DeChambeau inspired by crowd, up by 3 at Open

JACKSON, Miss. – Sam Burns described the phone call from Steve Stricker with the news he wasn’t selected for the 2021 Ryder Cup as “gut-wrenching.” He channeled that energy into the best season of his career. The week after that Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, a determined Burns won the Sanderson Farms Championship, two hours down the road from his residence in small-town Choudrant, Louisiana. It was his first of three PGA TOUR titles last season, and his Presidents Cup status wasn’t in question; he earned one of six automatic selections on the U.S. Team, which defeated the International Team by a 17.5-12.5 margin last week at Quail Hollow Club. Burns carded 22 under at last year’s Sanderson Farms Championship for a one-stroke victory over Cameron Young and Nick Watney. He’s 1-for-1 in successful title defenses on TOUR, winner of the 2021 and 2022 Valspar Championship, and he’ll aim to maintain that trend this week at the Country Club of Jackson. “Last year, one of my biggest goals was to make that (Ryder Cup) team,” Burns said Wednesday morning in Mississippi. “Definitely it was a bummer not to be on that team. But coming to this past year, I knew I really wanted to be on the Presidents Cup team, and it was good to have that experience. It was incredible. “Now my goal is to try to be on the next Ryder Cup team.” Burns was lively in Sunday night’s U.S. Team victory press conference, at one point yelling across the stage, “We love you, Max!” as Max Homa reflected on developing a bond with his teammates throughout Presidents Cup week. Burns relishes the team environment, but he cherishes his alone time as well. The TOUR’s traveling-circus vibe contrasts sharply with his adopted hometown of Choudrant, which recorded a population of just 1,458 in 2020. After Sunday night’s pageantry in North Carolina, Burns headed home for some R&R before revving up for his title defense. He made a trip to the grocery store and dined in at Chick-fil-A. “Out here, sometimes it feels like you live two lives,” Burns said Wednesday. “You’re out here on the road playing, and then you go home and see friends and people that you don’t get to see as much. Being able to go home and just relax and go wander around the grocery store and pick up a few things that my wife needed, and no one said anything to me or anything like that, was really nice. “I went to Chick-fil-A yesterday by myself and sat in the dining room. It was great. I just love being able to go back to a small town and hang out and … they obviously care and they support me, but they don’t care that I play on the PGA TOUR. They like me for who I am, I guess.” Burns’ first pro start on TOUR came at the 2017 Sanderson Farms Championship. Competing on a sponsor exemption, between First and Second Stages of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School, he made the cut and finished T43. He proceeded to navigate all three Q-School stages to earn Korn Ferry Tour starts, won the 2018 Club Car Championship en route to his first TOUR card, and has proceeded on a consistent upward trajectory. The five-year anniversary of his foray into professional golf presented opportunity for reflection. Two weeks prior to the 2017 Sanderson Farms Championship, Burns made his professional debut at a mini-tour event in Brownwood, Texas. He carded a four-round total of 29 under at the APT’s Fore the Kids event. He finished runner-up. He remembers it like it was yesterday. “Yeah, 29 under and I didn’t win,” Burns said Wednesday. “But I remember making $10,000, and I was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to spend all this money. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it all.’ “But it went fast. I didn’t really know what to expect with pro golf. I had some expectations built up in my head, and I didn’t expect to shoot 29 under in my first event and not win. I can tell you that.” Fast forward five years, and Burns says the time has flown by. He’s a four-time TOUR winner and has ascended to No. 12 on the Official World Golf Ranking. He was blown away by the crowd’s energy throughout the week in Charlotte, and he’s hungry for more team experiences. That means continuing to compete at the highest level on a consistent basis, and maximizing his opportunities in contention. He has shown a resolute ability to deliver, like at last year’s Sanderson Farms Championship, where he made four birdies in a five-hole stretch on the back nine Sunday to assume control. He’s hungry for the event’s famed Reveille the Rooster trophy once again, and he begins the week in Mississippi as the betting favorite. “Just trying to think about and reflect on the last year, it just seems like this year went really fast, and then I think about the previous years, and it’s like, ‘Where has the time gone?’” Burns said. “But it’s definitely something that I don’t take for granted. I’m very honored that I get to play golf for a living, and I get to do it on the best TOUR in the world. I try to make sure that I’m keeping that in the forefront of my mind.” If the past five years are any clue, the outlook for the next five is limitless.

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HAIKOU, CHINA—England’s William Harrold shot a 7-under-par 65 to share the 36-hole lead with towering American Joseph Winslow (69) at the PGA TOUR Series-China International Qualifying Tournament No. 2 at Mission Hills Haikou’s Sandbelt Trails Course. Chinese Taipei’s Chunkang “Jacob� Hung (74), the first-round leader, was third at 4-under, one ahead of Ireland’s Brian O’Donovan (73), a Mission Hills Shenzhen teaching pro, and the American trio of Jesse Speirs (71), Cody Paladino (70) and Kevin Techakanokboon (70). South Korea-based Argentine Martin Kim (69) is among a group at 2-under. Others in contention include Hong Kong’s Motin Yeung (72) and Japan’s Junya Kameshiro (68), in a tie for 13th at 1-under, while Malaysia’s Arie Irawan (69), moved to even-par and a share of 18th. The top-15 finishers will earn full cards and the next 25 and ties will be conditionally exempt for a Series that rewards the top-five money winners with places on the Web.com Tour, the path to the PGA TOUR. The 6-foot-5 Winslow carded his sixth birdie of the day at the par-5 18th to set the clubhouse lead. The 25-year-old bogeyed the par-5 first and doubled the par-4 17th, but in between birdied Nos. 3, 6, 7, 8 and 12 before closing his round with his 13th birdie in 36 holes. The 25-year-old native of Kansas is on track to earn a full card on the Tour but will be mindful of last month’s PGA TOUR Latinoamerica qualifier in Bogota, Colombia, when he started the final day in second place before a closing 80 left him 17th and with only conditional status for 2018 on that circuit. “I feel pretty good. I’ve had a couple of pretty solid rounds out there. Today was more gritty, while yesterday was pretty solid in general. it’s been fun, but I feel like my best golf is still ahead out here,� Winslow said. “I just want to keep playing solid on the weekend, keep executing the strategy. I want to play the par-5s a little bit better and clean up a little bit of the slop. My wedge play today wasn’t quite as solid, so I’d like to clean that up a bit, stay focused and keep playing my game.� Harrold, who shot an opening 64 in an Asian Tour event in Xiamen, China, at the end of last year, teed off on No. 10 and carded eight birdies, including three in a row, twice, from Nos. 11-13 and Nos. 7-9. The 29-year-old was delighted with the improvement from his opening 74. “I’ve had three birdies in a row before, but I can’t remember doing it twice in a round,� said Harrold, who won a European Challenge Tour event in 2014 and has two victories on the Euro Pro Tour. “I set myself up much better today and hit nice iron shots into good positions on the green. I also holed some good putts, and that’s not always easy on these greens, which have a lot of slopes. I putted nicely in the first round, but my swing wasn’t as good as today.� The 5-foot-3 O’Donovan played with Winslow for the first two days and enjoyed the group, despite the big difference in height and length off the tee. The 30-year-old native of Ireland played his own game and kept himself in contention for Tour golf. “Joseph’s hitting his second ball from a different place to me, places I don’t see on the golf course,� said the Irishman. “I remember I hit a really good drive on one hole, and he knocked a 3-wood about 30 yards past me. That was depressing, but it’s been good fun.� Kim showed his pedigree, having played on the Korean Tour for three years and on the Japan Golf Tour last year, although he failed to retain his card. The strongly built Argentine—whose grandparents moved from South Korea to Buenos Aires— is just three shots off the lead as seeks a PGA TOUR Series-China card and a path to the U.S. “It was a good round, I think. Even when I made mistakes, I didn’t lose focus, so that’s why I could finish under-par today,� Kim said. “I’m here because I want to be on the PGA TOUR, so first I have to get my card.�

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