OAKMONT, Pa. — Sam Burns has an interesting roommate this week: World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
This is not a new thing nor a rare thing for these two. Burns and Scheffler and their families often stay together at big events, splitting rental houses, doubling down on camaraderie. This U.S. Open Sunday, though, is special for two reasons.
The first is that they’re both in contention. Burns begins the final round with a one-stroke lead and as the betting favorite, while Scheffler is lurking in T11, eight shots back. For anyone else, that would seem like an insurmountable deficit — but we’ve seen Scheffler do too many miraculous things to count him out just yet.
So what’s the dynamic at home? For starters, they explain it’s not as though they’re together 24/7 these weeks. Scheffler and Burns shared a rental house both times he won the Masters, in 2022 and 2024, but both those weeks, Burns missed the cut. They shared a house the week of Scheffler’s PGA win, too, but by the weekend they were ships passing in the night.
“I might be in bed by the time he gets home,” Scheffler said on Saturday, pointing out Burns’ late tee time. “I mean, really.”
Sunday represents a massive opportunity for Burns to win his first major — and to get one step closer to Scheffler’s impossible standard. After all, it’s tough to ignore the contrast in their major-championship results. Scheffler has won as many majors (three) as he has missed cuts (also three, including the 2016 U.S. Open). He has eight top-fours and 14 top-10s in 23 career starts. As for Burns? He’s played 19 majors but logged just one top 10, a T9 at last year’s U.S. Open.
So what’s it like, being so close with the guy who keeps winning? Burns says he’s been thrilled to watch his friend’s success, and if it’s bothered him, he declined to say so.
“We obviously spend a lot of time together and being able to talk to him and just kind of learn from him and ask him questions, it’s been really cool,” he said. “Watching him do that and watching him have success, it brings me a lot of joy, and him and his wife Meredith and Bennett, they’re just an unbelievable family, and it’s been such a joy to watch how they steward that success to others around them, and just the amount of respect that we have for them is very high.”
That brings us to special thing No. 2: Scheffler and Burns are each celebrating their second Father’s Day — though they may be sleeping better this time around. You’ll remember the hubbub around last year’s Masters when Scottie was leading and his wife Meredith was expecting. Sam’s wife Caroline was expecting, too. They had their son Bear in late April, shortly before the Schefflers welcomed Bennett. And now their rental houses look, feel and sound a little bit different.
“In the morning, we just hang out, there will be two little kids running around,” Scheffler said.
“We were joking with the Schefflers yesterday afternoon, we were out in the yard, and the boys, no clothes on, just playing in the little splash pad, having the time of their lives. We were like, ‘What did we do before this?’ Probably just sat around and watched shows and it was quiet.”
Both Sam and Scottie have valued continuity and loyalty in their personal and professional lives.
“My dad has always said you got to dance with who brought you. For me, my coach and I have been working together since I was 15 or 16, and to me it seems way more complicated to go seek advice from someone else who doesn’t know me or know my golf swing,” Burns said.
Scheffler has known his swing coach Randy Smith since he was 7.
“I think when you have those long relationships like that, there’s a lot of trust that gets built up and you’re able to say some things that you wouldn’t really say in the first six months of working with somebody,” he said. “When you have the trust between people that you’re almost like a family; you’ve worked together for so long. I think that’s how [Sam’s] team feels as well.”
Adding new members to the team, and to the house, has changed the dynamic. But Burns says it’ll make Sunday that much more meaningful.
“It’s so much fun,” he said of becoming a father. “There’s nothing better for me getting home after a long day and seeing Bear and Caroline and getting to hang out with them and just, I enjoy it so much, and to have a chance to win on Father’s Day would be really cool.”
