FEDEX ST. JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP

August 16, 2026

Sam Burns

TPC Southwind

Quick Quotes

Q. This was a day where it seemed like it was hard for guys to get much going in trying to chase down Scottie. How would you assess the day for you?

SAM BURNS: I just looked at my stats for the week. I think I finished -- I lost like 2 1/2 strokes off the tee. It's not a golf course you want to do that on.

I just played out of position a lot today. It's a really, really difficult golf course from the rough, and unfortunately, I was in the rough a lot.

Q. How do you take this result and momentum potentially into the next couple weeks here?

SAM BURNS: I was just saying, honestly, the last three weeks at home I didn't do a ton of golf. We have a newborn. It was nice to kind of come here and see where my game is. Obviously I have some work to do to get ready for next week with some longer clubs.

Yeah, I hit the ball really nicely with my irons. I putted it good. Overall I feel really good going into the next two weeks.

Q. Scottie was not going to make it easy today. What was your assessment of him?

SAM BURNS: No, I think everyone knew that coming into the day. I knew he was going to put a solid round together. Honestly it was going to be really difficult -- what did he finish, at 17?

I would have had to play pretty much a perfect round of golf to have a chance today, and I didn't come close to that. Yeah, he played exactly how I expected him to.

Q. You mentioned the difficulty of finding fairways here. What about this course makes that so challenging?

SAM BURNS: Well, they're small. They're small fairways. You get a loss of crosswinds. You have trees that overhang some of the fairways, and they're just difficult to hit.