THE 154TH OPEN

July 17, 2026

Sam Burns

Mixed Zone

Q. A heck of a day, 62. Kind of caught us by surprise, you started so far back. After yesterday, what was different today for you?

SAM BURNS: I caught myself by surprise. Yeah, I honestly feel like I played a pretty solid round of golf yesterday and then just a terrible finish there on 16, 17, 18.

I thought coming into the day if I could get it to red numbers for the golf tournament, that would be a pretty good spot. I think the finish there the last three holes was just a bonus.

Q. When you hole out like that, is it just like -- are you going to be happy for the next 24 hours?

SAM BURNS: On that hole for sure. It's a hard hole. Yeah, it was in a good spot in the bunker, which you never know what you're going to get in the pot bunkers here. So I was happy when I saw that when I walked up. It was a tricky bunker shot because I had to land it in the fringe there and use the slope down to the hole. Definitely very lucky for it to go in.

Q. You're tied for the record now for the lowest major round ever --

SAM BURNS: Yeah, I had no idea until they told me up there. I didn't realise that was the case. Yeah, I'm very pleased with it.

Q. You did it a second after someone else did it. You probably saw --

SAM BURNS: Yeah, I think we were on 17 maybe and I saw that he was 9-under, and I was like, goodness, that's pretty impressive.

Q. When did you decide to come here this week?

SAM BURNS: I think it was probably last Friday.

Q. The plan was not to, generally, beforehand?

SAM BURNS: Yeah, I thought there was zero percent chance. Brett, my agent was like, I'm just going to sign you up just in case, but I was like, you can, but I'm probably not going to be able to play. Then we ended up having her on the 3rd. Even then, I still wasn't expecting to play by any means. Had a bunch of conversations with my wife, and she encouraged me to come over here and play, and here we are.

Q. It had to be her go-ahead, right?

SAM BURNS: Yeah, she's just amazing, superhero. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be here.

Q. Do you feel any lower expectations coming in not playing as much?

SAM BURNS: Yeah, I haven't really done a whole lot of golf leading up to this. Plus I didn't get here until midday on Monday. Just trying to get my feet under me for the first couple days. I don't know if there's lower expectations, but I think as a competitor, you still expect a lot out of yourself. But definitely tried to be a little more patient with myself for sure.

Q. How do the plans change now?

SAM BURNS: I don't think they do. I still think the goal is the same, so go out and try to execute each shot and try to put together as good a round as possible.

Q. You've obviously played so much golf with Scottie, practice rounds and whatever. Has he influenced your game, your view on your swing, anything like that?

SAM BURNS: Scottie as in Adam Scott? (Laughter.) Yeah, we've definitely played a lot of golf together, and we're obviously good friends. But yeah, I would say for sure. Watching him, the way that he can control a golf ball, is insanely impressive. If I keep playing enough with him, it'll be a kind of osmosis effect, I suppose. But I think it is nice to be able to pick his brain and see what he's thinking on different holes on different shots with different winds. We played a couple times this week and got to ask him a few things about some holes, kind of what he's trying to do.

Q. Can I ask about your links golf record and your record over here at the majors, maybe the one you've been the least successful at? Has it been a learning process to figure out how to play this?

SAM BURNS: Yeah, I would say I'm not a huge fan of links golf. I just haven't played well on links golf. It's not something I'm very familiar with. I get to do it maybe once a year. I don't know what to say.

Q. Why is it working now?

SAM BURNS: I mean, I think like yesterday, I hit a really -- not a bad shot on 17. I hit a 3-iron in and was trying to hit it just left of the green and I get up there and it's in the left side of lip and I have to hit it backwards. That kind of stuff is frustrating to me. You feel like you've hit a decent shot, and you get up there, and the next thing you know you're hitting it backwards. That's kind of been something I've tried to work on playing links golf is trying to be more accepting and still getting there.

But yeah, I think the main thing is you just try to come out and execute to the best of your ability and learn to accept whatever the outcome is.

Q. Can you point to a couple shots today that you thought were really good? Obviously the hole-out on 18, but what else were you really proud of?

SAM BURNS: Well, the 3-iron I hit on 13 to tap in was really nice. I hit a wedge to tap-in on 10, holed a good putt on 11. I don't think any really stand out necessarily. I feel like I hit a lot of good solid shots today and I was able to hole some putts, and that was obviously the biggest difference to yesterday.

Q. Did you know that Lucas got the 62 before you --

SAM BURNS: I saw he was 9-under through 17 but I didn't know what he did on the last.

Q. You thought you were the standalone -- that you'd beaten the record on your own today.

SAM BURNS: No, I saw he was 9-under, so I thought he shot 9-under, so I wasn't sure.

Q. It was very contrasting, different emotions between the two of you.

SAM BURNS: Yeah. Well, I didn't know the 62 was a record anyway.

Q. I thought it was interesting that you each tried to give up a little bit -- golfers are kind of control freaks because you're so precise; you want everything to work well, and then you come in here, is it kind of like, we must accept the fates?

SAM BURNS: Yeah, I think you embrace the chaos a little more. It's just typically in golf we play at home, you hit it high and you're kind of controlling where it stops, and here you can hit it high and if it just misses one slope or the other, it's a difference in 30 or 40 yards. It's just a big contrast of what we're used to. That's kind of my point of trying to just hit the shot and then, okay, wherever it goes is where it's going to go.