living, breathing, walking sideshow<\/a> at the Open this week.\u00a0<\/p>\nBecause he\u2019s been the best, most consistent player in the field that began with 156 players, Burns will take a two-shot lead into Sunday\u2019s final round at 10 under par.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sam Burns lines up a putt on hole 16 during the third round of The Open Championship golf tournament at Royal Birkdale on July 18, 2026. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
Ryan Fox, who posted a 62 early in the day Saturday, is 8 under as is Si Woo Kim, who shot 67.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lucas Herbert, who shot 62 on Friday and 71 on Saturday, is 7 under along with Ryan Gerard, who shot 69.\u00a0<\/p>\n
DeChambeau, Ludvig \u00c5berg and Jackson Suber are four back at 6 under. <\/p>\n
Tommy Fleetwood, the hometown hero, is 5 under and not out of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But this day \u2014 the last two days really \u2014 belonged to Burns, the quiet Louisiana native who hadn\u2019t even planned to play this week because his wife, Caroline, had given birth to their daughter, Belle, on July 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis golf tournament was honestly so far off of my radar and expectations of playing,\u2019\u2019 Burns said. \u201cI mean, Caroline\u2019s due date was Tuesday this week. She was like four days late with our son. I just didn\u2019t think there was any possible way, and little Belle had different plans for us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sam Burns of the U.S. reacts after he holes for par on the 18th hole. REUTERS<\/p>\n
\u201cEven after she was born, after a couple of days I wasn\u2019t thinking much about it. Caroline was kind of like, \u2018So, what are you thinking for next week?\u2019 I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t know. Should we talk about it?\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, she\u2019s the one that really encouraged me to come over and play. She basically said, \u2018I\u2019ve got this at home. Go over there and give it your best.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd here we are.\u2019\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
The rest of the field probably wishes Burns stayed home with his wife and newborn this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It probably hopes he hadn\u2019t consulted his wife after a poor finish to his opening round, which ended in three consecutive bogeys and a 3-over 73.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter finishing bogey, bogey, bogey on Thursday, I was pretty upset \u2014 that\u2019s an understatement,\u2019\u2019 Burns said. \u201cI talked to Caroline, texted with her, and she basically told me, like, \u2018You\u2019re over there, and I\u2019m good at home. We\u2019re good. You need to be where your feet are.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that was really what I needed to hear in that moment. I came out Friday and had nothing to lose. I feel like my game was in a good place.\u2019\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Burns has been close in recent majors. He seemingly had control of the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont, but faltered after a rain delay in the final round.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bryson DeChambeau (R) and US golfer Sam Burns (L) shake hands after their third rounds. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
In last month\u2019s U.S. Open at Shinnecock, he was right there in the final round, chasing eventual winner Wyndham Clark on the back nine, but could not hole any crucial putts. He walked off the 18th green in tears after that one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Burns has rationalized his failures in recent majors with a chance to win. And he credited his close friend Scottie Scheffler, with whom he plays all the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some of these golf courses where you\u2019re penalized a little bit more than a typical [PGA] Tour golf course we play, I think I hadn\u2019t quite learned that the hard way yet,\u2019\u2019 Burns said. \u201cIt took a bit longer for me. It helped that I got to play a lot of golf with the best player on the planet [Scheffler] and kind of watch what he does.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s far and beyond the best person that does that. He makes so few mistakes, and he doesn\u2019t take on unnecessary risks very often, if ever, and seems to always hit the correct shot in the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t like I asked him about it or we talked a lot about it. It 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.\u2019\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Burns said the \u201cmargin is so thin that I just haven\u2019t quite been able to hole that extra putt or make that extra chip or whatever it is\u2019\u2019 to take one of these big tournaments home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, it comes down to being able to go out there and execute,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cI feel like when I\u2019ve been close I haven\u2019t been able to do that as well as I would like to. That will be the game plan for tomorrow \u2014 just try to go out there and give myself as many looks as possible on the greens and see what happens.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTHPORT, England \u2014 If we\u2019re being realistic, Sam Burns deserves to win the 154th British Open on Sunday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[7697,15547,427,3332,25858,99],"class_list":["post-773647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-british-open","tag-bryson-dechambeau","tag-golf","tag-pga-tour","tag-sam-burns","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773647","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=773647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}