When Brandt Snedeker shot an astounding 59 in the first round of the Wyndham Championship, he knew he still had his work cut out for him. Just the 10th sub-60 round on the United States Professional Golfers Association Tour, it was an extremely rare feat made all the more impressive by his poor start; he carded a bogey on his first hole and pats on his second and third at the Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina last Thursday. He rebounded, though, and put up a 32 going in (on the strength of long birdie putts that included two 26 footers) and a whopping eight-under score coming out for the watershed tally.
To be sure, Snedeker knew that he still had his work cut out for him. Even as he then stood at least four strokes clear of the rest of the 156-strong field, he figured he was in for a letdown common to those who hit milestones; after all, every day can’t be Christmas Day. It’s why only five of the previous nine instances in which a 59 was posted ultimately led to victory. And he was right; the leaderboard stayed bunched up after the cut mark, compelling him to stay focused on the task at hand. He became part of golf history, but he had to make it count in order for it to be truly meaningful.
Creditably, Snedeker delivered, his final-round 65 enough to put him two strokes clear of runners-up Webb Simpson (who shot a career-best 62) and C.T. Pan (who put up a 66). The latter, in particular, made him sweat, but he settled things on the 72nd hole with a birdie against his pursuer’s double bogey. In prevailing for the first time in two years, he said he went through “the most stressful time I’ve ever had in professional golf.” No doubt, part of his anxiety stemmed from the rib injury he suffered last year, one that made his sternum unstable and forced him to prematurely end his season.
Moving forward, Snedeker can use his triumph to steady the ship; he has had an up-and-down campaign so far, missing the weekend eight times in 23 events and finishing in the Top 10 just thrice prior to the Wyndham Championship. Up next, the FedEx Cup Playoffs, where he has jumped a whopping 50 spots to 30th in the standings. “I feel like I [now] have a chance” to win, he noted. Indeed.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994.
