Brandt Snedeker Waits For Farmers Insurance Open Win
- Dan Hauser
- 1 Feb, 2016
Nearly 24 hours after holing his final putt, Brandt Snedeker stood on the practice putting green with no patrons in sight and hugged his caddie and family as he won the Farmers Insurance Open. It concluded a bizarre week in which Snedeker found himself winning a golf tournament, despite not hitting a shot on the final day of play.
Snedeker, who started his final round six shots back, teed off so early on Sunday he was largely deemed an afterthought. That’s when he put on one of the best individual round performances, shooting a 3-under 69 in blustering conditions and finishing his day before even more traitorous weather came in, leaving the leaders having to wait until Monday to finish their rounds.
The storm did so much damage to Torrey Pines that when the golfers came back to finish their round Monday morning, there was nobody around to watch it as fans and volunteers were kept away from the course for safety purposes with debris all over the course.
While there was no rain, the wind once again played a factor and Snedeker found himself winning the event by one shot after KJ Choi missed a long birdie putt on the 18th hole that would have sent it to a playoff.
“The way the wind blew and made those last five holes play so tough on those guys, I feel bad for them,” Snedeker said. “They got the raw end of the stick this morning. But that’s just the way golf goes, and luckily enough, I played good enough yesterday to get the job done. So it’s a special feeling to say the least.”
Jimmy Walker, who had a 1 shot lead over both Choi and Snedeker when play resumed Monday shot a 5-over 77 to finish three shots off the lead and in a tie for fourth.
54-hole leader Scott Brown didn’t fair well in the weather either. He carded a final round 87 in the final group to plummet all the way down to a tie for 49th. It was a testament to just how hard the South Course at Torrey Pines played on Sunday/Monday due to the conditions. The average score was 77.9, the highest fourth-round average at a regular PGA Tour event since the tour began keeping such statistics in 1983.
After all was said and done and Snedeker finally got his trophy, he reflected on the almost 24 hours he had to wait to finally hoist the trophy, including his lack of sleep Sunday night.
“Well, this was way worse than playing,” Snedeker said to his twitter followers after the win. “I don’t know how players families do this.”
The win was Snedeker’s second at Torrey Pines and eighth overall. Out of his eight career wins, four come in the State of California with the other two coming at Pebble Beach where Snedeker will tee it up in two weeks as the defending champion of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
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About Dan Hauser
As an avid golfer and sports enthusiast, Dan has had a passion for sports starting at a very young age. Dan’s other passion has always been writing. Since the time he could write, he has always enjoyed sharing information with people and telling stories through writing. In middle school he combined his two loves by joining the school newspaper in the sports department.
