BATON ROUGE-Former LSU Tiger and 2017 National Player of the Year Sam Burns will tee off at the PGA Tour Championship beginning on Thursday in Atlanta at the famed East Lake Golf Club.
The Shreveport native is currently ranked ninth in the FedEx Cup standings, and will begin the TOUR Championship six shots back from the world number one, Scottie Scheffler.
The TOUR Championship brings a unique tournament format to the postseason play in the PGA Tour. The highest seeded player will begin the tournament at 10-under, while each player below him will start at an incrementally lower score.
Burns will begin the tournament at 4-under, alongside Rory Mcilroy, Patrick Cantlay, Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark.
The former All-American has finished inside of the top-10 eight times this season, and logged a runner-up finish last weekend at the BMW Championship. Burns finished T2 at the BMW after a 7-under 65 on the final day of the tournament. After a 1-under 71 on moving day, Burns fired off eight birdies to one bogey and moved up eighteen places on the leaderboard. After nearly sinking a bunker shot on hole 18, Burns tapped in a putt for par and ended his impressive final-day effort.
Burns has been effective from everywhere on the course in 2024, but he has been especially lethal from the green. The 28-year-old ranks first on Tour in putting average, with a mark of 1.688 putts per hole. Burns also has an impressive average of 27.81 putts per round, which is good enough for fourth on tour.
The tournament is the final event of the PGA Tour regular season and the PGA Tour Championship is the last of three events in the FedEx Cup Playoffs. East Lake Golf Club will host for the 20th consecutive year, after becoming the permanent host of the TOUR Championship in 2004. The newly renovated course will feature a new layout that forces players to be more strategic and precise with tee shots and greenside chips.
The TOUR Championship also features the biggest purse of the PGA Tour season, with a grand total of $100 million being paid out among 30 players in the field. The winner of the event takes home $25 million, which is the highest payout for any event on tour.
How to Watch
Burns will tee off on Thursday at 12:16 PM CT alongside Patrick Cantlay. The Golf Channel and NBC will share TV coverage. Coverage is scheduled for Noon to 5 p.m. CT on Golf Channel with primary coverage on the weekend on NBC Sports and Peacock (1:30-6 p.m. CT on Saturday and 12:30-5 p.m. CT on Sunday.)