Burns, Sam (1996- )

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    2023 Masters: Rory McIlroy Looks to Make Up Ground as First Round Begins

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    Plus, N.C.A.A. champions will be invited to play the Masters, and Larry Mize and Sandy Lyle are preparing to say farewell to the tournament.AUGUSTA, Ga. — In the last five years, Rory McIlroy has spent 27 weeks ranked as the world’s best men’s golfer. He has earned nine PGA Tour victories, including at the Tour Championship and the Players Championship. He was on a Ryder Cup-winning team. In the final round of last year’s Masters Tournament, he carded an eight-under-par 64.But the last time he shot par or better in a Masters first round? April 5, 2018.2019: 73.2020: 75.2021: 76.2022: 73.At least the trend line is improving? It stands to reason that if McIlroy is to become the sixth modern player to achieve the career Grand Slam, he is very likely going to have to refigure out Thursdays at Augusta National Golf Club. (When he made his Masters debut in 2009, he shot a first-round par 72.)“It’s been tentative starts, not putting my foot on the gas early enough,” McIlroy said this week. “I’ve had a couple of bad nine holes that have sort of thrown me out of the tournament at times. So it’s sort of just like I’ve got all the ingredients to make the pie. It’s just putting all those ingredients in and setting the oven to the right temperature and letting it all sort of come to fruition. But I know that I’ve got everything there.”McIlroy is keenly aware that Augusta National, where he has lately played more than 80 holes of practice, is “a very difficult course to chase on.”“You start to fire at pins and short-siding yourself and you’re missing in the wrong spots, it’s hard to make up a lot of ground,” he said.Dottie Pepper, the CBS commentator and a two-time winner of women’s major championships, said she thought McIlroy had made some of the shifts necessary to contend, like switching putters and drivers. But Thursday, she said, may well reveal if it will be enough.“He has played himself out of the tournament year after year on Thursday, and all of a sudden, gets it in gear and it’s a gear too late,” she said. If he can sort out the first round, she predicted, “it could be a pretty spectacular movie come Saturday and Sunday.”McIlroy, who will play with Sam Burns and Tom Kim for the first two rounds, is scheduled to tee off at 1:48 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday.A new pathway into the Masters: the N.C.A.A. titleGordon Sargent, the reigning Division I men’s individual champion, was invited to this year’s field before Augusta National announced that N.C.A.A. title winners would be automatically invited next year.Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesAugusta National announced the entry criteria for the 2024 Masters, and although the standards did not change much for professionals, America’s male college golfers have a new incentive to win the N.C.A.A.’s Division I individual title: It now comes with a Masters invitation.“That is a major amateur championship, and I thought it was time that we acknowledged it,” Fred S. Ridley, Augusta National’s chairman, said of the N.C.A.A. competition. Gordon Sargent, a sophomore from Vanderbilt University who is the reigning Division I champion, is in the 88-man field this week, having received an invitation from tournament organizers before the new policy was announced.“It really goes back to our roots, and that is that Bobby Jones was the greatest amateur of all time,” Ridley said, speaking broadly about the place of amateurs at Augusta National. “He believed in the importance of amateurs in the Masters. I had the personal experience of enjoying that on three different occasions, and I can tell you that it changed my life.”Past N.C.A.A. individual champions include Bryson DeChambeau, Luke Donald, Max Homa, Phil Mickelson, Curtis Strange and Tiger Woods.Sargent, who is from Birmingham, Ala., has reveled in the experience, even if he has been mistaken around Augusta National for, say, a participant in the youth Drive, Chip and Putt competition.“I’m walking around, and no one is with me,” Sargent said. “I don’t even know if I had my badge with me — I think I probably still had it in the car or something. I was like, ‘Can I have player dining?’ They’re like, I don’t know, player?”He eventually made it inside.“It was pretty funny,” he said. “They’re like, ‘Where are your parents? Like, did they send you by yourself?’ I was like, ‘No, they’re coming in. I can travel by myself sometimes.’”Ridley also said Wednesday that the winner of the N.C.A.A.’s individual women’s championship will be invited to play in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Stanford’s Rose Zhang, the reigning Division I champion, won that tournament over the weekend.Two past champions are ending their Augusta National careers.Larry Mize, the 1987 Masters victor, is the only Augusta, Ga., native to win the tournament.David Cannon/Getty ImagesRidley, ever diplomatic, did not identify Larry Mize as a reason Greg Norman was not invited to this year’s Masters. But it was Mize who hit a brilliant chip — from 140 feet away — at No. 11 in 1987, making Norman a Masters runner-up for a second straight year.Mize, 64, has played every Masters since, and this one will be his last. It will be also be the final Masters for Sandy Lyle, 65, who won in 1988.“Club head speed lowers down without you even trying sometimes, and then the course is getting longer and I’m getting shorter,” Lyle said. “Not a good combination. The young ones are so good these days that I can’t really compete against that.”Mize, the only Augusta native ever to win the Masters, has spent part of the week doling out counsel to newcomers.“Trust your talent, believe in it, and just let it go,” said Mize, who added, “You’ve got to respect this golf course, but you can’t fear it. You can’t play in fear out there, or it’s going to be a long week.”Mize, Lyle suggested, struggled to get through his remarks at Tuesday’s private dinner for past champions. He had figured Mize would be at ease. He was not.“He clammed up like a clam shell,” Lyle said. “He just stood up there and had a glass of water and another glass of water.” As it turns out, Lyle said, “He’s tough enough to win a Masters, but when it comes to that kind of emotional thing, we’ve all got feelings.” More

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      The Players to Watch at the Scottish Open

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      Here are five golfers who could win the tournament at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick.Another major championship in professional golf, the last of 2022, is just around the corner: next week’s British Open at the Old Course in St. Andrews. With Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson expected in the field, along with other marquee names, the quest to win the claret jug should be quite a spectacle.First, however, comes this week’s Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland. The tournament, with a stellar field of its own — 14 of the top 15 golfers in the world — is also likely to provide some enduring memories.Here are five players to watch.Matt FitzpatrickIt will be fascinating to see what happens from here on with Fitzpatrick, who captured last month’s United States Open for his first PGA Tour victory.Will Fitzpatrick, 27, follow the path of Danny Willett, another major champion from England — the 2016 Masters — who hasn’t won in the United States since? Willett has registered three victories on the European Tour.Or will he perform more like one of the game’s greats, Nick Faldo, also from England, who has six majors on his résumé?Fitzpatrick has the talent to be a factor for many years. His approach from the bunker on No. 18 at the Open, which ended up 18 feet from the hole, was as clutch as it gets. He is ranked No. 10 in the world.Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesCollin MorikawaAt the halfway mark at the Open, Morikawa, still only 25, appeared headed to a possible third major crown in three years. He won the 2020 P.G.A. Championship and the 2021 British Open.Then came the seven-over 77 in Saturday’s third round, which included two double bogeys and four bogeys.After a collapse like that on such a grand stage, some players might not have been able to summon their best effort a day later.That wasn’t the case with Morikawa. He rebounded with a four-under 66, his second of the week, to finish in a tie for fifth. Morikawa, ranked No. 4, tied for 71st in last year’s Scottish Open.Charles Krupa/Associated PressSam BurnsWith all of the attention Scottie Scheffler has received this season, it’s easy to overlook what Burns has accomplished: three victories and eight top 10s in 19 starts. One of the wins came over Scheffler in May at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas.Burns, 25, who tied for 18th at the Renaissance Club in 2021, makes his share of birdies, 4.40 per round, seventh among tour players. And while his accuracy off the tee isn’t very impressive — he ranks 134th in that category — it does not appear to set him back as he is 14th in greens in regulation. He is ranked ninth.Julio Cortez/Associated PressXander SchauffeleSchauffele, 28, was long overdue when he broke through two weeks ago at the Travelers Championship in Connecticut. It had been more than three years since he captured an individual PGA Tour event, the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii. Perhaps he will now get on a roll.Schauffele, ranked No. 11, doesn’t appear to have any major weaknesses. He averages around 305 yards off the tee, tied for 12th in greens in regulation and second in sand save percentage. If there is any aspect of his game that he could improve, it would be converting more putts from 15 feet or longer.Charles Krupa/Associated PressJon RahmRahm, a former No. 1, hasn’t been in contention that often in recent months. With his enormous talent, that could change at any moment.Although he won the Mexico Open two months ago, he failed to be a factor in the Masters, tying for 27th, and in the P.G.A., tying for 48th. At the U.S. Open, where he was the defending champion, Rahm was still in the hunt heading into Sunday, but fired a four-over 74 to finish in a tie for 12th.Ranked No. 3, Rahm, 27, competed in his first Scottish Open in 2021. He came in seventh, only two shots back. More

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      At the BMW Championship, Sam Burns Is Steady Once Again

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      The American golfer has now shot 64 in four of his last eight rounds on the PGA Tour dating to early August.OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Sam Burns, who won his first PGA Tour event in May, made two birdies in his first four holes during the first round of the BMW Championship on Thursday. It was a good start for Burns, a lesser-known tour pro competing alongside the galaxy of top golfers at the tournament, which is the second of three events in the season-ending FedEx Cup playoffs.But on the fifth hole Burns, 25, began to play with exceptional power and a deft touch on the greens. Burns, who was named the nation’s top college player in 2017 when he was at Louisiana State, drove the par-4 fifth green from 310 yards, and then left his eagle putt a disappointing 12 feet from the hole.Unruffled, Burns sank the birdie putt to grab an early lead at the Caves Valley Golf Club in the Baltimore suburbs. Burns, who has vaulted to 25th in the men’s world rankings with a victory at the Valspar Championship this spring and three other finishes in third place or better, then built on his quick start, taking the tournament lead with five birdies and eight pars in his final 13 holes for a bogey-free round of eight-under par 64.Near the conclusion of Thursday’s round, Burns was joined at eight-under par by Rory McIlroy. Jon Rahm, the event’s defending champion, also had eight birdies without a bogey for a 64 that tied for the lead.This is the first PGA Tour event held at Caves Valley and the first tour event in the Baltimore area since 1962. Thursday’s round was played in sweltering temperatures in the low 90s that compounded the course’s steep elevation changes and topsy-turvy topography that was a challenge to navigate for players and caddies alike. Burns considered the unfamiliar landscape a potential advantage.“I kind of like that, maybe we can pick up something different about playing the course that other players didn’t,” he said. “These are big greens with a lot of slope and if you get in the wrong spots you can have a 20-foot putt with six feet of break, which is difficult to manage.“I think I did a good job today of not putting the ball in the wrong places on the greens.”What Burns did mostly was roll his golf ball into the hole from wherever he was on the putting surface. He sank a six-foot birdie putt on the seventh hole and a four-footer to save par after a brilliant greenside bunker shot on No. 8. On the 11th hole, his approach shot from 115 yards rolled to within 10 feet of the hole, leading to another birdie. On the par-5 12th, Burns’s tee shot nearly landed in a pond and his second shot missed the green but he lofted a pitch shot to within seven feet of the hole then sank a putt for the second of four consecutive birdies.“I was calm and felt very prepared which helps when you’re standing over those putts,” Burns said. “Once they start dropping it makes it easier on the next one and the next one. But mostly I think having a good game plan made all the difference.”Burns has now shot 64 in four of his last eight rounds on the PGA Tour dating to early August. He laughed when the stat was mentioned to him.“Well, yeah, obviously I wish I could shoot 64 every day,” he said. “But that just doesn’t happen. I think the biggest thing for me, especially this week with it hot and humid, I just need to be rested, hydrated and focused out there. I think that’s the challenge.”Burns had a plan for keeping his edge in the conditions.“Just getting a nap this afternoon,” he said.If Burns can continue his current stellar play and contend for the FedEx Cup playoff title, which would earn him $15 million, he might be a contender for the 12-man American Ryder Cup team to be named after next week’s season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta. Burns is currently 17th in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings. Steve Stricker, the captain of the United States team, will make six selections while the top six players in the standings — based on a points system related to recent results — will automatically qualify. A hot golfer, albeit one lacking experience in international play, is always a temptation for a Ryder Cup captain.“Captain Stricker can go whatever route he wants, so it’s not all necessarily in my control,” Burns said Thursday. “I’m just going to go out and try to play the best golf I can. If it works out, incredible. If it doesn’t, I’ll be rooting hard for the team.” More