In the midst of the best season of his career, Sam Burns entered this week's FedEx St. Jude Championship at No. 3 in the FedEx Cup standings. But after a strong opening round, he was unintentionally reminded about a time when things weren't so good.
Burns fired a first-round 65 to put him among the leaders after Day 1 at TPC Southwind, then got a question fired at him by a reporter that prompted an awkward, but funny exchange. Here's how it went down:
Q. I don't have it in front of me and I know this won't surprise you, but I haven't memorized your entire career record, but I was curious what it was like your first year on Tour when you got to the postseason and you probably weren't ranked as high, was there more, I don't want to say a distraction, but were there other things in play?
SAM BURNS: Unfortunately, my first year I broke my ankle in July so I wasn't able to play in the Playoffs.
Q. Didn't remember that either, Sam. Sorry.
SAM BURNS: I try to forget it, too.
As with basically everything else during a season in which he's won three times and earned nearly $7 million and counting, Burns handled that well. Well, other than that final round at the Players Championship when I had a nice bet on Burns and he played like he had a broken ankle. Sigh. Sorry to remind you about that also, Sam.
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