Weekly Recap: He's on Fire!

With his win at the Valspar Championship on Sunday -- his second in as many years at the event -- Sam Burns now has three victories in less than a year. This one was the most impressive yet. 

It's one thing play alongside Keegan Bradley in the final round, as Burns did at last year's Valspar Championship, or Denny McCarthy, as Burns did at the Sanderson Farms event in October. But to have to stare down world No. 8 Justin Thomas for 18 holes and come out on top, well, that's next level.

To be sure, Burns and Thomas were not in the final pairing at Innisbrook, as they began the day three shots off the 54-hole lead held by Davis Riley, who played alongside Matthew NeSmith. One of those four was going to win, and Burns and Thomas seemed the most logical candidates.

As it turns out, Riley proved remarkably resilient, to the point that he birdied 17 to forge a tie with Burns and force a playoff. Burns won on the second extra hole by sinking a jaw-dropping 32-foot birdie putt from the fringe.

The 25-year-old Louisianan thus moved back into the top 10 in the world, thrusting himself front and center into the upcoming Masters conversation. In the other big takeaway from Sunday, Burns pushed Dustin Johnson out of the top 10 for the first time in seven years. More on DJ in a minute.

Burns and Thomas began the day tied. Thomas blinked first, with a bogey on No. 8, and then second, dropping another shot on 11. By then Riley had relinquished the lead thanks to a triple-bogey on the par-5 fifth that would have ended the chances of most guys.

Burns, meanwhile, had birdied 5, 11 and 12 and nearly completed a flawless final round until a bogey on 17 that actually could have been worse but still opened the door for Riley. In the end, Burns edged Thomas by just one stroke -- but that was enough of a difference for one of them to be in the playoff and the other to rue what went wrong.

Burns' game is so sound across the board. Last week he ranked third in Strokes Gained: Approach, 13th in Around-the-Green, fourth in Tee-to-Green and eighth in Putting. That has not only helped him win three times over the past year but also notch two runners-up, a third, nine top-10s and six more top-25s.

He is one of four golfers to win three times on the PGA tour in the past year, joining Cameron Smith, Patrick Cantlay and Hideki Matsuyama. The thing is, while Smith won THE PLAYERS, one of his other two came at the two-man Zurich Classic. And two of Cantlay's three are debatable -- the Memorial, when Jon Rahm had to withdraw with a big 54-hole lead, and the TOUR Championship, when he started with the lead. Matsuyama's three are all the real deal, just as they are with Burns.

Burns played Bay Hill, which was a tough four-day grind for the golfers, then THE PLAYERS, which was five grueling days. He will take this week off and almost certainly skip the Valero Texas Open the week before Augusta, leaving him time to recover and go in search of his first major title.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Davis Riley
The 25-year-old Korn Ferry grad had actually been as high as 161st in the world a couple of years ago but entered the week at No. 399. He had been so-so as a PGA Tour rookie, with two top-25s but also six missed cuts in 13 starts. At the Valspar, he showed a different side of himself, no more so than on Sunday. He battled back from a triple-bogey 8 on the fifth hole and sank a six-foot birdie putt on 17 to tie Burns for the lead and force the playoff. He just fell victim to a miracle putt by Burns. Riley had not shown a whole lot before the Valspar. This may be a turning point in his season, but we also see fringe guys have one or two good weeks a year and nothing consistently good. Riley moved up to 172nd OWGR, close to his career best.

Justin Thomas
Yes, Thomas keeps coming close, with this tie for third yet another top-8 showing – he has seven of them in his past 11 starts going back to last year's playoffs. But a top-10 player should be able to close it out at some point. It's now more than a year since Thomas' last win. It's very hard to win on Tour, for sure, but top-10 players should win every year. At the Valspar, Thomas led the field in the all-important Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. And he ranked 19th in Putting. Needing a birdie on 18, Thomas sailed his tee ball into a fairway bunker. And that sealed his fate.

Matthew NeSmith
NeSmith finished last season ranked fourth in greens in regulation and 11th in Strokes Gained: Approach. Those are great and important indicators. But his short game is a big weakness and he's actually been falling quicky in the world rankings over the past year. This tie for third was easily his best result as a PGA Tour member, but whether he proves to be a turning point in his career is no sure thing. He's now 173rd in the world – one spot behind Riley.

Matt Fitzpatrick
After stumbling at THE PLAYERS Championship, Fitzpatrick resumed his sterling play in 2022 with a tie for fifth. That's six top-12s in his past seven starts and you have to think that he could be a factor at the Masters in a few weeks.

Brian Harman
Harman is already in the Masters, but his tie for fifth got him back in the top-50 in the world at No. 50. He began the week having fallen to 63rd in the world thanks to poor play in the second half of last year. But already in 2022, he's had a T3 at the Amex, a T14 at Phoenix and now another top-5 here at the Valspar. In other words, returning to form.

Sahith Theegala
Theegala had his breakthrough performance at Phoenix last month with a tie for third. Now he has another top-10 with a tie for seventh at the Valspar. He's still young, he won't play well every week. Better consistency will come. But indications, beginning with the college pedigree, are that Theegala is going to be a good player. He's nearing the top-100 in the world at No. 127.

Adam Hadwin
When it would've been easy to falter a week after the grueling PLAYERS, Hadwin kept on chugging with a tie for seventh. He has four top-25s in 2022 alone and is again approaching the top-100 in the world rankings, now 104th.

Shane Lowry
Lowry completed a superb Florida Swing with a tie for 12th, following a runner-up at the Honda and a tie for 13th at THE PLAYERS. Don't sleep on him at Augusta.

Alex Noren
Noren continued his excellent play that extends back to last year with a tie for 12th that further inches him to closer to the top-50 in the world. He's still not in the Masters, but now at No. 56 in the rankings he will have a chance this week at the Match Play to qualify for Augusta.

Tommy Fleetwood
Just when it appeared that Fleetwood would disastrously fall from the top-50 in the world, he stabilized and then some with a very good Florida Swing. The tie for 16th at the Valspar was his third straight top-25 – no small task considering the rugged conditions at Bay Hill and TPC Sawgrass. This is the most consistent play on the PGA Tour we've seen from the Englishman in more than two years – since before the pandemic. He's now ranked 46th – so he could still slip from the top-50 very easily if he doesn't keep it up.
 
Luke Donald
There's been a Luke Donald sighting! (We probably wrote the same thing the last time Donald made the weekly recap who-knows-when). His tie for 16th is the best finish for the former world No. 1 since the same result at last summer's 3M Open. We shouldn't expect this too often from Donald, but it did move him from the 500s OWGR into the mid-400s.

Gary Woodland
Woodland tied for 21st at tournament he'd missed the cut three years running (and also won in 2011), so this was another sign that he is returning to his former world-class form.

Viktor Hovland
Hovland was never a factor and tied for 33rd. Frankly, making the cut was an accomplishment, as he's been playing a lot of golf so far in 2022, and much of it in high-pressure situations.

Dustin Johnson
Johnson's game has been sliding for more than a year, and now that he's fallen to 11th in the world – out of the top-10 for the first time since 2015 – it may not end. We continue to move further from his fantastic run toward the end of 2020 and start of 2021, when he won the Masters and three other tournaments. At the Valspar, Johnson turned in a good final round for the second straight week, shooting 69 to zoom 23 spots up the leaderboard to tie for 39th. Now he just has to work on the first three rounds.

Webb Simpson
Simpson was hurt and he's made only three starts in all of 2022. He missed eight weeks before missing THE PLAYERS Championship and followed it up here with a tie for 48th. Presumably he's healthy now. Regardless, he's fallen to 36th in the world.

Henrik Stenson
In his first tournament since being named European Ryder Cup captain, Stenson tied for 57th, which is more than his U.S. counterpart, Zach Johnson, did. Johnson missed the cut. But Johnson has a higher world ranking, barely, 222 to 225.

Cameron Tringale
Tringale tied for 62nd and is running out of time to qualify for the Masters. He is ranked 51st – right where he ended last year -- and needs to be in the top-50 in the rankings released the first week of April.

Collin Morikawa
A week after missing the cut at THE PLAYERS, Morikawa should've been fresher than most of the field but never was a factor, tying for 68th. He is in the Match Play field but this presumably was his final stroke-play event before the Masters. He clearly is not in form after taking a lot of early-season time off. Let's see whether that costs him at Augusta.

Keegan Bradley
Bradley was a popular pick after his near-miss last week at THE PLAYERS and his runner-up last year at the Valspar. He had little left in the tank after TPC Sawgrass and bowed out meekly with a Friday trunk-slam.

Jason Day
Day missed the cut for the second straight tournament after withdrawing from THE PLAYERS following the passing of his mother. He entered the week 99th in the world and did not qualify for the WCGC-Match Play and, as of now, is not in the Masters field. He's back outside the top-100 at 102nd.

Lee Hodges
Hodges birdied his first five holes on Thursday to zoom onto the first page of the leaderboard. He proceeded to shoot 6-over across his next 31 holes and missed the cut.

Alex Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick, the younger brother of Matt, the world's sixth-ranked amateur and a senior at Wake Forest, got into his first PGA Tour event on a sponsor invite. He missed the cut. He appeared in a DP World Tour event last year, the Cazoo Open, and made the cut.