Sam Burns sinks 38-footer in playoff to beat No. 1 Scottie Scheffler at Colonial

Sam Burns made a 38-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole at Colonial, which came just more than two hours after he had finished his round, to beat top-ranked Scottie Scheffler on Sunday.

After finishing his five-under-par 65 to get to nine under, Burns was done in the clubhouse when, at one point, Scheffler was among five players tied at 10 under.

The gusty wind helped change all that. And Scheffler needed three clutch putts for a 72 just to get into the playoff matching 25-year-old standouts and close friends.

Burns’ seven-stroke comeback matched Nick Price in 1994 for the biggest in a final round to win at Colonial.

The playoff began with both driving into the fairway at No. 18, the same hole where just moments earlier Scheffler made a six-foot par after his approach on his 72nd hole went into the bunker.

Scheffler got on the green with his approach in the playoff but was 36 feet away. Burns hit just off the back edge of the green and used his putter, with the ball curling the last few feet into the cup. Scheffler made a good run with his putt but didn’t have a birdie all day.

It was the third win this season for Burns and his fourth overall in his last 27 starts. The world’s 10th-ranked player won at Valspar for the second time in March.

The Colonial win was worth more than $1.5 million, along with a plaid jacket and a custom-built Schwab Firebird Trans Am.

Masters champion Scheffler, who led by two strokes entering the final round, was going for his fifth victory in his last 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.

PGA Tour Champions

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. — Steven Alker avoided mistakes down the stretch and closed with an eight-under 63 for a three-shot victory in the Senior PGA Championship, his third title this year and first major.

Alker started the final round four shots behind and forged a three-way tie with Stephen Ames and Bernhard Langer on the back nine.

Langer missed the green on consecutive holes and made bogeys to fall back. Ames hit his drive into the water on the par-four 14th and had to scramble for a bogey.

Alker birdied the 15th and 16th holes playing in front of Ames to seize control, and Ames couldn’t catch up.

Alker finished at 16-under 268. Ames closed with a 70 to finish second, while Langer (71) finished alone in third another three strokes back.

LPGA Tour

LAS VEGAS — Eun-Hee Ji won the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play for a spot next week in the U.S. Women’s Open, 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.

After making bogeys on the first two par 5s to fall a hole behind, Ji birdied the par-3 eighth to tie it. She holed out from 97 yards for eagle on the par-5 ninth and won the par-4 10th with a par for a 2-up lead.

Furue took the par-4 11th with her lone birdie of the match, and Ji countered with a par win on the par-4 12th. They halved the next three holes and Ji ended it with a par win on the par-5 16th — holing a 10-footer before Furue missed her par try.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.