By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
Can anybody beat Scottie Scheffler at this weekend’s Tour Championship, with a $40 million purse, a $10 million winner’s check and six spots on the USA Ryder Cup team on the line?
The oddsmakers say it’s unlikely, but they list Choudrant resident Sam Burns as one of the prime possibilities to pull it off.
He tees off today at 11:27 CDT paired with Brian Harman, with the former LSU All-American entering in 17th in this season’s FedEx Cup standings and 16th in the USA Ryder Cup rankings.
Scheffler – winner of two major championships this season, and lately, last week’s BMW Championship — goes off this afternoon at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta at an absurd +170 on the betting board. The world No. 1 is regarded as the best player since Tiger Woods and has done everything to prove it, taking The Masters and the British Open crowns to highlight another dominant run on the PGA Tour.
Burns, who plays out of Squire Creek Country Club, has the seventh-lowest odds in the 30-man field teeing off today, posted at +2500.
Writes golf analyst Denis Esser of The Athletic: “(Burns) gained strokes across the board here in 2023, and he gained over four strokes on approach last year. Burns has gained strokes on approach in four straight tournaments and is on an absolute heater with the putter, gaining over 12 strokes combined putting in his last two tournaments” (over the past two weeks, the FedEx St. Jude Championship and last week’s BMW Championship, where he finished fifth).
Golfweek analyst Cameron DaSilva lists Burns alongside two recent Tour Championship winners, Rory McIlroy (2022) and Viktor Hovland (2023), as the top threats to a Scheffler victory. Brian Kirschner of Inside Sports Network picks Burns as the outright winner.
Burns was 12th last year in this tournament and ninth in 2023. This is his fifth straight year the 29-year-old has qualified for the Tour Championship, accessible to the 30 players who accumulate the most points in the FedEx Cup standings throughout the season.
A high finish this week could be much more than a very big paycheck. It may be the final push the Shreveport native needs to impress Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley, who next week will make his six captain’s picks to fill out the USA’s 12-man roster for the bi-annual showdown against the European team in late September at Bethpage Black on Long Island, N.Y.
Burns is among 10 top American pros believed to be in the mix for one of Bradley’s selections, to go with Scheffler and five other automatic qualifiers who ranked in the top six on the Ryder Cup points standings. Burns played in his first Ryder Cup in Italy two years ago and has been part of the USA team in the last two Presidents Cups (2022, 2024).
His late season surge returned him to the No. 1 ranking among all PGA Tour players in average strokes gained putting (.921).
TV coverage of the play on the 7,346-yard, par-71 East Lake layout is on Golf Channel today from noon-5, and on ESPN+ beginning with the first grouping at 10 a.m.
NBC will have network coverage of the last two rounds Saturday and Sunday.
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Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com
