SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 Sam Burns tossed his putter aside, fell to his palms and then down to his knees. The crowd around him groaned.<\/p>\n
He was that close to sinking a birdie putt on the 18th hole to tie leader Wyndham Clark at the U.S. Open and instead missed just right by a half-inch \u2014 maybe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really thought I made that putt,\u201d Burns said after shooting a 67 Sunday to get to 3 under for the tournament and go into the clubhouse one stroke behind Clark. \u201cIt just didn\u2019t go in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burns sat down in the scoring tent, let out an exasperated sigh and put his hands on his head. He could only watch as Clark birdied No. 16, bogeyed 17 and two-putted in on 18 to win by the single shot Burns did not make down the stretch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like I was chasing all day,\u201d Burns said. \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate I just came up one short.\u201d<\/p>\n
The heartbreak at Shinnecock Hills on Long Island came a year after Burns\u2019 miserable finish at the U.S. Open at Oakmont outside Pittsburgh. He led after two rounds, played in the final group Sunday and everything fell apart in the rain when he shot 78 to fall out of contention and into a tie for seventh.<\/p>\n
Burns was brilliant Sunday in his bid for retribution. Entering the final round at even par, seven back of Clark, Burns birdied three of his first eight holes to move past Scottie Scheffler and others into second place. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo start the day seven shots back, I knew it was going to take something really special,\u201d Burns said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t have asked for a better start.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark bogeying three of his first seven holes made it close, but Burns was never able to pull into a tie for first. Three-putting at No. 15 put him in a difficult spot, and he thought the back nine was playing difficult.<\/p>\n
With Clark shooting the same back-nine 35, Burns felt differently following this loss than a year ago, saying, \u201cThe guy who played the best won.\u201d<\/p>\n
It just wasn\u2019t him.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year at Oakmont, I felt like more I lost the golf tournament,\u201d Burns said. \u201cI certainly don\u2019t feel that way today. I gave it my best, and I did everything I could to have a chance to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Burns was hitting balls on the driving range Sunday night, his dad, Tom came over with a fatherly message on Father\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just said he was really proud,\u201d Sam Burns said as he got choked up. \u201cI think we both knew how special it could have been for Father\u2019s Day. But I know he\u2019s proud.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burns\u2019 wife, Caroline, is 37 weeks pregnant with the couple\u2019s second child, he said. Burns played with 2-year-old son Bear while waiting for Clark to finish and left the course with life perspective after another difficult defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a crazy life we live sometimes,\u201d Burns said. \u201cAs a competitor, you want to go out there and compete as hard as you can and try to win. But at the end of the day, when you\u2019re off the golf course, it\u2019s really not that important and family is a lot more important than golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 Sam Burns tossed his putter aside, fell to his palms and then down to…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[957,1768,352,350,15,347,377,376,47,13,27,380,49],"class_list":["post-4084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sam-burns","tag-connecticut","tag-ct-state-wire","tag-fl-state-wire","tag-florida","tag-golf","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-sam-burns","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-sports","tag-u-s-open-mens-golf-championships","tag-wyndham-clark","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}