Snedeker Back Where He Belongs

Post by Golf Journalist Nick Bonfield

In the year leading up to Brand Snedeker’s victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, he’d become golf’s forgotten man. There was a time not too long ago where he seemed to put himself in contention every week; where his name was a perennial presence on leaderboards all across America. It wasn’t a catastrophic fall between mid-2013 and the start of 2015, but he set the bar so high in the preceding 18 months it seemed as if it was.

We measure success against expectation levels, so when someone’s enjoyed a significant period of top form, we naturally expect that to continue. Snedeker’s example (and hundreds of others over the years) just goes to show that even a small drop in performance can result in a disproportionate slide down the world rankings. Nowadays, players need to make small improvements just to stand still, such is the rising collective talent level on the PGA and European Tours.

Think of it in numerical terms. If you get 5% worse over the course of a single season – relative to your statistics the previous year - and the overall standard of that tour rises by 5%, you have to improve by 10% to get back to where you were. I think that’s something people often fail to grasp. Increased competition and depth of talent is pushing the goalpoasts higher and higher in what’s effectively a survival of the fittest-type scenario. The old adage ‘if you’re not moving forwards, you’re going backwards’ is apposite here. In 2014, a stroke average of 70.9 ranked 100th on tour. In 2004, that would have been good enough for 80th position.

Between January 2012 and July 2013, Snedeker was unstoppable. In 2012, he won the Farmers Insurance Open in a play-off and claimed the season-ending Tour Championship to win the year-long race for the FedEx Cup. He challenged at The Open, had seven top 10s, 10 top 25s and missed out on earning $5m by only $11,000. He ended 2012 at 10th position in the Official World Golf Ranking and pushed on again the following year. In February, he reigned supreme in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am following three successive top-5 finishes and won his sixth PGA Tour title in July at the RBC Canadian Open. In between, the challenged at The Masters and the Open and reached a career-high 4th in the world.

Given all the above, it might come as some surprise to learn that, at the start of this year, he was only exempt for one of the season’s four majors. The double-whammy with golf is that poor form doesn’t only lead to a tumble down the rankings, it also leads to limited starts in the most prestigious events where most world rankings points are on offer. It’s a vicious circle, as is knowing that your best golf comes when you’re relaxed, but not being able to because of your form.

In 2014, Snedeker didn’t really appear on the radar. In 25 starts, he managed only three top-10 finishes, the best a tie for 5th at the Wyndham Championship. Having come 1st and 12th in the FedEx Cup in 2013 and 2014, he missed the cut at both The Barclays and the Deutsche Bank Championship and came 86th on the year-long points race, missing the Tour Championship for the first time since 2010. It also represented the first time since the inauguration of the FedEx Cup Play-offs in 2007 that Snedeker failed to qualify for the penultimate event of the season, the BMW Championship.

His spell of inauspicious form was partly self-inflicted, and partly down to injury. He decided to hire Butch Harmon as his coach in July 2014 after ending a seven-year association with instructor Todd Anderson, and also faced spells on the sidelines due to rib a recurring rib injury. In fact, he was diagnosed with low bone turnover – effectively an issue with his DNA – in 2013. Those two factors, running in conjunction with each other, meant Snedeker couldn’t find any rhythm, consistency or fluidity. It’s notoriously difficult to play to a high level when you’re going through swing changes and adapting to a new coach’s philosophy, something not aided by a rib injury that decides to flare up with no warning, as it did during the 2014 US Open.

But the long-term effects of the switch were always going to present themselves at some stage. Harmon is one of the game’s finest tutors, renowned as much for his work on the physical swing as his ability to instill belief and bring the best out of people. Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker are both testament to that. Snedeker’s win wasn’t important because of the money or the prestige of the tournament, but for what it could do going forward. The last 18 months have been the darkest of Snedeker’s career, but he’s now moved out of the shadows and into the light.

“There was so much on the line today, so much stuff going on in my mind I had to quiet down,” he said.

“I got emotional on the 18th green because I realised how important this win is for me. It gets me back on track to where I feel I belong. I want to be relevant again and I think I’m relevant again. I don’t like playing golf not feeling like I can compete and win.”

Given all that was on the line from a mental standpoint, the way he conducted himself in the final round was hugely impressive. He negotiated Pebble Beach without a bogey and set a new scoring record in the process. He only dropped one shot all week long – on the 3rd hole in round three.

The popular American is now back where he belongs as one of the world’s elite players once more. He’s an entertaining golfer to watch – a product of his quick style of play and ability to get on a birdie roll – and someone armed with the knowledge he’s gone through the toughest patch of his career and come out the other side.

Snedeker for The Masters, anyone?

Image Credit - PGA Tour Facebook Page