How PGA Tour rookie Sam Burns chose golf over football, then impressed Tiger Woods

Sam Burns was always going to be a ballplayer, growing up in Shreveport. La. But the vision, until around the seventh grade, involved the oblong, leather ball, not the little, white dimpled variety.

Burns was all Friday Night Lights: He was a strong safety, and wanted to play college football like his dad and older brother at Louisiana Tech. However, by middle school, he was just so gifted as a golfer, his path was laid out for him.

So much so that Friday he led the field for part of the second round of the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow. Burns, a rookie, was as much as 6-under par before bogeys on his last two holes pushed him back into the pack. He’ll enter Saturday’s third round at 3 under after shooting rounds of 69 and 70.

Burns, 21, is still working his way through the PGA Tour system. He got into this week’s field as a sponsor’s exemption.

But he’s a comer, by the description of none other than Tiger Woods, who played with him recently at the Honda Classic in Florida.

“He played beautifully,” Woods said of Burns tying for seventh place, including a 2-under-par 68 in the final round. That was two strokes better than Woods, who added, “Today, and this week, was a big step for him.”

He admitted to being a bit star-struck, paired with Woods (“I hardly remember hitting the first tee shot - I kind of blacked out.”) but he still maintained a sense of humor at the absurdity of the crowd following his group.

“Man, it’s crazy all these people came out to watch me today, isn’t it?” he cracked to Woods.

In 2017, Burns won the Jack Nicklaus Award, representative of the best player in collegiate golf, for his play at LSU. The word prodigy is overused in sports, but certainly applies to his introduction to the sport:

When he was 4, Burns talked his older brother into borrowing a club to hit a ball. With zero coaching, he produced a smooth, accurate stroke, launching a series of balls 70 yards, all within a yard or two of each other. His older brother was so flabbergasted, he rushed into the house to fetch his father to witness this.

But that football itch persisted.

“I really enjoyed football growing up a little bit more than every other sport,’ Burns recalled Friday. “So (specializing), probably not until around seventh grade is when I started to feel like I could learn how to play golf and try to get better.

“There are definitely times where I wish I was still playing. I love watching it. ...I still miss it, but obviously feel like I have made a better choice in golf.”

Burns is playing not just for this week’s results, but for automatic access to future fields. That’s a different kind of pressure than he would have felt in football, but one of his strengths growing up has always been a serenity; don’t let what you just did get in the way of what you must do next.

“It’s not life or death,” Burns said. “We’re very fortunate that we get to be out here and play for a living, but at the end of the day it’s just a game.”

This story was originally published May 4, 2018 at 6:01 PM with the headline "How PGA Tour rookie Sam Burns chose golf over football, then impressed Tiger Woods."