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FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Sam Burns made a 38-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole at Colonial, which came just more than two hours after he had finished his round, to beat top-ranked Scottie Scheffler on Sunday. After finishing his 5-under 65 to get to 9 under, Burns was done in the clubhouse when, at one point, Scheffler was among five players tied at 10 under. The gusty wind and a strange sequence changed all that. And Scheffler needed three clutch putts for a 72 just to get into the playoff matching 25-year-old standouts and close friends. Burns’ seven-stroke comeback at the Charles Schwab Challenge matched Nick Price in 1994 for the biggest in a final round to win Colonial. Burns earned 500 FedExCup points and moved to No. 2 in the standings behind Scheffler. The playoff began with both driving into the fairway at No. 18, the same hole where just moments earlier Scheffler made a 6-foot par after his approach on his 72nd hole went into the bunker. Scheffler got on the green with his approach in the playoff, but was 36 feet away. Burns hit just off the back edge of the green and used his putter, with the ball curling the last few feet into the cup. Scheffler made a good run with his putt, but didn’t have a birdie all day. It was the third win this season for Burns, and his fourth overall in his last 27 starts. The world’s 10th-ranked player won at the Valspar Championship for the second time in March. The Colonial win was worth $1,512,000, along with a plaid jacket and a custom-built Schwab Firebird Trans Am. Masters champion Scheffler was going for his fifth PGA TOUR victory in his last 10 starts. He missed becoming the first player since Tom Watson in 1980 with five wins in a PGA TOUR season before the start of June. Burns was 5-under on the front nine to make his turn at 9 under. He had birdie at No. 11, but then had bogey after a wayward tee shot and a penalty stroke. He parred out and then waited. After Scheffler’s first putt at the 17th went 8 feet past the hole, he pumped his fist when he made the par save. That was even more emphatic than his reaction when he also pushed a birdie attempt 9 foot past at No. 15 and also saved par there. Brendon Todd (71), who played in the final group with Scheffler, gave up his share of the lead with back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 11 and 12. That dropped him to 8 under, where he stayed to finish in third alone. That was a stroke ahead of Tony Finau (67), Davis Riley (69) and Scott Stallings (72). Temperatures were again in the mid-90s with sustained winds of more than 20 mph gusting to more than 30 mph, much like Saturday. The greens got firmer, and the wind made it even more difficult to get on — and to putt when players did. There were five players tied at 10 under after the final groups made the turn, and then a long gap of time between shots for Scheffler when he briefly regained the solo lead. Stallings birdied the 631-yard 11th to get to 10 under before he flew his approach over the No. 12 green onto a slope where his view to the grew was obstructed by a temporary TV tower. After getting a drop from that, relief from standing on a sprinkler head and then even more relief from a temporary sign, Stallings was 43 yards from the hole with a direct line to it. But his approach came up short and he ended up with bogey. Harold Varner III, in contention for his first PGA TOUR victory, was in the group with Stallings and also fell out of a share of the lead when he four-putted from just inside 20 feet after the long wait. His approach had buried into a bunker fronting the green. After that triple bogey, Varner’s tee shot at the par-3 13th went into the water and he had a double bogey. He had another triple and double after that for a backside 10-over 45 and a 78 to finish the tournament tied for 27th at even par. During that delay, Scheffler was in the fairway at No. 12 and suddenly back in the lead alone at 10 under. But that was short-lived. His approach came up just short and he then missed a 3 1/2-foot par putt. PGA TOUR rookie Riley actually had the outright lead at 11 under with sixth birdie of the day, a tap-in at the par-5 11th after chipping from behind the green after a 340-yard drive and a 305-yard approach. But his par attempt at No. 13 curled off the cup, and then his drive at the 12th went out-of-bounds on way to a double-bogey 6.

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It is one of golf's burning questions, who exactly will earn a tee time for the season-ending TOUR Championship, but this year there's a wrinkle. The tournament has invited Adam Sandler to play a round early in the week (Sept. 2-5) to commemorate the 25th anniversary of "Happy Gilmore," the comedy in which he plays a washed-up hockey player who discovers a hidden knack for golf (and super-long drives). The TOUR Championship posted on social media, "Hey, @AdamSandler, if this gets 10K retweets, will you come play 18 holes with us at the end of August? We take a lot of pride in having you as the 1996 TOUR Championship winner." Fans took up the challenge, sending the post over the 10,000 mark in just nine hours. Two-time FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy upped the ante with a quote tweet, "Meet me on the 9th green at 9. And wear something nice @AdamSandler." Sandler, who in the movie plays to save his grandmother's house and along the way gets into a fight with Bob Barker, has not yet weighed in on whether he will accept the tee time. He did post on Instagram a video of himself taking a Happy-esque swing in which he narrates the action. "OK, it's been 25 years since I've done this," he says before smashing a drive, showing no signs of rust. It's been a quarter century, but it looks like Happy hasn't missed a beat.

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As children so often do, Jason Baffa’s son cut to the chase when he asked his father if he was ever going to finish that golf movie he was directing. “You’ve been working on it all my life,â€� the six-year-old said pointedly. Well, almost all his life. The movie, “Loopers: The Caddie’s Long Walk,â€� was actually four years in the making and finally hits theaters nationwide on Friday. The exquisitely-filmed feature length production, which is narrated by Bill Murray, looks at the profession from all angles – from caddies at local clubs like Ballybunion and Bandon Dunes to the men who tote the bags for players on the PGA TOUR. It’s an interesting mixture of characters and caddies but one thread runs throughout. All the men and women featured in the documentary love their jobs and making the people they caddie for improve so they can enjoy the game. Baffa took time recently for the conversation below with PGATOUR.COM. A list of theaters showing the film can be found here. PGATOUR.COM: What made you want to get involved with this project?  BAFFA: I think the idea of this visual journey and golf and the big theme in all their projects has sort of been people’s connection to the environment, and the positive you get back out of a life spent enjoying the outdoors. So, I’m naturally kind of interested in that type of thing. But what really hooked me on this was that idea, and you’ve got to remember, this was now four, five years ago. So, I feel like media’s giving caddies even a little more attention now, but this relationship — and I grew up playing a lot of golf, but I grew up playing all sports. … And I thought about it as we were discussing it, and the guys were pointing out much of what ends up in the film is this athletic relationship where someone’s inside the ropes, but they have so much input as far as strategy and emotional help and whatever that player needs. And I couldn’t really think of any other relationship like that in athletics. Some people mentioned boxing and maybe having the person in your corner, but they’re not in your ear, and it’s a little less than sort of this close-knit relationship. So that was the thing that really grabbed me, and the idea that we could explore that in a feature film, sort of for the first time. And I’m always attracted to things, I’m like, ‘Ah, I don’t think that’s been done.’ You know? PGATOUR.COM: You say you played golf growing up. Did you ever caddie? BAFFA: I didn’t, but I played quite a bit. My father and my uncle, my late uncle, were passionate golfers when I was growing up, so I would get out with them quite a bit. And then as I got older and other sports started taking up time, it got harder to play. … But I’ve always loved the game, and I always really loved watching with my dad. It was something, we’d get out early on Sunday and come back and watch whatever tournament was finishing. I think that was sort of a neat experience to then get to sit down with a Tom Watson and Ben Crenshaw, because these were the people I was watching, and we were watching together. So, it was fun to have it come full circle in that way. PGATOUR.COM: So how did you narrow the focus to the caddies that you spotlighted? How did you uncover these people? BAFFA: It was a team effort. One of the producers, Clark Cunningham, his role was very much finding the off-beat stories, like the Special Olympics story, and getting in touch with Greg Puga. And then Ward Clayton, who wrote ‘Men on the Bag: The Caddies of Augusta’ — he was so connected with history, and then also the modern pro players. And Ward really helped a lot in connecting us with people. … It was a long journey, four-plus years, maybe, by the time we got everything we needed, but it truly started with just casting a wide net. We went to the Masters, I think it was the 2015, and that’s where we found Jerry Beard (the local caddy on Fuzzy Zoeller’s bag when he won the Masters) and a few other people. And we just started interviewing anyone who would talk to us. And then that would open a door, ‘Oh, you got to talk to this person or that.’ And we took all that and then started looking at it and piecing together what we thought made sense, and then building on that. So, it was a very broad, interesting approach. I don’t know if I’d recommend it to other filmmakers. You have to be very patient, but in the end, I’m happy with what we came away with. PGATOUR.COM: Bill Murray is the narrator of the documentary. How did he come to be involved in this project? BAFFA: If you think of a name that people know and love, that we know that they love golf and their film portfolio has golf in it, how could we not get him? And everyone said, ‘Well, you’re insane, because he’s impossible to get. So that sort of began this ongoing thing. Luckily, we had a lot of time where we kept trying and trying, and we finally caught up with him, it was Chicago. I guess maybe it was the BMW (Championship), but we were at Chicago and he was in the pro-am. And that’s when we were able to get the little bit of interview with him and just make the contact and say, ‘Hey, this is what we’re doing.’ And I think via that we probably got a number, because he doesn’t have the agent or whatever, so it might have been the lawyer’s number or his brother, I don’t know. And then we had to keep calling like, ‘Hey, do you think Bill would do it? Do you think Bill would do it?’ And we finally heard, the good news is, yeah, he’s interested. But the bad news is, yeah, he’s interested. You may have to wait a long time. And we did. We were just patient, and we kept bugging them. And as he is in his amazingness, you get a text saying, ‘Hey, can you guys fly out tomorrow? I’m ready.’ And that’s kind of how we did it. I flew across country, and we got together. You asked me who were memorable people to work with, well obviously, I’ve looked up to him since I was a kid, so that was phenomenal. And his love for golf, he came with opinions, and creativity, and worked on the script and really brought his perspective to it. And that’s more than we could have asked for. So, I’m really glad. And I think now listening and looking at it, he almost approached it like he’s caddying the viewer. He’s not there trying to upstage the movie. He just kind of holds your hand and takes you on a loop, and I love that. I just love it. PGATOUR.COM: After four years, you must be so glad to have the finished product in front of audiences. BAFFA: It’s an interesting feeling. There’s a little bit of this void, because it’s been such a huge part of your life, but then you’re getting feedback from the people who are now getting to experience it for the first time. And in a way, that’s surprising, because these stories I now know so well. So, it’s nice to get feedback from someone who sees it fresh. It’s a process, for sure. I got asked at the film festival — it was an interesting conversation just a sort of creative to an audience member, and they said, ‘Well, how many different versions of this film did you make, did you cut before you said, ‘This is the one.’’ …  What popped in my head is, I was like, ‘Look, I like to cook. I make an Italian Bolognese on Sunday. And when you’re making that sauce, you try it as you go, and maybe it needs a little more salt, or maybe it needs a little more spice or whatever. And eventually you get it to the point where you’re like, ‘Yeah, this tastes great. I’m ready to share this with my friends.’ So that’s, I guess, a little bit of how it is making a documentary. You just keep tweaking until you’re like, ‘Okay. It’s ready to serve.’ There’s one really neat thing about this film that I’m starting to get a bigger picture on as I’m talking to audiences after they see it, and I don’t know if we even knew it going into it, but all these people we talked to and worked with who are in the caddying profession, they love being there for their player. They love kind of this service industry idea of, “I’m here to make them better.” And I think that’s a beautiful just sentiment for life, because we’re so me, me, me, social media, selfie, and here are these people who literally love what they do. And what they do is try to help someone else be better. And I think that’s kind of a beautiful thing, and I’m glad it’s resonating with audiences. PGATOUR.COM: The film has close to 400 unique archival assets. You said finding them was a bit like going on an archeological dig, but the old photos and video really add a lot to the film. BAFFA: I love history and how what came before us influences us now, especially with sports, and one of my favorite edits in the movie or moments is when we go from the old eight-millimeter news reel of St. Andrews and the edit takes you to the exact image today. But it hasn’t changed. The media’s changed, but what you’re seeing hasn’t, and I just always feel that that’s so powerful. I really love that and how it connects us in the present to the past. PGATOUR.COM: The movie is getting a lot of good press and accolades. That must be very gratifying. BAFFA: We’ve won best documentary at two of the four festivals we’ve done to date, so that’s pretty cool. The Chicago press just dropped a headline I can forward. Ward sent it to me. The opening line of the review is something like, “Bill Murray’s role in this film is small, but this may go down as one of his greatest movies ever.” Which I was just flabbergasted by. So, this film, for whatever reason, and granted a lot of these people, they have a love for golf and that helps. They’re hungry for some new stuff, so that’s good. But it really does seem to be connecting with people. It makes people laugh. It makes some people cry, and the old rule in filmmaking is when you do that, you have something that’s pretty special. So, I don’t know. I’m really kind of curious and exciting to see how this all plays out. I could never be one to assume or suggest one or another thing, but I know a lot of love went into it.

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