Scottie Scheffler will head into Sunday at TPC Southwind knowing exactly who he has to beat on Sunday and exactly how much he doesn’t want to beat him. The world No. 1 heads into the final round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship at 13 under par, holding a two-shot lead over South Korea’s Sungjae Im and a person who happens to be his closest friend on Tour, Sam Burns. That pairing turns Sunday’s final round in Memphis into something more complicated than a standard closing duel.

On top of that, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Scheffler has been winless since the American Express in January. He has multiple close calls with five runner-up finishes and two third-place finishes. Burns is no better. Twice this year, Burns came close to winning a major, first at the U.S. Open and second time at the Open Championship. He has been winless since 2023, and that’s what puts Scheffler in a dilemma. He was asked directly what it’s like to compete against a friend with a title on the line, and his answer set the tone for how he plans to approach the round.

“It’s always a little weird just because I want him to have success so much and I think he wants the same for me. Tomorrow we’ll go out there and play our game and see where things finish up at the end of the day. It will be a competition like normal. It will be fun being out there with your friend, but it’s also a bit weird at the same time,” said the World No. 1 about his getting paired with his friend for the first time as the final group.

What does Sam Burns think?

Burns knows Scheffler is a tough opponent, especially when he is holding the lead heading to the final round. Yes, Scheffler has lost a huge lead before. But that came four years ago at the Tour Championship, when he squandered a six-shot lead to hand the victory to Rory McIlroy. That seems ages ago considering how dominant Scheffler has become.

“Scottie is obviously playing great, as he always does,” Burns said after moving up 17 spots on the leaderboard on Saturday. “He’s not going to lay down. He’s going to play great tomorrow. So you’re going to have to go out there and put a really good round together and see if you can catch him.”

Burns and Scheffler generally stay together when they travel to other states during tournaments. Just a month ago at the Travelers Championship, Scheffler forgot to bring his belt. Burns, who was staying in the same rental house with Scheffler, drove him back and brought it. Are they staying in the same house this time too?

Burns was asked about it after his round and clarified that they were not staying in the same place this week. It might have created an awkward moment if one of these two was to go on to win.

Nevertheless, even without them staying together, it is a tense moment as two friends face each other, with both gunning for a title. So Scheffler was quizzed by a reporter on whether he would talk to Burns before the final round.

“I wouldn’t say texting is one of my strong suits, so probably not,” Scheffler chuckled, suggesting that once the round starts, the dynamic reverts to business as usual.

How we got Burns vs. Scheffler and why you should tune into final round

On Moving Day, the World No. 1 piled a 68 on top of a 61 to inch closer to his second title of the season. And while that tension itself, between personal loyalty and competitive instinct, is not new for Scheffler, it arrives at a pointed moment.

Under the Memphis sun, he built his overnight advantage the hard way, scrambling for pars as much as he made birdies. A par save on the third hole, after his tee shot found the rough, kept an otherwise messy hole from becoming a costly one.

Momentum built again on the par-5 16th, a hole he called reachable and one he said was important to convert heading into the closing stretch, where 17 and 18 punish anything off-line. Those putts, several in the 10-to-15-foot range by his own count, kept the round from unraveling on a course where recovery chances are scarce once a ball leaves the fairway.

Burns, meanwhile, was steady throughout. He fired a bogey-free 62, stringing together five birdies on the front nine and three on the back nine. Whether that composure carries into a final round against a friend is the open question TPC Southwind will answer. Scheffler suggested it won’t change his preparation.

“Strategy is still the same, just go out there and execute,” he said.

Ditto Sam Burns.

“I think as a competitor, any time you tee it up, no matter what’s on the line, no matter what it is, you want to win,” Burns said.

That said, what happens over the next 18 holes at TPC Southwind will determine whether the friendship survives the “little weird” feeling or whether Sunday competition proves stronger than Saturday camaraderie.

2021 Ryder Cup almost ruined Scheffler and Burns’s relationship

Sam Burns and Scottie Scheffler have been friends since teenage years while competing against each other on the junior golf circuit. Their bond deepened once both joined the PGA Tour and both started winning. By August 2022, they had seven wins between them, and Scheffler had already reached the World No. 1 spot.

A report from the PGA Tour’s Sean Martin during the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship painted the picture thus:

“Scheffler and his wife, Meredith, sit at the table alongside the Burnses and Brad Payne [editor’s note: Payne would go on to caddie for Scheffler in Ted Scott’s absence], the president of College Golf Fellowship and one of the leaders of the TOUR’s Bible study. Plates are filled with brisket, ribs and macaroni and cheese. Sarcastic barbs are exchanged, existential matters discussed. The conversation shifts at whiplash speed between the mundane and the profound.”

That friendship met its strongest opponent a year prior.

Scheffler got the nod from Steve Stricker over Burns. According to The Mirror, at that time, Scheffler had yet to win a single event on Tour while Burns already had five. The World No. 1 understood the situation and called up Burns.

“That can ruin a friendship if it’s not something that’s talked about,” Scheffler was quoted by The Mirror as saying. Burns agreed.

“Me, Caroline, Scottie and Meredith spent a long time on a phone call with these weird emotions of like, ‘Man, I am really sad but also happy for him.’ If it had been someone else, I would have been more disappointed that I wasn’t on the team.”

They would go on to play together at the 2023 Ryder Cup, although the partnership didn’t produce any positive results. There were teammates again at Bethpage Black, but Keegan Bradley didn’t pair them together.

Now at TPC Southwind, they will be paired but will also play against each other. Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns tee off at 1:40PM ET on Sunday.