.
There were five players tied at 10 under after the final groups made the turn, and then a long gap of time between shots for Scheffler when he briefly regained
the solo lead.
Stallings birdied the 631-yard 11th to get to 10 under before he flew his approach over the No. 12 green onto a slope where his view to the grew was obstructed by a temporary TV tower.
After getting a drop from that, relief from standing on a sprinkler head and then even more relief from a temporary sign, Stallings was 43 yards from the hole with a direct line to it. But his approach came up short and he ended up with bogey.
Harold Varner III, in contention for his first PGA Tour victory, was in the group with Stallings and also fell out of a share of the lead when he fourputted from just inside 20 feet after the long wait. His approach had buried into a bunker fronting the green.
After that triple bogey, Varner’s tee shot at the par-3 13th went into the water and he had a double bogey. He had another triple and double after that for a backside 10-over 45 and a 78 to finish the tournament tied for 27th at even par.
SENIOR PGA Steven Alker
avoided mistakes down the stretch and closed with an 8-under 63 on Sunday for a threeshot victory in the Senior PGA Championship in Benton Harbor, Mich., his third title this year and first major.
Alker started the final round four shots behind and forged a three-way tie with Stephen Ames and Bernhard Langer on the back nine.
Langer missed the green on consecutive holes and made bogeys to fall back. Ames hit his drive into the water on the par-4 14th and had to scramble for bogey.
Alker birdied the 15th and 16th holes playing in front of Ames to seize control, and Ames couldn’t catch up.
Alker finished at 16under 268. Ames closed with a 70 to finish second, while Langer (71) finished alone in third.
The victory gets Alker into the PGA Championship next year at Oak Hill. Alker had such an ordinary career before 50 that he never qualified for the PGA Championship.
EUROPEAN TOUR
Victor Perez of France birdied the fourth hole of a dramatic playoff with
Ryan Fox to win the
Dutch Open on Sunday for the second European tour title of his career.
They switched to the
17th hole at Bernardus Golf in Cromvoirt having matched each other stroke for stroke on three trips down No. 18 in the playoff, with Perez holing birdie putts from 15 feet and then 30 feet to keep it alive.
On the fourth playoff hole, Perez rolled in another long-range putt on the 17th green and Fox missed his.
“There’s a fair amount of fortune, I’ve got to be honest with myself, holing all those long putts in the playoff,” Perez said.
“It’s hard to put into words because it’s a long day and Ryan was flying for a while. We didn’t even really think we had a chance.”
Perez’s only previous win was at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in 2019.