The commemorative competitor hits the same tree twice for a costly crooked number

Sam Burns will start final round of the 2026 Memorial Tournament with an outside chance of a comeback win. But his task would be a lot easier if he didn’t throw two strikes with a crooked number early Sunday morning.

The culprit? One of the many trees that limit freeways in Muirfield Village. That tree burned Burns not once, but twice in a row in Round 3 to threaten his chances of winning on Sunday.

Sam Burns hits the tree with two straight shots at the 2026 Memorial

The third round match was called off on Saturday night after thunderstorms wreaked havoc throughout the day. Burns was among the majority of the field that had to return Sunday morning to complete the third round before moving on to Round 4.

When Burns arrived at Muirfield’s par-5 11th hole early Sunday, he was one under for the round and seven under for the tournament.

At that time, only a few shots separated the member of the US Ryder Cup team by the leadership of JT Poston.

Things started to go wrong quickly in the 11th when Burns missed his putt to the right. He ended up in a deep rough, with a tree placed directly in front of him about 10 feet away.

Burns pulled a long iron and planned to hit a hard punch to get the ball into the fairway, giving him a shot at the green at the third. He planned to send his ball just to the left of the tree trunk and just under one of its overhanging branches.

But his first attempt did not go according to plan. Instead, his ball crashed straight into the tree, bouncing back and coming to rest not far from where it started.

Microphones overheard Burns recording his shock that the ball went so high. Still, with a better shot at attempt no. 2, he could reach the green in 4 and potentially escape par.

But when Burns pulled back and swung a second time, his ball caught the same tree BACK. This time he just cut the branch and continued forward… right into the stream that cut across 11th fairway.