ROME — Sam Burns won’t be sitting during the first session of the Ryder Cup – in fact he will be playing in the opening match of the opening session – but he was sitting when he learned he had made the U.S. team. And not just anywhere. He was sitting on the toilet.
Speaking to SiriusXM’s Taylor Zarzour, Burns recounted – TMI alert – how U.S. Captain Zach Johnson called him with the good news that he was one of six captain’s picks for the U.S. 12-man team.
Johnson sent him a text Sunday night after the Tour Championship letting him know that he should expect a call the following day. After a restless night of staring at the ceiling, Burns was waiting to for his phone to ring and told his wife, Carolyn, that they should get out of the house to pass the time. When they got back, Burns felt the call of nature, and – of course – that’s when his phone rang.
“Literally as soon as I sit down, Justin (Thomas) started texting me, like, ‘Have you heard anything yet?’ While I’m responding to him, Zach called me,” Burns recounted.
Burns, who received a call that he didn’t make the team two years earlier, said he was “mid poop” when Johnson invited him to be a member of his team and he started crying.
“While I’m on the phone, I’m trying to wipe, I’m trying to tell Carolyn, she came around the corner and I gave her a thumbs up,” Burns said. “That’s real life right there.”
Indeed, it is.
Words don’t really do it justice. You can watch Burns tell his story from the throne here.
“I start crying because he told me I was invited”
Hear the hilarious story about how Sam Burns found out he had made the American Ryder Cup team.@Samburns66 I @RyderCupUSA I @rydercup pic.twitter.com/b31dB4EQgL
— SiriusXM Ryder Cup Radio (@SiriusXMPGATOUR) September 27, 2023