Sam Burns won two races in a row at the Snake Pit, giving him three wins in his last 22 appearances.
Yes, the former LSU standout is having a great season.
Burns won the Valspar Championship after sinking a 33-foot birdie putt on the second playoff round, the 463-yard, par-4 16th hole of the Copperhead Course, which begins the Snake Pit, a dangerous three-hole stretch.
His three victories have all occurred in the last ten months, after he won the 2021 Valspar in May. He joins Patrick Cantlay, Hideki Matsuyama, and Cameron Smith as the only drivers to win three races in the last year.
Burns is now ranked tenth in the world, his greatest position to date. For the first time in seven years, he knocked Dustin Johnson out of the top ten. Burns is 25, making the top ten golfers in the OWGR all under the age of 32.
Burns was asked after his round if winning back-to-back titles made him exceptional.
“I don’t feel exceptional, but doing it feels great,” he remarked, mentioning his caddy Travis Perkins. “It’s incredibly wonderful for Travis and me to have our first win together here last year and then to be able to accomplish it again this year.”I still believe it’s simply that it hasn’t hit me yet.”
A crucial component is having confidence in the last round.
“You want to have this belief that you can do it when you’re coming down the stretch and you’re near the lead, but it’s challenging when you haven’t done it yet.” So I think the only thing I can control today is what I’m doing and how I’m reacting to the shots; everything else is out of my control,” he explained. “It was more essential for me to just sort of keep in my small circle, Travis and I just do our thing, and at the end of the day, we’ll total ’em up and maybe it’ll be good enough,” she says.
The Caddie Network’s John Rathouz and Perkins examine Burns’ sizzling putter in this week’s video. During the week at the Valspar, “Bermuda Burns,” as he’s known, was seventh in strokes gained: putting.
Perkins says, “He putsts slopey greens really well.” “It’s simply one of Sam’s many assets. Throughout the week, we put in a lot of effort in order to get a particular amount of film during practice rounds.”
When Burns won the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi in October 2020, Perkins was also on the bag.
With $3,953,031, Burns advances from ninth to fourth on the PGA Tour’s 2020-21 money list. Smith is in first place with $5,797,375.
