SOUTHPORT, MERSEYSIDE, ENGLAND – There is a saying in sports: Beware the joyous father! The birth of a child is so overwhelming that the love travels right down the golf club to the ball. Now, Sam Burns, whose wife Caroline gave birth to his daughter Belle last week, stand one round away from golf immortality at the 2026 Open Championship at fabled Royal Birkdale.
Burns followed the quietest 62 ever recorded – he finished behind USA’s Jackson Suber who had a chance at carding as low as 59 before he petered off at the end of round 2. Everyone was in Suber’s press interview as Burns finished birdie-birdie to climb to 8-under for his second round and reach 5-under for the first two rounds. Now after a 65 where he balanced 6 birdies against a single bogey at the ninth, he leads New Zealand’s Ryan Fox and South Korea’s Si Woo Kim by two strokes, Ryan Gerard and Aussie Lucas Herbert by three, and both two-time U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau and first round leader Jackson Suber by four. Englishman Tommy Fleetwood stands alone at 5-under, five strokes behind.
A brilliant 4-under front nine by Burns was powered by birdies at two, four, seven and eight. Burns sloppily bogeyed the ninth, missing a short putt. But he rallied to birdie the long par-5 14th and the short par-5 17th – exactly as the pros drew it up in the game plan this week – to post 10-under par.
Still, it’s lucky Burns is here at all. Baby Belle came a little early, thankfully, and Caroline was the impetus behind Burns catching a last-minute flight to arrive Monday in time for a practice round. And when asked about the whole “joyous father” boost, Burns cracked up the entire press room.
“If I was aware of that, I’d have like eight kids by now, I think,” and the room fell apart in chunks laughing. Then he continued.
“I’ve said this to someone earlier, this golf tournament was honestly so far off of my radar and expectations of playing. I mean, Caroline’s due date was Tuesday this week. She was like four days late with our son. I just didn’t think there was any possible way, and little Belle had different plans for us. Even after she was born, after a couple of days, I wasn’t thinking much about it. Caroline was kind of like, so what are you thinking for next week? I was like, I don’t know. Should we talk about it? She was like, yeah. Ultimately, she’s the one that really encouraged me to come over and play. She basically said I’ve got this at home. Go over there and give it your best, and here we are.”
Getting over here was also an adventure, Burns confided, remarking that his seat on the plane should have reclined fully…only he had laid his backpack in the way. The result was a seat more like economy class on the wing – no comfort. And then, with no sleep, he had to tackle Royal Birkdale.
“I didn’t have the normal preparation, flying overseas, getting here midday Monday. When I played nine holes on Monday, I couldn’t feel my toes from my fingers. I mean, it was bad. I played really bad,” he explained. [But] I came out Friday and had nothing to lose. I honestly feel like I played a pretty good round of golf for 15 holes on Thursday, and then just a really sloppy finish the last three. I feel like my game was in a good place.”
Burns will play in the final group with New Zealand’s Ryan Fox who, like both Burns and Suber tied the major championship single round scoring record. His 62 on Saturday was flawless, a clean card – eight birdies, no bogeys, vaulting him from Even Par and a tie for 52nd place to a tie for second, just two shots back.
“To be honest, nothing really changed. I didn’t think about much. It was just pick my targets, hit a shot, and keep it rolling basically,” he remarked calmly. “I get along pretty well with Xander [Schauffele]. We just talked walking down most of the fairways. It was kind of easy. Didn’t really think about anything else that was going on there. It’s nice to be in that head space. Hopefully I can find something similar tomorrow.”
After back-to-back birdies at two and three, Fox again carded consecutive birdies at five and six.The birdie at six was astonishing as that has played ont only the hardest hole in this Open Championship, but every one of the previous seven Open Championships at Royal Birkdale, dating all the way back to 1971 when Lee Trevino held off the affable Taiwanese golfer Mr. Lu. Fox hit a 300 dive straight down the middle, but his 218-yard 5-iron left him with a 54-foot putt.
He drained it like it was nothing. Of course, the gallery exploded. After the round he was phlegmatic, just the attitude you need going into the final round of a major championship.
“I went in there with a pretty aggressive strategy the whole day and did the same thing yesterday and played pretty decently. So I’ll try to do the same thing tomorrow and see what happens,” he stated matter-of-factly. “Just pick shots and try to hit them. Nothing changes game plan-wise. I think this golf course anyway kind of lends itself to being fluid, depending on — the wind’s swung around from all directions this morning when we played, it felt like. You can’t say I’m going to hit 4-iron off this tee or I’m going to hit 2-iron off this tee or driver. It does change depending on wind direction.”
Burns has won five PGA Tournament in his career, though none of them majors and none came this season. The 29-year old, ten-year pro has earned over $41,000,000 on tour in his career. His last victory came at the 2023 World Match Play over Cameron Young.
By contrast, Fox, the 30-year old Kiwi who has been on tour since 2011 has won twice in his career on the PGA Tour, including the 2025 Canadian Open.
