By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
After a two-week break from playing on the PGA Tour, Choudrant’s Sam Burns was excited beginning a three-week stretch that was the most impressive of his 2025 season.
With good reason.
Burns fired a 3-under 69 Thursday and is tied for sixth heading into today’s second round of The Memorial. Four players, including former U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark and last year’s U.S. Open winner, J.J. Spaun, share the lead at 5-under 67.
Burns had two-putt birdies on a pair of par-5s, and hit short range putts of 5 ½ feet and 8 feet to birdie the par-4 ninth and 13th holes. His bogey came on the sixth hole, just after his first birdie at the fifth.
In the first round, Burns ranked ninth among the 72 players in the field in shots gained on approaches to the green, 16th on shots gained off the tee, and 21st in shots gained putting. He had the second-longest drive of the day, 355 yards.
Burns, 29, tees off at 11:55 CDT today in Dublin, Ohio, in the Jack Nicklaus-hosted tournament. He is paired with Akshay Bhatia in the first two rounds in the tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club, designed and constantly tweaked by the Golden Bear.
Last year, after a two-week break following the PGA Championship, Burns tied for 12th at even par in the Memorial, then lost in a playoff at the Canadian Open and again had the final round lead a week later at the U.S. Open, tying for seventh.
He’ll follow the same schedule this year with the two national opens on the horizon over the next two weeks.
Burns, who plays out of Squire Creek Country Club in Choudrant, has three straight top 20 finishes at The Memorial (16th in 2023, 15th in 2024 and 12th last year)
While winning two All-America honors at LSU, the Shreveport native was the 2017 recipient of the Jack Nicklaus Award as the top player in major college golf.
Burns has made the cut in nine of his 12 starts this year and has two top finishes, including seventh at The Masters. He was 4-under and one shot off the lead in his last outing, on the back nine of the third round at the PGA Championship, and wound up tied for 26th at even par.
Interviewed recently on the PGA Tour’s “The Drop” program, Burns gave himself a C+ for his 2026 season.
“I’ve played nice some weeks, put myself right there, but I haven’t quite been able to get it done yet,” he said. “My game’s trending, I feel healthy, and I’m excited for the second half of the year.”
Entering The Memorial, Burns is tied for sixth on the Tour in strokes gained putting, and 15th in shooting under par at in a quarter of his rounds this season. Burns is 34th in the Official World Golf Rankings and 50th in FedEx Cup points, and has earned $2.5 million on tour this year.
The Memorial will have streaming coverage today from 7:45 a.m.-6 p.m. on ESPN+, with Golf Channel providing TV coverage from 1-5 this afternoon.
Weekend plans are for streaming on ESPN+ from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. and TV coverage on Golf Channel from 11:30-1:30, then shifting to CBS until 5 p.m. or completion of play.
