Say hello to the elephant humps at No. 4

FORT WORTH — Sam Burns waited a while to win his fourth PGA TOUR title. He shot 5-under 65 on Sunday, another warm and wind-whipped day at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Burns finished the final round at 9 under par. He thought he needed to be 10 under. He watched the 16 players ahead of him fight the rustling breezes and quickening greens at Colonial Country Club. None of them lasted. RELATED: What’s in Burns’ bag? Nearly two hours after his round had ended, Burns defeated Scottie Scheffler in a playoff on the first extra hole, No. 18 at Colonial CC. Burns holed a 38-foot putt from the fringe behind the green that veered right and fell on its last revolution. Scheffler had a putt of 37 feet and missed. It seemed like it was over before it started. “I’m pretty exhausted,” the new champion said in the equally new tartan jacket given to the winners at Colonial. “Mentally I was prepared to go as long as it took. I don’t know if I could have done it physically. But mentally I was ready. When coach calls your name, you’ve got to be ready to play, and I think we did a really good job of being ready.” Burns, 25, started the final round in a tie for 17th place. He said he never looked at a leaderboard. He was seven shots behind Scheffler when he hit his first shot. “Who would have ever thought that you’d have a chance seven back?” Burns said. He went out in 5-under 30. He made one birdie and one bogey on the back nine. He posted one of 12 scores in the 60s. He had lunch with his family and kept an eye on the leaderboard. Scheffler, who held a two-shot lead after three rounds, plodded through an uneven afternoon of no birdies but clutch putts to save par. Scott Stallings and Brendon Todd started the round right behind him. They too struggled. Nearly everyone did. Harold Varner III threatened. Then he played the back nine. Varner shot a 45 to go from a grasp of the lead to a tie for 27th after an 8-over 78. “I did not envy them,” said Burns, who finished at 3:47 p.m. local time. Five players completed the par-5 11th hole at 10-under or better. None of them could stay there. Davis Riley was 11 under at the tee at No. 12; he finished at 8 under. Scheffler shot 72. Todd shot 71. Stallings shot 73. The few players who did manage Colonial at par or better started the round too far from the lead. “I think both days on the weekend the back nine played exceptionally hard,” Todd said. “I gave myself a lot of looks,” said Scheffler. “I just didn’t have it today.” Colonial played to an average of 72.3 sturdy strokes Sunday — more than two shots over par. Gusts of 30 mph raked the grounds. The players learned to time them, making their swings in the lulls. On the 18th tee, Scheffler stepped into his shot at the precise moment one of them rose. “A tornado,” Scheffler quipped to his caddie. “It’s just a really hard golf course and a lot of wind,” Burns said. When Scheffler reached No. 16, he and Burns were the only players left at 9 under. Burns excused himself from lunch and went to the gym, where he stretched for 15 minutes. He laced his golf shoes, rolled a few putts and prepared for the possibility that he would play more golf. An hour later, Burns was holding the trophy. He and his caddie had talked earlier in the week about how to confront Colonial, a course that opened in 1936. Many players, including those who’ve won the tournament, argue that Colonial requires few drivers. Better to take shorter clubs and aim for the widest parts of the fairways, they say. “The data does not back that up,” Burns said. “You need to push it around this golf course.” Burns did just that. He led the field in driving distance, averaging 297 yards off the tee. But he also was pushing it with his putter. He ranked second in Strokes Gained: Putting (4.1) in the final round. The combination of sheer distance and touch on the greens made the difference. Burns earned 500 FedExCup points, vaulting his total to 2,101. Only Scheffler, at 3,142, has more. “I feel like I need to win a handful more times to catch Scottie,” Burns said. He’d like to have the chance. He and Scheffler, identical in age, are close friends, Burns said. They shared a close embrace after playoff. “It’s going to be a fun story that we get to have for the rest of our careers,” Burns said.

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The 20th of 24 contributing events for PGA TOUR Champions One & Done presented by SERVPRO is this week’s Shaw Charity Classic. It begins on Friday. Scroll for tournament notes, 16 notables and four wild cards from the field of 78 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Bryson DeChambeau is everything but a scrappy middle infielder just happy to be on the roster, but when he goes two months without doing any damage, sending him to the plate at THE NORTHERN TRUST and asking him to clear the wall was everything we want when we target swinging for the fences. However, his victory – by four strokes at that – also isn’t what we can expect. DeChambeau slotted 25th overall with an ownership percentage of just 0.90 at Ridgewood, so the apathy was evident. Gotta love golf and you gotta love the timing of the crack of the bat. With 2,000 FedExCup points rewarded to each of the four winners in the Playoffs, it’s so, so, sweet when one goes yard. A relatively unfamiliar track like Ridgewood figures to yield that outcome more than, say, TPC Boston. As stated in my Power Rankings on Monday, since the inaugural edition of the Dell Technologies Championship won by Adam Scott in 2003, only Phil Mickelson (2007) has prevailed in a first appearance. Despite your best arguments, that fact rules out the likes of percolating Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Alex Noren, Beau Hossler, Peter Uihlein and 13 others; that is, if all you’re chasing is the trophy. If that goal sounds obvious, then you’re new here. My objective in every tournament is a top 10. Top fives are bonuses and victories are worthy of celebration. Even some contenders late in the season don’t need a win events for league championships. Webb Simpson, McIlroy (twice), Henrik Stenson and Justin Thomas all have emerged victorious at TPC Boston since Mickelson. All are short-listers who will have your attention this week, but only McIlroy and Thomas deserve it. Simpson has been on fire but only in the context of this season. Since 2015 at the DTC, he’s gone T44-MC-T75. That positions him similarly to the previously scuffling DeChambeau, but I’d rather ride Simpson on courses like Aronimink and East Lake where his tee-to-green proficiency enhances his chances. Stenson is still nursing a sore left elbow. He’s an easy pass. Same goes for Wyndham champ Brandt Snedeker, who sat out last week with back spasms. And it was warm at Ridgewood. McIlroy is healthy but he’s getting in his own way, so to speak. As a two-time winner and all-time earnings leader of this tournament, we have to expect a renewal of comfort as he reconnects with conviction and confidence. As stated in this space last week, he’s perfect for chasers. Front-runners can empty the chamber. Course history is your ally. Thomas defends with Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Tony Finau, Adam Scott and Patrick Reed also standing by waiting for the call. Patrick Cantlay, Jon Rahm and Paul Casey are secondary selections for various reasons and all have delivered at TPC Boston at least once before. Do not hesitate regardless of recent form, good or indifferent. When Justin Rose misses a cut at a joint like Ridgewood, you know the course is fair, but his leash is one of the longest. The only issue is that he’s warranted restraint at TPC Boston throughout his career. He’ll regain our attention (and devotion) in earnest at Aronimink where he’s won before. Two-man gamers should focus on surging Billy Horschel and Cameron Smith, the pair at T3 at Ridgewood. A little deeper, the likes of Charley Hoffman and Keegan Bradley should contribute. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2017-18. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple sites are listed (e.g. 1 for strongest, 2 for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change all season no matter how many tournament remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment. Paul Casey … Dell Technologies (2); TOUR Championship (3) Kevin Chappell … Dell Technologies (3) Jason Day … Dell Technologies (5) Jason Dufner … TOUR Championship (7) Billy Horschel … TOUR Championship (4) Dustin Johnson … Dell Technologies (11); TOUR Championship (6) Zach Johnson … TOUR Championship (8) Russell Knox … Dell Technologies (7) Rory McIlroy … Dell Technologies (5); TOUR Championship (3) Ryan Moore … TOUR Championship (6) Louis Oosthuizen … Dell Technologies (3) Patrick Reed … Dell Technologies (2) Justin Rose … TOUR Championship (2) Adam Scott … Dell Technologies (9); TOUR Championship (6) Jordan Spieth … TOUR Championship (4) Henrik Stenson … Dell Technologies (9); TOUR Championship (2) Justin Thomas … Dell Technologies (6; defending); TOUR Championship (3) Jimmy Walker … Dell Technologies (7) Bubba Watson … TOUR Championship (4) CHAMPIONS ONE & DONE Shaw Charity Classic Canyon Meadows Golf & Country Club in Calgary, Alberta, hosts the sixth edition of the tournament. It’s a par 70 with five par 3s and three par 5s. Scott McCarron is back to defend a one-stroke victory over Miguel Angel Jiménez. McCarron converted three eagles and 15 birdies against five bogeys en route to 16-under 194. The $2.35-million purse is the largest of the last five tournaments. The winner will pocket $352,500. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2018. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple sites are listed (e.g. 1 for strongest, 2 for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change all season no matter how many tournament remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment. Stephen Ames … Shaw (7) Fred Couples … Usable everywhere. Joe Durant … Shaw (11); PURE (3); SAS (13) David Frost … Shaw (8); PURE (1) Doug Garwood … SAS (1) Miguel Angel Jiménez … Shaw (7); SAS (12) Jerry Kelly … Shaw (5); PURE (2); SAS (4) Bernhard Langer … Usable everywhere. Defending five titles. Jeff Maggert … Shaw (5) Billy Mayfair … PURE (1) Scott McCarron … Shaw (5; defending); PURE (8) Colin Montgomerie … Shaw (4); PURE (7); SAS (3; defending) Tom Pernice, Jr. … Shaw (3); SAS (5) Vijay Singh … Shaw (5); SAS (1) Kirk Triplett … Shaw (4) Duffy Waldorf … Shaw (5) WILD CARDS (short list of golfers not included above but on the rise or still building portfolios after recently turning 50): Steve Flesch; Scott Parel; Tim Petrovic; Wes Short, Jr.

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