{"id":771634,"date":"2026-07-19T06:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T06:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/771634\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T06:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T06:59:10","slug":"open-championship-2026-how-sam-burns-has-taken-the-lead-at-royal-birkdale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/771634\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Championship 2026: How Sam Burns has taken the lead at Royal Birkdale"},"content":{"rendered":"

SOUTHPORT, England \u2014 Nobody in the largest gallery on the course was there to see Sam Burns. At least not originally. They were there for the large, controversial, penalized golfer in his pairing. But by the time the round concluded, they learned they were unintentionally there for the most important round so far of The Open Championship.<\/p>\n

It was the round in which Sam Burns took the 54-hole Open lead and made the golfing world take him seriously.<\/p>\n

Burns shot a steely 65 to skyrocket to 10-under-par and a two-shot lead entering the final round, with Ryan Fox and Si Woo Kim in second at 8-under.<\/p>\n

Burns, a golfer who spent much of his career facing criticism for an inability to compete in the biggest events, has officially shifted his reputation. While Royal Birkdale held all of the late-group contenders to timid scores, Burns shot a 65 with four birdies on the front, the second-best score of the day and the best of anyone teeing off in the afternoon. All of this just one day after he tied the men\u2019s major championship record with a thrilling 62.<\/p>\n

And he did it playing in a group with Bryson DeChambeau, who already takes up all the oxygen in the room, but never more so than on Saturday, after his two-stroke penalty Friday evening became the story of the tournament. Fans honed in on DeChambeau<\/a>, primarily in support but not without the occasional jab. It could have easily been a distraction. Instead, Burns went the other way.<\/p>\n

And he did it when he wasn\u2019t even supposed to be there. Entering July, Burns said he was absolutely not playing this Open as his wife, Caroline, was due with their second child. Her due date was four days ago. But Caroline gave birth to Belle on July 3, and even then he didn\u2019t plan to play. Caroline brought it up. After some deep thought, with her encouragement and a call with best friend Scottie Scheffler, Burns chose to play. Now, he\u2019s leading the whole thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just didn\u2019t think there was any possible way,\u201d Burns said, \u201cand little Belle had different plans.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he was quite angry after his Thursday finish \u2014 three straight bogeys to end 3-over \u2014 but it was a conversation with Caroline that shifted his energy. She told him, \u201cI\u2019m good at home. Like, we\u2019re good. You need to be where your feet are.\u201d It was then that he finally settled in to try winning his first major championship. He\u2019s 13-under-par in the 36 holes since, his combined 127 the lowest two rounds in major history.<\/p>\n

And this performance represents a clear shift for Burns.<\/p>\n

In those early years, as he established himself as a Ryder Cup-caliber player with five PGA Tour wins by age 26, he was a true non-factor in majors. In 12 majors between June 2021 and June 2024, he missed six cuts. He finished outside the top 30 in nine of them. His best finish was a single T20 at the 2020 PGA Championship.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been four top-10s in the nine majors since, and three more T31 or better. More than that, he\u2019s truly contending.<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/p>\n

\n Sam Burns carries a two-shot lead into the final round of The Open. (Andrew Redington \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

He had the solo lead at the 2025 U.S. Open with seven holes to go before extreme weather changed the entire Oakmont course as he faltered. He admirably handled a brutal ruling that forced him to hit out of standing water, all but ending his tournament. He entered the final round of the 2026 Masters just one back of the lead, finishing T7. And last month at the U.S. Open, a Sunday comeback ended with a final putt just missing the cup, one shot shy of a playoff.<\/p>\n

Between those performances and an all-around strong 2026, people began taking Burns more seriously. He doesn\u2019t deny the shift in how he approaches those weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I played a bit too aggressive at times,\u201d Burns said, \u201cand I think at some of these golf courses where you\u2019re penalized a little bit more than a typical tour golf course we play, I think I hadn\u2019t quite learned that the hard way yet. It took a bit longer for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet he also gave credit to that best friend, Scheffler. He watched the No. 1 player in the world up close, constantly. Scheffler limits mistakes, never forces unnecessary risks and almost always makes the right play.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t like I asked him about it or we talked a lot about it,\u201d Burns said. \u201cIt was just me observing. I think that had a pretty large impact on me the last couple years in the majors, and just kind of watching how he prepares and the way he goes about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, for the second year in a row, he\u2019ll enter a major championship Sunday with the solo lead. But he\u2019ll do it as a man who knows he\u2019s pretty lucky to be here.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, whatever happens, I know that I can accept the outcome, and life\u2019s going to move on,\u201d Burns said. \u201cI\u2019ll get to go home and see my family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope I\u2019m taking some hardware with me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTHPORT, England \u2014 Nobody in the largest gallery on the course was there to see Sam Burns. At…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-771634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}