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Burns' 22-under 266 was enough for his second title this
calendar year, after winning last season's Valspar Championship
in May. Nick Watney (65) and Cameron Young (68) tied for second
at 21 under.
"It hasn't really set in yet. Still looking out there at the
golf course like kind of trying to figure out what happened,"
said Burns, 25.
What happened was a stretch of four birdies over five holes on
the back nine to bring Burns as low as 23 under for the
tournament. He got to within 8 feet for birdie at No. 11,
drained a 13-footer at the par-3 13th, left an eagle putt inches
to the right at the par-5 14th and had a tap-in birdie at No.
15. A bogey on Burns' last hole didn't do enough damage to his
advantage over the field.
Burns did his best not to worry about how the rest of the field
was scoring.
"I didn't really look. I made a comment to Travis (Perkins, his
caddie) on the par-3, 13, can't remember what I said, but he
kind of snapped me back into it, back into what we were trying
to do," Burns said. "And so he was great all week and just
keeping us in the moment and keeping us focused on our process."
Burns also birdied three holes on the front nine. None of those
putts was longer than 6 feet, 4 inches, thanks to stellar iron
play.
He dedicated the win to his infant nephew, Burns Walker, who is
in the hospital with spinal meningitis.
"He won't remember (the victory) because he's only five or six
weeks old, but I'll definitely remember it and our family will
remember it and (I'm) just really thinking about my sister and
her husband and their family and what they have experienced,"
Burns said.
Watney had a bogey-free card with seven birdies, including a
25-foot birdie putt at No. 14 and a 5-footer at No. 15 to make a
brief run at Burns.
Sweden's Henrik Norlander fired the round of the day, an 8-under
64 featuring an eagle and three birdies on his back nine. He
drove the 14th green in two and drained a 40-foot putt for
eagle.
His round lifted him into a tie for fourth at 20 under with
Hayden Buckley (66), Andrew Landry (66) and Trey Mullinax (68).
PGA Tour rookie Sahith Theegala held at least a share of the
lead after each of the first three rounds. But his final-round
71 led him to a tie for eighth at 19 under with Seth Reeves (69)
and South Korea's Si Woo Kim (66).
After playing the front nine 3 under par, Theegala bogeyed Nos.
10, 11 and 13.
"It was a fantastic week," Theegala said. "I played some really
good golf and just a little unfortunate how that sort of how
that back nine is. But it's my first one and first time really
being in that position, so I'm obviously going to learn a lot
and just take so many positives away."
--Field Level Media
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