Brandt Snedeker can laugh about it now.
But make no mistake, when he four-putted the 72nd hole at last year's BMW Championship, Snedeker was disconsolate. The gaffe sent him packing and paved the way for John Senden to advance to THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola.
But make no mistake, when he four-putted the 72nd hole at last year's BMW Championship, Snedeker was disconsolate. The gaffe sent him packing and paved the way for John Senden to advance to THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola.
Snedeker, who started the final round a distant second to eventual champ Tiger Woods, had come to the 18th hole at Cog Hill that day 28th in the FedExCup standings. He put his drive in the primary rough on the par 4 and his second shot short of the water to the left of the green.
Then Snedeker decided to ask NBC announcer Roger Maltbie what he needed to do to maintain his position in the top 30. He was told he could afford to make bogey -- only then Snedeker proceeded to miss the 14-footer for par, the 3-footer for bogey and a 14-inch putt for the double bogey.
As groans eminated from the grandstands at the 18th hole, Senden's caddy rushed over to tell his boss, who thought he'd been eliminated with a double-bogey at the 17th hole, that he would be playing another week.
"I still give Sendo a hard time when I see him out here this year in practice rounds and say, I still haven't gotten my thank you note last year for getting you in," Snedeker said Saturday. "But it's kind of one of those things you have to let it brush off your back and kind of move on."
Maybe Snedeker, who might have been Huck Finn in a former life, will have the last laugh yet, though. The Tennessean, who started the week ranked 53rd in the FedExCup, fired a 64 on Saturday to seize the lead at the Deutsche Bank Championship.
For the second straight day, Snedeker started with a bogey on his opening hole but got the shot back immediately on his second. The 29-year-old then added seven more birdies to move to 12 under for the tournament and two ahead of the pack when the morning wave finished.
Tee to green, Snedeker was solid -- he hit 10 fairways and an equal amount of greens. But he was really spot-on with the putter, taking just 21 putts and one-putting nine greens. His birdie putts came from 25, 13, 2, 9, 7, 15, 13 and 12 feet. "I hit the ball really well yesterday and just didn't seem to make a whole lot, and today I made everything I looked at, so that was a nice way to get through the day," the smiling Snedeker said.
"The wind made it a little tougher out there today, but still, a lot of birdie opportunities and the course is playing perfect right now. The greens are relatively soft. The greens are perfect to roll on, so if you're hitting your lines you can make a lot of putts, and fortunately enough I did it today."
Snedeker acknowledged that advancing -- first to Chicago, then to Atlanta -- in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup is definitely in the back of his mind. He has to maintain his spot in the top 70 to get to the BMW Championship and work his way into the top 30 for a shot at East Lake.
Of course, should Snedeker win on Labor Day, he would move to No. 2 and be a lock for both.
"It would be really nice to kind of come back and play well this week and take care of that and not have to worry about four-putting the last hole like I did last year," Snedeker said.
If the Vanderbilt grad learned anything last year at Cog Hill, it was not to get ahead of himself. At the same time, such seismic shifts in emotion are what make the FedExCup so compelling. He understood that last year even in the depths of his own disappointment.
"You put a little bit more extra pressure on yourself than you normally should," Snedeker said. "I learned from that last year and hopefully this year I won't make the same mistake."
Snedeker says he doesn't think about what happened at Cog Hill that much -- except when reporters bring it up like they did Saturday. Sure, it stung, and it was difficult to watch THE TOUR Championship last year knowing how close he came to being there for the second straight year. But once he made his next putt under pressure, Snedeker moved on.
"I feel like I'm hopefully a little bit stronger now mentally to deal with something like that, .... so I feel better about it," he said.
Rounds like the one Snedeker shot Saturday will only help -- and get him another step closer to the ultimate goal, too.
by Helen Ross
by Helen Ross
