Sam Burns wins first PGA TOUR title at Valspar Championship

LAS VEGAS - Bryson DeChambeau knows some people consider him a one-dimensional player solely obsessed with distance. He thinks that is an unfair characterization of his game, however, and he used Friday's post-round press conference to defend his groundbreaking approach to golf. This week's Shriners Hospitals for Children Open is DeChambeau's first start since his six-shot victory in the U.S. Open. He shot a 9-under 62 in Thursday's opening round at TPC Summerlin and added a 67 on Friday to sit just one shot off the lead. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Fowler makes putter switch | Hole-out eagle has Garcia back in contention DeChambeau's incredible length has been on display again this week. No one had driven TPC Summerlin's seventh green in the ShotLink era until DeChambeau did it Thursday. He repeated the feat Friday and made eagle, then added another eagle at the par-5 16th, where he had just 148 yards to the hole. Distance isn't the only factor in his success at TPC Summerlin, though. He's third in greens hit (32 of 36) and 17th in driving accuracy (21 of 28). He also leads the field in driving distance, averaging 352.2 yards. Hitting it that far takes incredible strength. There's no denying DeChambeau has packed on the pounds in the past year. It was at this event a year ago that he announced his intentions to bulk up in a quest for increased length off the tee. But hitting a golf ball as hard as DeChambeau does, and keeping those tee shots in play, also takes skill. And while long tee shots help him shoot lower scores, there's more to the game than just hitting it far. That's something DeChambeau thinks his critics are missing. He replied to the latest round of criticism after being told that Matthew Fitzpatrick, a fellow former U.S. Amateur champion, said Friday that DeChambeau's play makes "a bit of a mockery of the game." DeChambeau responded, "I appreciate that comment. It’s a compliment to me honestly. I think he’s looking out for certain set of players, and I appreciate that. My whole goal is to play the best golf I possibly can, and this game has given me the opportunity showcase something pretty special. "A year ago I wasn’t hitting in anywhere near as far as I am today. It took a lot of work, a lot of hours to work through the night to figure out a lot of this stuff... from my perspective, I think it takes a little bit more skill to do what I’m doing, and that’s why there are only a few people doing it out here... and albeit my fairway percentages are a little bit down, I’m still believe I’m hitting it straighter than what I was last year with the distances that I was hitting back then. "I feel like I’ve started to go down a path that’s allowed me to have an advantage over everyone, and I think that is a skillset when you look at it. For me out there today, I was still able to hit a lot of fairways at 360 yards. That’s tough to do with drivers." Fitzpatrick is listed at 5 feet, 10 inches and 155 pounds. He finished 121st in driving distance last season but has won five times on the European Tour thanks in part to his incredible work on the greens. He was second on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting last season. He shares the 36-hole lead in this week's European Tour event, the BMW PGA Championship, with reigning Open Championship winner Shane Lowry. It was after his second round at Wentworth that Fitzpatrick made his comments about DeChambeau. "I'm biased because I'm not quite the longest. But in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, fair play to Bryson, he won and shot six under. But the fairways were tight as hell. I drove it brilliantly and actually played pretty well but I was miles behind. He's in the rough and miles up and he's hitting wedges from everywhere. It just makes a bit of a mockery of the game," Fitzpatrick told reporters after getting into a tie for the 36-hole lead at Wentworth. "I looked at Shot Tracker yesterday, to see some of the places Bryson hit it (in Vegas). He was cutting corners. And when he's on, there's no point. It doesn't matter if I play my best. He's going to be 50 yards in front of me off the tee, and the only thing where I can compete with him is putting. Which is just ridiculous. "In my opinion, it's not a skill to hit the ball a long way. I could put on 40 pounds. I could go and see a bio-mechanist. I could gain 40 yards; that's actually a fact. I could put another two inches on my driver. But the skill is to hit the ball straight. That's the skill. He's just taking the skill out of it in my opinion. I'm sure lots will disagree. But it's just daft." But what Fitzpatrick and others have overlooked is DeChambeau adds finesse with his power game. Last season, he ranked 10th on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting and at Winged Foot he ranked inside the top three in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee (2nd), Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green (1st) and Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green (3rd) on his way to victory. He joined Vijay Singh (2008 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational) as the only two winners who ranked inside the top three in these three categories since 2004. "I would love to have a conversation with him about it and say, Hey, man, I would love to help out. Why couldn’t you do it, too? You see Rory and DJ doing the same thing, too. They’re seeing that distinct advantage, and I feel like it’s great are for the game of golf," DeChambeau said. "I don’t think it takes less skill. I’m still putting it great; still wedging it mediocre, the same, maybe a little bit better. It shows out here that I’m still hitting fairways. "I do hit a couple errant shots like on 9 today, but I do hit a lot of fairways, I still hit great irons, and I make a lot putts. I still think there is a lot of the skill in that."

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TORONTO, Ont. – Rory McIlroy marked his ball with a Canadian $1 coin, nicknamed a ‘Loonie,’ the last time he played the RBC Canadian Open. He received one from his pro-am partner in 2019 and that extra luck worked. He won. This year, tournament organizers came prepared. “I turned up to the locker room and there was already one in my locker,” said McIlroy with a smile. “And then one of my pro-am partners gave me one this morning on the first green as well. “I’m loaded with loonies this week.” McIlroy will (finally) defend his title this week in Canada, three years after he won by seven shots at Hamilton Golf and Country Club. He flirted with 59 much of the final day before shooting a thrilling 61 that separated him from the field. He comes to St. George’s Golf and Country Club looking to go back-to-back for the first time on the PGA TOUR, but to do it he’ll have to top one of the strongest fields north of the border in recent memory. McIlroy is one of five golfers ranked in the top 10 in the world who are teeing it up this week in Toronto, including Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns. The top two players in the FedExCup are making their Canadian Open debuts. Scheffler, who also sits atop the world ranking, has won four times this year, including the Masters, while Burns earned his third win of the season by beating Scheffler in a playoff at the recent Charles Schwab Challenge. PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas and THE PLAYERS champion Cameron Smith are the other two top-10 players in the field this week. There are 20 Canadians teeing it up in their national open as well, including Corey Conners, the top-ranked Canadian in the FedExCup standings. “It’s really exciting to have those guys here,” Conners said of the stout field. “I think national championships, wherever they’re played, have a little bit more prestige and guys think really highly of this event. There are so many historic names on the trophy, and it would be awesome to be added to that and I think a lot of those guys feel the same way. It’s a good part of your legacy to be able to call yourself a Canadian Open champion and national open champion.” McIlroy comes into the week after a T18 at the Memorial. He notched three consecutive top-10 finishes in his previous three starts, including a runner-up at the Masters and an eighth-place finish at the PGA Championship. He sits 15th on the FedExCup standings. So far, he’s “loved” St. George’s Golf and Country Club, which is hosting its sixth RBC Canadian Open. He said it’s a “really good” traditional layout – built in 1929 – that will serve as a strong place to compete before next week’s U.S. Open. McIlroy will be grouped with Conners and Thomas for the first two rounds. Thomas said he took a few days off after he missed the cut at the Charles Schwab Challenge and celebrated his PGA Championship victory with some high-school friends back home in Louisville. Playing the week before the PGA Championship paid off with his win at Southern Hills and he’s hoping it will do the trick again with the U.S. Open coming next week. But Thomas is quick to recognize the legacy of the Canadian Open, as well. This is the 111th playing of the tournament. “You look at the history of this event, it kind of speaks for itself,’ says Thomas. “The opportunity to come to a place and a tournament that’s so historic … definitely makes it a little bit more special.” Scheffler said “it was easy” for him to include the Canadian Open in his schedule with a comparable set-up at St. George’s to The Country Club at Brookline. With seven of the top 25 in the world (Matt Fitzpatrick, Tony Finau, Tyrell Hatton and Shane Lowry are the others) all playing this week, it’ll be a solid challenge. “I’m preparing for next week’s U.S. Open, but I really want to win this week. I really want to win every time I tee it up and play,” says Scheffler. “We (drew) a really good field this week and so definitely looking forward to competing against these guys.” While Scheffler is on top of the FedExCup standings with his excellent play so far this season, it’s two-time FedExCup winner McIlroy who has quickly become the top draw in Canada. This is, of course, attributed to winning in his debut in 2019 – “It would be nice to keep that percentage up this week, for sure,” he said – and the fact that he acted as the ‘defending’ champion for two extra seasons. His group drew the biggest crowds in Wednesday’s pro-am at St. George’s. “I’ve worked hard to get to this position,” he says. “I mean if I didn’t like the attention I would go and I would play another sport or I would get another job or whatever. But there’s a lot of things that come along with being one of the top players in the game and yeah, I do relish it. I like that, I like being in that position.” Another position McIlroy enjoys being in is first place on PGA TOUR leaderboards, something he’ll try to do again this week in Canada. And he’s got a good-luck coin ready to go.

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