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It’s official.
With his win in last weekend’s Charles Schwab Challenge at the famed Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, Sam Burns has officially grabbed the baton to become the third straight PGA star hailing from Shreveport, Louisiana.
We are now entering the fifth consecutive decade of exceptional championship golf featuring three of North Louisiana’s finest golfers.
Shreveport’s Hal Sutton (14 PGA Tour wins) started this streak back in October, 1982 with his first tour win at the Walt Disney World Golf Classic. David Toms (13 PGA Tour wins) picked up the Shreveport championship golf mantle beginning in July, 1997 with his first win at the Quad City Classic. David also won PGA events during the 2000’s and the 2010’s.
Hal Sutton and David Toms each have one major championship trophy at home, too. Both were victorious in the PGA Championship. Hal’s major win in 1983 came by one shot over a fellow named Jack Nicklaus. David Toms’ gutsy PGA Championship in 2001 was also by a single shot over Phil Mickelson. That’s pretty impressive company!
With his playoff win last Sunday at Colonial over current world #1 golfer and close friend Scottie Scheffler, the 25-year old Shreveport sensation Sam Burns just earned his third PGA win of the season and his fourth overall title on tour.
As a result, Sam Burns just entered the upper echelon of golf as he moved up to #9 in the world golf rankings.
Being the first of this trio of successful Shreveport golfers, Hal Sutton was a Northwood High School golf phenom who dominated the local competition during the 1970’s. Though he had any number of college scholarship offers, Sutton elected to attend Centenary College in his hometown of Shreveport.
While at Centenary, Hal Sutton won 14 golf tournaments in his college career and led the Gents into their first NCAA golf tournament appearance. Sutton was named a college All-American and awarded the 1980 Golf Magazine “College Golfer of the Year” title . He also won the 1980 US Men’s Amateur championship played in North Carolina.
Upon entering the PGA Tour in 1981, Hal Sutton won five times during the 1980’s, six tournaments in the 1990’s, and another three events in the early 2000’s. He played on four Ryder Cup teams over his career and was named the Captain of the 2004 Ryder Cup team. Hal Sutton (now 64) briefly played on the PGA Champions Tour and currently works and resides in the Houston area.
Around this same time, David Toms was beginning to make a name for himself on the golf course, too.
Another very talented North Louisiana junior golfer, Toms won his age group at the 1984 Junior World Golf Championships. He would graduate from Bossier City’s Airline High School and play college golf for LSU. Though David Toms initially played for a few years on the PGA Tour after college, he lost his PGA Card after the 1994 season.
Toms would bounce back the following year in 1995 by winning twice on the Nike Tour (the PGA’s development tour). With his confidence restored, David Toms finally broke through on the PGA Tour by gaining his first win at Quad City in 1997.
David Toms would win three PGA events in the 1990’s, nine more times during the Tiger Woods’ era of the 2000’s, and added a final win at the 2011 Colonial.
After turning 50, David Toms won the 2018 US Senior Open and has remained a consistent top finisher on the PGA Champions Tour ever since. Toms (now 55 years of age) still resides in the Shreveport area.
David Toms credits fellow Shreveporter Hal Sutton with being a mentor and inspiration while he was a young golfer. Toms said, “What he did for me and all the guys my age, was give us something to shoot at, you know, local guy playing great. And I think I was probably able to do the same thing for Sam (Burns) and a bunch of the kids that grew up in our area.”
Sam Burns has a long-time friendship with David Toms’ son, Carter. They had much in common while growing up in Shreveport. Though Burns (who attended Calvary Baptist Academy) and Carter Toms went to different high schools in the city, the two young men played baseball together and competed against each other in numerous junior golf tournaments.
David Toms recalled about the young Burns, “He’s spent a lot of time around the house, gone on vacations with us, played a lot of PlayStation upstairs. Just watched them grow up — and watched him become a great golfer.”
As a 14-year old, Sam Burns was invited to join Carter Toms’ family on a trip to Fort Worth to witness David Toms’ victory at the 2011 PGA event held at Colonial Country Club.
Burns recalled, “One of the things I remember was watching when he holed the wedge for eagle. That was pretty cool to see. And I just remember everybody was really excited to watch and, you know, as a 14-year-old kid watching any PGA Tour player, much less a guy that you knew, in contention that it was just a really special moment.”
Eleven years later, Sam Burns would hoist the same trophy at Colonial Country Club and get his own unique red plaid jacket annually awarded to the winner.
Sam Burns and Carter Toms were both talented enough golfers to land a college scholarship at LSU. During Burns’ sophomore year with the Tigers, he won four collegiate tournaments in 15 events and earned the Jack Nicklaus NCAA National Player of the Year award in 2016-2017.
The 6’1” Sam Burns decided to try professional golf at this point in his career. Though he would play in a few PGA tournaments, Burns won his first professional trophy in 2018 on the PGA’s developmental Web.com tour event in Savannah, Georgia. He earned his PGA card for the 2019 season.
Sam Burns has been wise enough to seek the counsel of family friend David Toms about how to succeed on golf’s biggest stage.
“It’s great! You can’t put a price on that — just having somebody who’s been on here for however long he has, 20-plus years, he’s had an incredible career, major winner, he’s won out here 13 times or so. So just to be able to see it firsthand and then be able to talk to him about it, that’s really a really special for me and I think it’s something that he enjoys talking about. Yeah, it’s been very beneficial for me.”
As a 21-year old golfer playing at the 2018 Honda Classic in Florida, Sam Burns was paired in the final round with none other than Tiger Woods. When asked if he had ever played golf with Tiger, the affable Burns replied, “Only on the video game!”
After getting his first PGA Tour win just 13 months ago at the Valspar Championship played on the very tough Copperhead course at the Innisbrook resort near Tampa, Florida, Sam Burns has just collected his fourth win on the PGA Tour in Fort Worth at Colonial Country Club. He is well on his way to a very successful career in professional golf.
If you’re like me and have visited the World Golf Hall-of-Fame in St. Augustine, Florida, you might be wondering whether either Hal Sutton or David Toms are currently in it. Here are the requirements:
“A player must have a cumulative total of 15 or more official victories on any of the original members of the International Federation of PGA Tours (PGA TOUR, European Tour, Japan Golf Tour, Sunshine Tour, Asian Tour and PGA of Australasia) OR at least two victories among the following events: The Masters, The PLAYERS Championship, the U.S. Open, The Open Championship and the PGA Championship.
Unfortunately, Hal Sutton’s 14 PGA wins were just one win shy of qualifying and David Toms’ 13 wins were just two short of becoming a part of this elite golf shrine.
With four PGA wins already under his belt, Sam Burns is now on a path which might finally place a representative from the city of Shreveport into the World Golf Hall-of-Fame in a few decades. Keep your eye on him!
Regardless, these three well-respected professional golfers will always be a part of the unofficial “North Louisiana Golf Hall-of-Fame!”