PHILIP REIDprofiles the affable American who has eased into the lead at the midway point
THE TONGUE-twister of a name is of Dutch origins and, although coming from Nashville and professing to be a fan of country music, he doesn’t know who Nancy Griffith is. But then she has probably never heard of Brandt Snedeker. The man in question joked that not many Americans had.
So, who is Brandt Snedeker? First things first. Snedeker took up golf at the age of seven during family holidays to rural Missouri where his grandmother was the manager of a golf club and, back home in Nashville, played the local municipal course – Shelby Park – with his older brother, Haymes, and his father, Larry.
At weekends, he spent time working with his mother at the family’s pawn shop – Gray House Jewelry Loan – and he would later recount: “I got to see the way it is for a lot of people, who needed to pawn their wedding ring to pay their heating bill or buy their medications. I mean, life’s a battle.”
After winning the US Public Links as an amateur, he played in the 2004 Masters and stayed at the Crow’s Nest at Augusta National. He never got selected for the USA team in the Walker Cup and spent three years on what is now the Web.Com development tour before earning his ticket onto the PGA Tour in 2007. Once there, he stayed.
Snedeker’s first tour win came in the 2007 Wyndham Championship and he secured two further victories, at the Heritage tournament and the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego, where he was presented with a cheque for $1 million.
Victories haven’t always come easily. In the 2007 Australian Open, he called a penalty on himself after he adjudged his ball had moved in the rough. He lost by a stroke to Craig Parry.
“There was nobody around me and the ball barely moved. Sure it went through my mind that I could have definitely gotten away with it. Nobody else would have known but me. But karma’s a powerful thing in this game.”
He’s got history in the Majors. In the 2008 Masters, he went into the final round trailing eventual winner Trevor Immelman by just two shots but fell to a finishing 77. “That was the most painful experience of my life in golf. All I needed was 18 holes of decent golf and I’ve got a shot (at winning). And I played terrible. Going into Sunday, I felt like the script had been written, like this was meant to be. I walked out of that (recorder’s) tent and realised I had let a golden opportunity go by.”
The tears which followed, exposed in a television interview, became the defining image of Snedeker’s bid for the Masters.
And, now, he is back in a Major as not only a contender but the pacesetter at the midpoint. Growing up, he idolised Tom Watson. “I just loved the way he played, loved the way he struck the ball. The way he played fast. His pre-shot routine. The way he held his finish the same way no matter where the ball went, all of which I copied.”
When Snedeker suffered his nightmare final round in the Masters, Watson rang him.
“I’ll never forget the phone conversation. He said, ‘Brandt, there’s nothing I can say that’s going to make you feel any better. I shot 79 in the last round when I led my first Major (the 1974 US Open at Winged Foot). How you deal with it and move on is what’s going to define you as a player. I believe you’re going to learn from it and be better for it’.”
Yesterday, he took another step in the right direction to fulfilling Watson’s prophecy. So, who is Brandt Snedeker? “I’m a pretty happy-go-lucky guy. I’m very lucky to do what I do for a living. I’m married with a 16-month-old little girl at home, who pretty much dominates me and anything she wants to get, she’s going to get. That’s the kind of guy I am.”
