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Sam Burns, recently engaged, in the mix at RBC Heritage

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HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA - APRIL 20: Sam Burns plays a shot from a bunker on the 17th hole during the third round of the 2019 RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links on April 20, 2019 in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. (Photo by Tyler Lecka/Getty Images)

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA - APRIL 20: Sam Burns plays a shot from a bunker on the 17th hole during the third round of the 2019 RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links on April 20, 2019 in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. (Photo by Tyler Lecka/Getty Images)



    Written by Helen Ross @helen_pgatour

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    No matter what happens in Sunday’s final round, Sam Burns will always remember this week at the RBC Heritage.

    The former LSU All-American happens to be playing some of the best golf of his young PGA TOUR career at Harbour Town. And he’ll start the final 18 holes tied with Matt Kuchar at 7 under, just three strokes off the lead held by world No. 1 Dustin Johnson.

    That’s not why this week is so memorable, though. On Friday night, the admittedly nervous Burns proposed to his girlfriend of four years, Caroline Campbell, and she said yes.

    “I felt all right until about two minutes before I knew I was going to do it,” Burns said with a smile. “And then I was kind of like train wreck.”


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    In a weird way, the proposal may have worked in Burn’s favor on the golf course. He was so concerned with getting the proposal perfect, he wasn’t obsessing about the winds or the weather or the challenging Pete Dye layout.

    “I guess I wasn't really so focused about the golf this week,” said Burns, who shot a 69 on Saturday that would have been even better had it not been for a double bogey from a plugged lie in the bunker at the 17th hole.

    Burns and Campbell, who both grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, met in a class at church when they were little kids. They went to different high schools, though, and didn’t start dating until Burns was a freshman at LSU and she was a sophomore.

    “She was actually my first Valentine when we were five years old,” he said. “And then after that she wanted nothing to do with me until high school.”

    Burns had asked Campbell’s father for permission to propose over the winter. Her friends sent him pictures of the kind of ring she’d like – “I guess girls talk about that,” he said with a grin -- and his sister went to the store and helped him pick it out.

    He decided to propose during the RBC Heritage because Campbell had spent a lot of time growing up at a place called Palmetto Bluffs in Bluffton, South Carolina, which is about 45 minutes from Hilton Head. The two were staying there this week despite the long commute, along with about 12 members of their families.

    Burns proposed on the way to dinner, just before the rest of the group joined them, and the celebration began.

    “These have been some of the best days of my life so far,” said Burns, who won a Web.com Tour event in nearby Savannah last year. “Any time that you ask a person to spend the rest of their life with you, it's a pretty big deal.

    “And you know, I hope that we'll have many years together and grow old together and get to enjoy a lot of fun things together.”

    A victory on Sunday would be the perfect cap to the week. But regardless of what happens on the golf course, Burns walks away a winner in life.

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