WORKDAY CHARITY OPEN

July 10, 2020

Sam Burns

Q. Sam, how would you characterize your round out there today?

SAM BURNS: Yeah, it was definitely interesting with the two rain delays. But I felt like I got off to a pretty good start. There were some holes early that were gettable this morning, and then kind of a weird back nine, I guess, with both the rain delays. But felt like I didn't really take advantage of some of the scoring holes there early in the front nine. It was nice that I was able to finish off with three birdies right there heading into tomorrow.

Q. One of those early scoring holes is the 14th. You're one of the longest hitters on TOUR and decided to lay up. What was the strategy on that?

SAM BURNS: Yeah, so I think it was 315 hole, and so the play there is you don't really want to hit anything that can get hole high, and so Travis and I figured that driver could get us past hole high, especially with left being the miss it would go a little further. We knew if we laid up we could lay up to a good number. Unfortunately I just didn't hit a very good wedge shot in there, but yeah, that was kind of the thought process behind it.

Q. If they moved it up again this weekend would you think of going for it?

SAM BURNS: Well, it totally depends on the number that we have. If the numbers add up how we want them to, then yeah, we would. Today they just didn't, but maybe the next couple days they will, so we'll see.

Q. Did you play against Collin in college at all?

SAM BURNS: Yeah, we've played together since we were kids. I don't know how old, but yeah, we've been playing a lot of golf together since way back in the day.

Q. Do you remember any memorable battles you had in college?

SAM BURNS: Yeah, we've probably had a few. Did he go to Cal, I think? So we didn't play a lot of the same events in college, but more so in amateur golf we played a bunch of golf together in amateur golf and stuff. Yeah, I'm sure we had some good battles. I don't remember any off the top of my head, but hopefully this weekend we'll have one.

Q. What do you think of him as a frontrunner?

SAM BURNS: Collin? Well, first off, he's an incredible talent. Great player, incredible guy. Really good friend, and so it's great to see him playing well. I hope he continues to play well this weekend, and hopefully I can give him my best and see what that is.

Q. You've played here twice before; once you had to withdraw, no real success in the first year. What's maybe different this week? Is there any particular part of your game that's really working?

SAM BURNS: Not really. I think my game is forming into shape a little bit better than in previous years when I was here. Travis and I have really focused on just trying to get better every day, whatever aspect of the game that is. We're just trying to find little ways to get better here and there. We'll kind of go over the round today and see where we can improve on tomorrow.

Q. Do you feel like you can be aggressive on this golf course?

SAM BURNS: I think at certain times, yeah. The opportunities will present themselves when you have scoring clubs, and there's other holes that you've just got to try to make par. Like 16 today, I think it was only 175-ish, but a hole that'll play over par. So it doesn't look very hard on paper, but just with the wind and where that pin was, it's a tough hole. So there's holes like that where you have to play more conservative.

Q. You talked earlier about your three closing birdies. The last two came after the weather delay if I'm not mistaken. Where were you? You were on 8 tee before the weather delay?

SAM BURNS: Yeah.

Q. Talk about how you passed the time and what kind of momentum those closing birdies give you going into the weekend.

SAM BURNS: Yeah, just sat inside with some of the guys and just kind of talked, maintained our social distance. But yeah, I think it's a great way to end off a round, no matter if it's after a rain delay or whenever it is. Yeah, hopefully it'll give me some momentum going into tomorrow, and we'll see what happens.

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