With a final-round 65, Sam Burns erased a seven-shot deficit and then edged Scottie Scheffler in a playoff to win the 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge.
The win was Burns’ fourth of his PGA Tour career, and third of the 2022 campaign. The 25-year-old Louisiana native will move to No. 2 in the FedExCup standings and No. 9 in the world rankings.
Afterwards, the LSU alum took a few questions from the media:
1. Staying Loose as Clubhouse Leader
Q: How did you stay loose during that break and what did you do between your round and the playoff?
Sam Burns: Yeah, I just hung out in player dining for a bit with my family. Probably when Scottie was on 16 I went to the gym and kind of loosened up again for about 15 or 20 minutes and then came back, put my golf shoes on and then Travis and I went out and hit a few putts and hit some golf balls.
2. Friendship With Scheffler
Q: What was it like, you and Scottie obviously are really good friends. Just talk about that aspect of it, you guys being in a position (indiscernible)?
Sam Burns: Yeah, we’re probably best friends. But at the same time I can assure you, he wanted to beat me more than anybody else and I wanted to beat him more than anybody else, and it just happened to be the two of us at the end.
Yeah, it’s going to be a fun story that we’ll get to have for the rest of our careers, and fortunately I got the better end of it this time, but hopefully we’re at the beginning of these situations in the future.
3. The Winning Putt
Q: Tell us what you saw on that putt.
Sam Burns: Yeah, so we were about 10 yards closer from the fairway, had 140, and we were trying to hit like a 125 gap wedge. Just got hit with a lot of wind and just snuck over the back of the green, but not a bad spot.
Pretty straightforward putt. A little downhill, breaking left to right the whole way, played it about a foot out and just tried to match the speed up. I honestly thought it was going to be a little bit short when I hit it, and that’s kind of why my reaction was what it was. I thought I left it short.
Yeah, I mean, to see that go in, that was obviously really cool, and yeah.
4. Childhood Dream
Q: You’ve mentioned before coming here as a child and watching this tournament. Just talk about the emotion and just the significance of coming back and winning this tournament.
Sam Burns: Yeah, back in 2011 I was here when David Toms won. Been a mentor of mine, great friend of my family, and I remember being there whenever he holed a wedge on 11, and walked around with Carter for a couple days. That was really fun, and memories that I still think about. It was funny, I actually saw his wedge in there in the dining — I’m assuming it’s the one he made the wedge shot with. But yeah, it’s really cool, and I can’t wait to give him a text and have my name up there next to his.
Credits: Getty Images, PGA Tour Media, Fastscripts
