Sam Burns wins the WGC-Dell Match Play; beats Cameron Young 6 and 5 in the final
Before Sunday morning, if anyone had asked pundits to guess the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play winner, very few would have put their odds on Sam Burns given the other names in the semifinals were World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, World No. 3 Rory McIlroy, and the 2022's rookie of the year, Cameron Young.
However, Burns had other plans as he beat Cameron Young, 6 and 5, in the final of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play to capture the title at Austin Country Club.
In Sunday morning's semifinal, the 26-year-old was against his good friend and defending WGC-Match playing champion, Scheffler. It wasn't easy for the Louisiana native, who was trailing behind Scheffler with six holes to go. Burns holed three straight birdies on the 15th,16th, and 17th to take a 1-up lead heading into the 18th hole.
Burns, however, missed an 11-foot putter for a birdie on the last hole. Scheffler buried it for birdie to force the game into the playoffs.
The first two holes in the playoff went square. Scheffler had a chance to win the second extra hole but missed a short putt to go into the third. Burns eventually bettered his pal on the 21st hole with 15-footer.
Now it was Cameron Young who entered the finals after moving past McIlroy in the tough semifinals. Young was the best player in WGC Match Play statistically before entering the final with a total score of 32-under in 81 holes.
Unlike the semis, Burns didn't have to struggle much for glory in the finals. He seemed to be in a different zone, with a white-hot putter burying every big putt throughout the round. He holed a total of 8 birdies in the 13 holes he played in the final, including four in a row on 9-13th.
Young started well when he took the 1-up lead on the second hole but couldn't hold on to it for long, eventually losing to Burns in 6-and-5.
"My putter was really good today" - Sam Burns on his red-hot putting performance at WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play
Sam Burns said it was a crazy week for him as it was his first time at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and he didn't expect much coming into the week.
He said in a press conference:
"I feel like I gained a little bit more confidence as each match kind of played on. And then playing Scottie this morning, I knew it was going to be a tough match and got off to a great start and then kind of got lost a little bit halfway through the round. Really, things kind of changed."
Burns birdied 8 out of 13 holes in the finals. In the tournament, he totaled 48 birdies. That wouldn't have been possible without Burns' white putter, which was in another form this tournament.
"Yeah, my putter was really good today," Burns was quoted saying via Golfweek. "I think for us -- Travis and I were just trying to get as many opportunities as we could. I've been putting it well all week and I knew that if we could just get the ball in position, give ourselves lots of chances, hopefully they would go in."