FORT WORTH, Texas – Sam Burns has a winning moment of his own at Colonial Country Club.
Just more than two hours after finishing his final round of 5-under-par 65 to get to 9-under 271 for 72 holes at the Charles Schwab Challenge, Burns came back out for a playoff and made a 38-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole Sunday to beat Scottie Scheffler, his best friend and the No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Ranking.
“I can assure you, he wanted to beat me more than anybody else and I wanted to beat him more than anybody else,” Burns said. “It’s going to be a fun story that we’ll get to have for the rest of our careers, and fortunately I got the better end of it this time. But hopefully we’re at the beginning of these situations.”
After Burns had a birdie chance stop just inches short at No. 18 to finish his round, there were still eight groups left on the course. Scheffler was in the last of those, and at one point was among five players tied at 10 under on the back nine.
The gusty wind changed all that, and Scheffler needed three clutch putts for a 72 just to get into the playoff between the 25-year-old PGA Tour standouts.
“I can assure you I did not envy them while they were out there playing,” Burns said. “Didn’t feel like it was blowing any less than we were out there, it was just one of those things when you finally finish, you’re just ready to be done.”
The seven-stroke comeback matched Nick Price in 1994 for the biggest in a final round to win at Colonial. And it came 11 years after Burns was there as a teenager when David Toms, also a former LSU Tiger, won after taking the lead for good with an 83-yard wedge shot for an eagle at the par-5 11th.
“I remember that week like it was yesterday,” Burns said.
The playoff began with drives into the fairway at No. 18, the same hole where just moments earlier Scheffler made a six-footer for par after his approach on his 72nd hole went into the bunker.
Scheffler got on the green with his approach in the playoff, but he was 36 feet away. Burns hit just off the back edge of the green his put curled the last few feet into the cup. Scheffler made a good run with his putt but didn’t have a birdie all day.
“With the gusts as high as they were, it was really difficult to putt them. But I gave myself a lot of looks. I just didn’t have it today,” Scheffler said. “Props to Sam. He played great.”
It was the third win this season for the 10th-ranked Burns and fourth overall in his past 27 starts.
Masters champion Scheffler was going for his fifth victory in his past 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.
Brendon Todd (71), in the final group with Scheffler, gave up his share of the lead with bogeys at Nos. 11 and 12. That dropped him to 8 under, where he stayed to finish third, a stroke ahead of Tony Finau (67), Davis Riley (69) and Scott Stallings (72).
Alker on ‘great ride’
BENTON HARBOR, Mich. – Ten months ago, Steve Alker was about to turn 50 without any guarantees of getting on the PGA Tour Champions because his professional career left plenty to be desired.
Over three decades, he played more than 550 tournaments on six tours. Only three of those seasons were on the PGA Tour. Two other seasons were in Europe.
Now the New Zealander is the hottest player on the senior circuit.
His latest and greatest feat came at Harbor Shores by Lake Michigan, where Alker overcame a four-shot deficit by making nine birdies in a closing 8-under 63 to capture the Senior PGA Championship. His three-shot victory over Stephen Ames was Alker’s fourth in his past 11 tournaments.
“It’s been a great ride out here and I’m enjoying myself,” said Alker, who earned $630,000 with his third victory of the year, pushing his season earnings to just more than $1.8 million. “The first couple of weeks were OK. I wouldn’t say I’m comfortable yet, but just comfortable playing with the guys out here.”
Alker finished at 16-under 268. The victory also secured a spot in next year’s PGA Championship. So pedestrian was life in golf before 50 that he will be making his debut in that major.
Ames managed a 70 to finish as runner-up. Bernhard Langer, the 64-year-old wonder from Germany, briefly tied for the lead on the back nine and shot a 71 to finish third.
Perez in the end
CROMVOIRT, Netherlands – France’s Victor Perez birdied the fourth hole of a dramatic playoff against New Zealand’s Ryan Fox to win the Dutch Open for the second DP World Tour title of his career.
They switched to the 17th hole at Bernardus Golf, having matched each other stroke for stroke on three trips down No. 18 in the playoff, with Perez holing birdie putts from 15 feet and then 30 feet to keep it alive. On the fourth playoff hole, Perez rolled in another long-range putt on the 17th green and Fox missed his.
“There’s a fair amount of fortune, I’ve got to be honest with myself, holing all those long putts in the playoff,” the 29-year-old Frenchman said. “It’s hard to put into words, because it’s a long day and Ryan was flying for a while.”
They finished regulation at 13-under 275, Perez closing with a 3-under 69 and Fox with a 68, with Poland’s Adrian Meronk (68) missing the playoff by a stroke but securing a British Open spot with his third-place finish in the European event.
Fox looked certain to win in the final round when he chipped in for a birdie at No. 11, holed from 80 feet for an eagle at No. 12 and then holed from 45 feet for a birdie at No. 14 to establish a three-shot lead. However, the 35-year-old drove into water on the 18th, missed the green with his approach and duffed his fourth shot into a greenside bunker to run up a double-bogey seven.
Playing two groups behind, Perez holed from 35 feet for a birdie on the 17th to move into a share of the lead on 13 under par and hit a superb approach into the last hole, but he missed from seven feet for what would have been a winning birdie.
Major reward for Ji
LAS VEGAS – Eun-Hee Ji won the LPGA Match Play for a spot in the U.S. Women’s Open that starts Thursday, beating Ayaka Furue 3 and 2 in cooler conditions at Shadow Creek.
Ji, the 2009 U.S. Women’s Open winner at Saucon Valley, took the last spot at Pine Needles with her sixth LPGA Tour victory and first since 2019. At 36, Ji became the oldest South Korean winner in LPGA Tour history. Ranked 83rd in the world, she was seeded 36th in the 64-player field.
Furue is winless on the LPGA Tour. Ranked 27th, the 22-year-old Japanese player was seeded 10th.
In the windy morning semifinals, Ji beat Andrea Lee 4 and 3, and Furue edged Lilia Vu 2 and 1.
Vu beat Lee 4 and 2 in the third-place match.