Burns beats Scheffler in playoff to win at Colonial

LOS ANGELES: Sam Burns rolled in a 38-foot birdie putt from off the green at the first playoff hole to beat world number one Scottie Scheffler at the Charles Schwab Challenge on Sunday.

Burns, seven back to start the day, matched the biggest comeback in tournament history at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, a mark set by Zimbabwe’s Nick Price in 1994. Burns polished it off with a playoff win over his good friend Scheffler. Burns shared a house with the Texan at Augusta in April, when Scheffler won his maiden major title at the Masters.

“Gosh, I don’t even know,” Burns said of how he made his winning putt, some two hours after he had completed a five-under par 65 final round for a nine-under total of 271. It matched the low round of the day as fierce winds pushed up scores and a stream of contenders wilted in the Texas afternoon heat.

“I think just with the conditions today, how tough it was playing, just so proud with how we hung in there,” Burns said. Scheffler started the day with a two-shot lead, but the world number one had two bogeys without a birdie in his two-over par 72.

He kept himself in the hunt with some clutch par putts on the back nine, a nine-footer at the 15th, an eight-footer at 17 and a five-foot putt to salvage par from a greenside bunker at the last.

Burns launched his comeback by getting up and down from a greenside bunker for birdie at the first. He rolled in a 10-foot birdie at the second and an eight-footer at the fourth. After a bogey at the fifth, he birdied six, seven, nine and 11 to reach 10-under before a miscue at the 12th.

“I played such a good round of golf today. Especially after I hit a foul ball on 12, kind of killed our momentum,” Burns said. “Proud of the way we finished and to make that putt is just icing on the cake.”