[Photo: Raj Mehta]
Brandt Snedeker received a text message from his daughter Lily on Sunday morning that said three words: “Go play fearless.”
That’s all Lily’s old man needed. Well, that and a little help from someone who was trying to collect his first victory in his 274th PGA Tour start.
Snedeker is now 45. He last won the Wyndham Championship in 2018. That’s 2,821 days ago. It’s four months shy of eight years.
The US Presidents Cup captain has been through a lot since then, including surgery in December 2022 to treat severe manubrium joint instability in his sternum. He wasn’t sure he’d ever win again.
But there he was late Sunday at Dunes Golf & Beach Club in Myrtle Beach with tears in his eyes. Twice. He bogeyed the 72nd hole and thought he blew the tournament. But he was handed a gift 20 minutes later when Mark Hubbard bogeyed the last hole to give Snedeker the one-shot victory at the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic.
It’s Snedeker’s 10th PGA Tour title, something he always desperately wanted to achieve. It also gave him the last spot in the PGA Championship field this week at Aronimink.
“There are points in the last couple of years I didn’t think I could win again,” Snedeker said. “My golf game wasn’t very good. My body wasn’t feeling great. Lots of self-doubt.”
https://twitter.com/PGATOUR/status/2053585487764308057?s=20
But Snedeker did the only thing he knew how to do, work through it. No excuses. Just find answers. Dig it out of the dirt.
“And every time I did it, I kept getting a little bit better and a little bit better and a little bit better and my confidence started growing, and I felt like I could play,” Snedeker said. “It’s been a long last three years. Eight years since I won, but really since I came back from my sternum surgery, it’s been a long time to feel like this.”
Snedeker’s results may not have looked like he was close to winning, but he was somewhat pleased with them. He’s ranked 273 in the world, so yes, there was still plenty of work to do on limited starts. But there were glimmers of hope.
He tied for ninth place last fall at the Bank of Utah Championship. Then there were four straight missed cuts to start this season, which felt like a setback. At the Valspar Championship in March he had a chance to win but played the last seven holes in five over par to shoot 76. He tied for 18th place.
This week in Myrtle Beach, he never shot worse than 67, going 67 66 67 66 for an 18 under par 266 total, one shy of the goal he set for himself at the start of the day. Around the turn of the final round, he was not in the picture, but a classic Snedeker charge, where he made four birdies in six holes, moved him to the top.
With plenty of nerves on the 18th tee, he blew his tee shot right, had to hack out back into the fairway and failed to get up and down, making bogey.
Snedeker tried to keep his mind occupied on the practice range while Hubbard finished. The 36-year-old journeyman was trying to make headlines of his own, attempting to win for the first time.
[Photo: David Jensen]
Mark Hubbard was oh so close to capturing his first PGA Tour title in 274 attempts.
Hubbard drove it left on the 16th hole and made bogey. He drove it right on the 18th, like Snedeker, hacked out and failed to get up and down. Two bogeys on the last three holes had Hubbard finish one behind.
“Super bummed,” Hubbard said. “I definitely felt like it was going to be my day. I felt like I played really solid all week.
“So, I’m definitely bummed, but you know, it’s golf, and I’m just going to learn from it.”
Snedeker’s already busy year just got busier. He now has many more playing options. This next week, he had planned on visiting Medinah Country Club, the site of the Presidents Cup, because he had some captain’s obligations to do there. Those will have to wait and his focus turns to playing in his first major since the 2021 British Open.
All good problems to have. One he always wanted to have, but he was just never certain they would come.
“This is probably as emotional as I’ve been winning a golf tournament before, for sure,” Snedeker said. “I’ve been through so much since the last time this happened, so very grateful, very appreciative of it and try to take it all in.”
