Atop the Masters leaderboard, with an opening round of 67, Sam Burns is deploying a secret weapon: the mind of Scottie Scheffler. Burns is trying to do what his best friend does: stay patient, play away from trouble, and let the course come to him.

“I feel like I’ve played a lot of golf with Scotty here and watched him have a lot of success here,” Burns said after his first round. “He’s probably the best at that, and so trying to borrow a little bit of that from him. Just being patient under the green, trying not to play too aggressively to some of these pins and shortstop myself,” he added. “We were able to do a good job of that today.”

The two have been friends since they were juniors in high school. Their friendship grew stronger during college when they competed against each other, and now they are best friends on the Tour. At the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont, Burns led after 54 holes and credited Scottie Scheffler directly.

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“We obviously spend a lot of time together,” Burns said then, “and being able to talk to him and just kind of learn from him and ask him certain questions, it’s been really cool.” Scheffler, for his part, described Burns as someone who “plays golf very freely” with “really good natural instincts” on the greens. However, sharing a course as partners has proven to be a different experience.

At the 2023 Ryder Cup, the pair were beaten 4&3 by Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton in the foursomes. They similarly went winless through three pairings at the Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow. Yet head-to-head, Burns has shown he can beat his best friend when it matters. In 2022, he sank a 38-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole at Colonial to win the Charles Schwab Challenge, having started the final round seven shots back.

On Thursday at Augusta, Burns hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation at an 89% clip, well above the field average of 57%. He also picked up an eagle on the par-5 second, adding birdies on holes 8, 12, 13, and 15, with his only dropped shot coming at the par-3 sixth.

Scottie Scheffler built his wins at Augusta in 2022 and 2024 on a remarkably low error rate and elite ball-striking. In 2024, he hit 79% of fairways and 70% of greens and made only nine bogeys and one double bogey across the entire week. He has consistently spoken about playing “boring golf,” choosing the safe side of greens and letting competitors make the big mistakes. Burns, who has spent considerable time alongside Scheffler, appears to have absorbed exactly that philosophy.

Now, with the defending champion Rory McIlroy sitting in tied second after round one, Burns leads the Masters for the first time. His plan is straightforward. But is Scheffler lacking his game?

Sam Burns is doing better than Scottie Scheffler after R1

Burns was using Scheffler’s strategy to stay at the top of the leaderboard, but Scheffler is four spots behind at T4. Scheffler shot a 70, which was two strokes under par. He made an eagle on the second hole and a birdie on the third hole to get to three strokes under par early.

But after that, Scheffler couldn’t keep the momentum going. He missed a few putts at important times and ended the day two shots behind his best friend. After his round, Scheffler said, “There were a few putts I felt like I made that stayed right on the edge.”

There was nothing wrong with the round. Scheffler hit 12 of 14 fairways, which is the kind of driving accuracy that has made him the best player at Augusta. He came in having not made the top 20 in his last two events, but on Thursday, he didn’t show any signs of that form.

Burns is deploying Scheffler’s techniques, but the latter needs to find his putter to make up the two-shot gap from T4.