BATON ROUGE – Thanks to his victory at the 2014 Junior PGA Championship back in August, LSU’s heralded Class of 2015 recruit Sam Burns will make his debut in a PGA TOUR event this weekend when he tees it up at the Valero Texas Open that is set to begin Thursday with the first round of the competition at the JW Marriott TPC San Antonio.
Burns will tee off from the first tee alongside Mark Hubbard of the United States and Marc Warren of Scotland in Thursday’s opening round beginning at 9:20 a.m. CT. They will then tee off in the last pairing for the day in Friday’s second round as they go off the 10th tee at 2:10 p.m. with an eye on making the cut for the weekend.
He is ready to tee off in his first ever PGA TOUR event after playing in the tournament’s Pro-Am on Monday and nine holes of a practice round with two-time PGA TOUR winner Jordan Spieth on Tuesday.
A senior from Calvary Baptist Academy in Shreveport, Louisiana, Burns will arrive on campus as a freshman in the fall of 2015 as the No. 1-ranked prep recruit in the United States after signing a National Letter of Intent with the Tigers on National Signing Day in November.
The nation’s No. 1-ranked junior golfer regardless of class in both the Golfweek Junior Golf Rankings and Polo Junior Golf Rankings, Burns capitalized on a brilliant 2014 season in the American Junior Golf Association by being named the Rolex Junior Player of the Year as the premier player in all of junior golf in the United States.
The 2014 AJGA Rolex First-Team Junior All-American emerged as the top-ranked junior golfer in the country in the wake of victories in two of the major championships on the junior calendar with his wins at the AJGA’s Rolex Tournament of Champions at Richland Country Club in Nashville, Tennessee, in June and this year’s Junior PGA Championship at Miramont Country Club in Bryan, Texas, in July.
Burns is not the only LSU Tiger in the field at this year’s Valero Texas Open as emerging PGA TOUR standouts John Peterson and Andrew Loupe will also feature at TPC San Antonio this weekend. Loupe is grouped with fellow Americans Brandon Hagy and Jim Herman in the first two rounds, while Peterson will tee off alongside Chad Collins of the United States and Brian Davis of England on Thursday and Friday.
Peterson has enjoyed a strong season on the PGA TOUR in 2015 as he has made the cut in 11 of his 12 tour appearances this season while taking home $388,722 in earnings. His best finish of the 2015 season came from the OHL Classic at Mayakoba where he tied for 16th place in the event held at El Camaleon Golf Club in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, back in November.
Loupe has made the cut in three of his five tournament starts on the PGA TOUR during the 2015 season, including a best finish in tying for 41st place at The McGladrey Classic during the fall season in October.
@Samburns66 & @JordanSpieth are about to have some #MorningTee to warm up for @valerotxopen . #PracticeMakesPerfect pic.twitter.com/FdZgJotiNa
— Valero Texas Open (@valerotxopen) March 24, 2015