It has reached the point in the golf calendar where seemingly everything is viewed through the lens of the Masters, as the first full week in April creeps closer.
That Masters lens now has Sam Burns in crisp focus.
With a playoff victory over Davis Riley on Sunday at the Valspar Championship, Burns did more than push into the top 10 in the world rankings for the first time.
By winning for the third time in 12 months and building on a run of strong play, Burns has stamped himself as a serious Masters contender. The 25-year-old has the look of a player built for something big, and his game and confidence seem to be cresting at just the right time.
Burns has never played in the Masters, and he will be making just his seventh major-championship start, never having finished better than T29.
In his pre-tournament interview as defending champion of the Valspar, Burns was asked about the lasting impact of getting his first PGA Tour victory, and it sounded almost prescient as he worked his way toward another victory at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course.
“I think you go from hoping that you can win or thinking that you can win to believing it when it actually happens,” Burns said.
There was no indication as the tour’s West Coast swing ended that Burns was about to find his missing mojo. He missed three straight cuts before the tour headed to Florida, but the turnaround happened quickly.
Burns finished T9 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and started the final round of the weather-interrupted Players Championship tied for second, only to struggle in the final round where he shot 76 to fall out of the top 20. A session with swing coach Brad Pullin – who drove 12 hours to meet with Burns after the player called – sorted out what led to the struggles finishing the Players Championship, and Burns pulled off the repeat at the Valspar.
“That's all I can control, and so it's nice to see that those things are paying off. It gives us motivation that we're working on the right things.”
And every day, the Masters gets closer.
Ron Green Jr.