Hall of Fame

Hometown: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Residence: Boynton Beach, F.L.

George Burns III is the greatest touring professional golfer ever to come out of Long Island. 

He won four PGA Tour events and two European Tour events over an 18-year career. He had 66 top-10 finishes and 155 top-25 finishes on the PGA Tour.

Few could have seen it coming when Burns was a collegian at the University of Maryland.

In Burns’ sophomore year on the Maryland golf team, he was the No. 7 Terrapins’ finisher at the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. His junior year he was the fifth man on the team. His senior year, 1972, he placed 30th overall at the ACCs and again was the fifth Maryland finisher. 

Fast forward just two years, to the summer of 1974. Burns won three major national amateur tournaments, the Porter Cup, the North-South Amateur and the Canadian Amateur. And he was on the 10-man team that helped the United States defeat Great Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup. 

In 1975, Burns was the low amateur at the Masters with a 30th-place finish, turned pro, then tied for 10th at the British Open. He was off and running on an outstanding pro career.

How Burns got so good so fast is an amazing story and a testament to his massive athletic ability, hard work and intense competitiveness. 

“I can’t tell you why that happened,” Burns says of his emergence to the PGA Tour. “I’m not that much of a religious guy, but this is obviously a gift from God. My exposure to great pros and great golf courses in New York, that helped me so much.”

Burns will be honored on Nov. 6 as part of the 2026 Class in the New York State Golf Association Hall of Fame in a ceremony at Albany’s Wolfert’s Roost Country Club.

Golf was Burns’ third sport, behind football and basketball, at Long Island’s Manhasset High School. A 6-foot-2 1-2, 220-pound defensive end, he enrolled at the University of Tennessee. After a shaky academic start, he transferred to Maryland. But in his first summer football camp, he suffered a knee injury and he realized he was not going to last on the Terrapins’ football squad. 

“My father told me you better find something to do or you’re going to wind up going to Vietnam,” Burns said, “so I went to the golf coach.”

Maryland golf coach Frank Cronin saw something in Burns’ big, raw athleticism. He gave Burns a shot. 

“He gave me a start, and he stood by me through thick and thin as a college student,” Burns said. “My first year, I was like the 15th man – maybe – on the team.”

Burns improved over the next three years, but his game was a long way from Tour caliber. 

Still, former Maryland teammate Rick Bendell says Burns’ talent was undeniable, and he wasn’t shocked by Burns’ Tour success.

“I felt his potential was really good,” Bendell said from his home in Lynchburg, Va. “I thought he definitely had the ability to get much, much better. I didn’t know how much better. He was a long hitter. And what really amazed me about George even then was he had a wonderful short game. He was beautiful to watch.”

Burns says a lot of help from New York City area and Long Island golf professionals over those years, and then the two years he spent as an amateur after college, was the critical factor in taking a giant leap to tour stardom. 

“All these guys who were grass roots pros in the Met Section gave me time, pro bono,” Burns says. 

He rattles off a string of names of club and teaching pros who helped him: legendary Winged Foot Golf Club pro Claude Harmon (a PGA of America Hall of Famer), Deepdale and Garden City Golf Club pro Gil McNally, Westchester Country Club’s Lighthorse Harry Cooper (a World Golf Hall of Famer), and North Shore CC pro Carl Lohren. 

“I’m cutting the list off of guys who worked with me,” Burns said. “They’d fit me into their schedules, and I’d have time to practice. I went to all these teachers, and I got a tip of the week, and that’s what I worked on. I worked with guys like Bob Toski. I spent some time with Jack Nicklaus’ guy, Jim Flick. These guys would be there, and I became friends with them.”

“I got exposed to great golf courses,” Burns said. “I was more not verbal but a visual learner, and I had the opportunity to play all those golf courses out east, like Shinnecock and the National in Southhampton, which I’m still a member of. But my exposure to these great courses it gave me an idea how I could play.”

His first season as a pro, after the low amateur Masters finish, was fantastic, starting with the top-10 finish at the Open Championship. It was played at Carnoustie and won by Tom Watson. Burns shot 71-73-69-71, and his 1-under score on a windy Sunday tied for the second lowest in the final round. 

“There must have been some magic in the air,” Burns said. “I liked the salt water, being from Long Island. Visually, I played different there, landing the ball short of the green.”

In the ensuing weeks, Burns won European Tour events in Sweden and Ireland. Burns tied for 10th again at the 1976 British Open, then he tied for fifth in 1977. 

Those finishes spoke to his splendid short game. 

“There was a place on Long Island, Plandome CC, where I hung around, where my dad played,” Burns said. “And none of these places around there had ranges. So I ended up becoming an expert around the greens. I had to be. I was a little bit wild because these places didn’t have ranges. So I found myself there at night working on the short game.”

Burns finished second to Jerry Pate at the grueling PGA Tour Q-School in late ’75 to earn his full-time tour card. He was a top-40 player on tour the next four seasons. He scored a breakthrough in October 1979 by pairing with Ben Crenshaw to get his first official Tour win, at the Walt Disney World Team Championship in Orlando. 

“At the time, I had had five opportunities to win and I couldn’t get to the clubhouse,” Burns said. “I was sort of an emotional player in that I fed off things, and those kind of things weighed on me competitively. Let me tell you, being Scotch-Irish, I beat myself up inside. I was harder on myself than anyone else because I expected more of myself. So Ben knew this, and he tried to quiet me down. I looked at his easy mannerisms out there . . . and it helped me get on to my first win.”

Just four months later, Burns got his first solo win, shooting a final-round 3-under 69 to capture the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach. Burns entered the final round three shots behind but blew past Nicklaus and Dan Pohl, who finished second by a shot. 

“Nicklaus had a three- or four-shot lead on the back nine, and I ended up making a 50-footer for birdie on the 16th hole,” Burns said. “Jack ended up shooting a high round (73), and it was sort of given to me. I never expected Jack to mess up, especially at Pebble where he was so good. That long putt got me the win by one shot.”

Burns finished No. 7 on the money list in 1980. He ranked third on tour in birdies made and tied for second in putting, at 28.9 putts per round. 

“Any kind of success I had, in my own mind, I was sort of a master around the greens,” he said. 

The 1981 season featured a painful runner-up finish by Burns at the U.S. Open at Merion. He held a three-shot lead after 54 holes but shot 73 on Sunday. Burns’ competitiveness, which drove him to success, was a double-edged sword. He was hard on himself after that close call. But the consistent top-10 and top-25 finishes kept coming. 

In 1985, Burns broke through for his third Tour win at the Bank of Boston Classic. He finished 17-under, tying a tournament record with a six-shot win. Over the last two rounds, Burns outdueled Greg Norman, who finished second. 

Due to his good size and athleticism, Burns could hang with Norman off the tee in driving distance.

“He was a big burly guy with what some people feel was an unorthodox swing, very upright,” Crenshaw said of Burns to the New York Daily News in 2013. “But boy, he had beautiful hand-eye coordination and tremendous touch. He could play some exquisite short shots and he was a very effective putter, a wonderful player, absolutely.”

Burns’ last Tour win came at the Shearson Lehman Andy Williams Open in San Diego in 1987. He shot 22 under and made two eagles on the inward nine to fire a final-round 65. 

“I got to the 13th hole and knocked it on in two with a 2-iron and made about a 50-footer for an eagle,” Burns said. “I parred the next hole, then I holed a 9-iron from the fairway from about 130 yards. So that gave me some breathing room.” 

Burns also won the 1988 Chrysler Team Championship, a two-man better-ball tourney, with good friend Wayne Levi (a 2025 NYSGA Hall of Famer).  

A string of injuries to his knee, shoulder and finger cut short Burns’ career in his 40s and kept him from a substantive Champions Tour career. 

“Everybody gets these injuries,” Burns said. “I got them at the wrong time. I was basically retired in 1992. But golf was good to me. I was very lucky. Any success I might have had was from the free time the grass-roots guys gave me. I would have liked to be a little more composed and easier on myself. I was exposed to a lot of great people, so I can’t complain.”

Burns lives in Delray Beach, Fla. He has two daughters, Eileen and Kelly. 

Story written by Mark Gaughan, NYSGA Hall of Fame Committee 

George Burns III's Career Highlights

• Winner, Monroe Invitational (1972)
• Winner, Long Island Amateur (1972)
• Winner, MGA Amateur (1972)
• Winner, Canadian Amateur (1973)
• Winner, NYSGA Men's Amateur (1974)
• Winner, Porter Cup (1974)
• Winner, North & South Amateur (1974)
• Winner, Azalea Invitational (1974)
• Member, United States Walker Cup Team (1975)
• College golf: University of Tennessee (freshman), University of Maryland (sophomore–senior); also a one-year member of the Maryland football team
• Turned professional in 1975
• 2x winner, European Tour — Scandinavian Enterprise Open (1975) and Kerrygold International Classic (1975)
• 4x winner, PGA Tour:
  • Walt Disney World National Team Championship, with Ben Crenshaw (1979)
  • Bing Crosby National Pro-Am (1980)
  • Bank of Boston Classic (1985)
  • Andy Williams Open (1987)
• Winner, New York State Open (1982)
• Winner, Chrysler Team Championship, with Wayne Levi
• 571 PGA Tour events played; 70 top-10 finishes; 8 runner-up finishes
• U.S. Open: T2 (1981), held a three-shot lead entering the final round
• British Open: T5 (1977)
• PGA Championship: T19 (1977, 1978)
• Masters: T30 (1975), Low Amateur
• Senior PGA Tour member (1999); best finish T9 at the 2000 Brickyard Classic