Sam Burns’ U.S. Open collapse ended with bleary eyes but also self-belief

OAKMONT, Pa. — As Sam Burns was coming up the last on a soggy U.S. Open Sunday, the scene had all the trappings of a victor’s march: jammed grandstands, appreciative fans, the grounds crew spilling under the ropes and fast-walking their way toward the green for a front-row seat to history.

It was surely the kind of stage Burns had envisioned for himself when he took the lead into the final round of this 125th playing of the Open, save for one unfortunate wrinkle: the praise and pageantry playing out on the 18th green was not for him; it was for the come-from-behind winner, J.J Spaun, who was playing in the pairing ahead of Burns and Adam Scott. As Burns waited to play his second shot from the left rough — he was out of contention by this point — Spaun, who’d opened his round by bogeying five of his first six holes, sealed the title in stunning fashion, dropping a 64-footer that sent a roar ripping across the property like an unmuffled stock car tearing around a track.

You couldn’t blame Burns if he was feeling a little shell-shocked; he was definitely feeling a little damp after on-and-off rain had soaked the course throughout the afternoon and into the evening, at one point suspending play for more than 90 minutes. For Burns, the gloomy setting was apt. When he started his round at 2:15 p.m., he was at four under for the week, one better than his nearest chaser. When, more than six hours later, Burns two-putted for bogey on the home hole, he had carded a crushing eight-over 78 that dropped him to four over for the week and into a tie for 7th. By any quantifiable measure, Burns had collapsed. Five bogies. Two doubles. An 18-hole tally nearly five shots worse than the field scoring average. Of the 66 players who signed cards on Sunday, only three posted higher scores than Burns.

“Golf’s a hard game,” Burns said afterward, “especially on this golf course.”

This golf course always lives up to its fearsome billing. The ball-swallowing rough. The slick sloping greens. The cavernous bunkers. It’s a hellish test — that, for three rounds, Burns aced. After opening with a two-over 72, he blitzed Oakmont in the second round en route to a spit-take 65, the low round of the week. “Mentally, there’s no just kind of gimme hole,” he said after that round (foreshadowing alert!). “There’s no hole where you can get up there and just hit it and not really pay attention to what you’re trying to do.”

When Burns backed up that 65 with a 69, it was starting to look like this might be his week, though quant nerds also had reason to believe that it might not be. Burns has five PGA Tour wins, but he has not been his sharpest on the biggest stages; before this week, he had recorded just one top-10 finish in 21 major starts. At the Open Championship at Royal Troon last July, Burns was one off the lead after 54 holes. On Sunday, he shot 80 and plummeted 29 spots down the leaderboard.

Burns counts Scottie Scheffler among his closest friends on Tour; the two players and their families often share houses together on the road, as they did this week in the Pittsburgh area. On Sunday morning, Burns asked Scheffler for advice on how to close. Scheffler described the exchange as a “good chat,” but added, “it was kind of a weird spot, because I wasn’t in the lead, but I had a chance in the tournament.” (Scheffler shot 70 and tied with Burns.)

Whatever wisdom Scheffler imparted, it did not yield immediate results for his pal. After making a no-sweat par at the first, Burns bogeyed a couple of par-4s, the 2nd and 5th. He was two over through eight when play was suspended. On his first hole back, the par-4 9th, he made another bogey to turn in three over. Still, at one over for the tournament, Burns’ destiny still was very much in his own hands.

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But that’s when his round started going sideways, in such foul conditions that Scott said, “Thank God it wasn’t like this all week.” After a double at 11 and bogey at 12, Burns dropped into a five-way logjam for first. A couple of pars followed but Burns fully came undone after his tee shot on the 503-yard par-4 15th caught the right side of the fairway, hard against the first cut. Believing his ball was in temporary water, Burns asked a rules official for relief. When his plea was denied, he asked for another official’s ruling. Denied again. So Burns played away, pulling his approach into the rough left of the green. “That’s ridiculous,” he said as his ball disappeared into the thick stuff.

Asked about the ruling after his round, Burns said, “That fairway slopes left to right; that’s kind of the low part of the fairway. When I walked into it, clearly you could see water coming up. Took practice swings and it’s just water splashing every single time.” NBC commentator Brad Faxon agreed, saying on the air, “He should have been able to take relief from there. That’s a bad call.”

Burns needed two chips to find the green, then two-putted for double, stifling any remaining glint of hope that he might raise the trophy at day’s end.  

Burns will have more chances in big spots. Likely a lot of them. He’s only 28 and is a savant with his putter. The season’s last major, the Open Championship, is just a month away, and Burns also most likely will be on Keegan Bradley’s U.S. Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black this September. Sunday at Oakmont was another painful learning experience for Burns, but in struggle there is growth.    

“I’m extremely proud of the way I fought out there today,” he said. “At the end of the day, I can hold my head high.”

Also not lost on Burns: Sunday was Father’s Day. Sam and his wife, Caroline, have a toddler son, Bear, and Sam said earlier this week that becoming a father has been “life changing.”   

“We were joking with the Schefflers yesterday afternoon,” Sam said of a scene at their rental property. “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 that? We’re like, Well, we probably just sat around and watched shows and it was quiet.”

These days, Sam added, “there’s nothing better for me getting home after a long day and seeing Bear and Caroline and getting to hang out with them.”

When Sam emerged from scoring after his round, his wife and son were waiting for him near the locker-room entrance to the clubhouse.

When Bear, who has a mop of blond hair, saw his father, his face lit up and the family shared a group embrace. After Sam briefly met with reporters, he and his family repaired to the clubhouse. Minutes later, they reappeared. Sam was glassy-eyed and generally looking like a golfer who was ready for a hot shower and a cold beer.     

As Sam and Caroline walked to the parking lot, Bear was hanging off one of Sam’s shoulders and a Trackman launch-monitor was dangling off the other.

The U.S. Open was over, but life would go on. It always does.