Snedeker's challenge: Learn from missed opportunity

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Brandt Snedeker won the ADT Golf Skills Challenge with Boo Weekley on Monday.

Oct. 27, 2009
By Craig Dolch, PGATOUR.COM Contributor

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Usually, a professional athlete learns more from disappointment than success. Brandt Snedeker hopes that's the case.

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Six weeks ago, Snedeker faced a 3-foot bogey putt at the BMW Championship that stood between him and an unexpected trip to THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola and all the trappings that come with that invitation.

He missed -- not only the putt (and the next one), but a chance at a big payday, as well as a chance to lock up a spot in all four majors next season. What bothered Snedeker the most wasn't an errant stroke, but a wondering mind.

"I was thinking about the wrong things when I hit that putt," Snedeker said Monday at the ADT Golf Skills Challenge at The Breakers. "I was thinking about what that putt meant to me instead of going through my normal routine. I was disappointed I didn't hit that putt like I did all the other putts that week."

Estimates are that missed putt cost him $750,000 to $1 million in lost earnings, endorsements and playing opportunities. An expensive lesson, no doubt, but one that Snedeker insists he will learn from as he continues play on TOUR this week at the Viking Classic.

"I'll never make that mistake again," he said. "At least it wasn't to win a tournament. But the only way I'm going to get over that putt is to make one that means something."

And that's exactly what Snedeker did Monday, making a clutch 3-footer as he teamed with Boo Weekley to win the unique ADT event by splitting $314,000 in earnings. The duo beat the successful Ryder Cup pairing of Kentuckians Kenny Perry and J.B. Holmes, when Perry missed a 5-footer in a playoff.

"I told Brandt you can either let that missed putt beat you up or it can help make you into a better player," said Snedeker's instructor, Todd Anderson. "Everyone who has played the game goes through hardships in their career. What matters is how you deal with it. I think Brandt has dealt with it as well as he possibly could."

Oh, he had his moments. There was the initial anger, followed by detachment.

"I turned my phone off for two days, because I didn't want to talk to anyone," he said.

But Snedeker knew he couldn't beat himself up for too long, not after how far he had come in the last four months. In May, Snedeker wondered if his season was over. His season had started horribly -- he missed the cut in nine of his first 12 PGA TOUR events, finishing in the top 25 just once while earning about $110,000. Then he cracked a rib at the Masters, a place where he had finished a heartbreaking third the year before, forcing him to miss THE PLAYERS Championship during his six weeks on the sidelines.

"There was a time when I thought I might have to take a medical (exemption)," Snedeker said. "But once you start thinking like that, you know you're in trouble."

Snedeker vs. Snedeker at Disney

Snedeker sibling rivalry will be on display at the Children's Miracle Network Classic in two weeks.

Brandt's older brother, Haymes, received a sponsor's exemption for the PGA TOUR event after winning GOLF CHANNEL's "Big Break X: Michigan" last year. Haymes' real job is as a municipal judge in Alabama, but he's no slouch on the golf course, either, after playing collegiately at the University of Mississippi.

Brandt, who won the 2007 Wyndham Championship on the way to winning PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year, has four top-five finishes this year, including a tie for second at the John Deere Classic.

Eventually, Snedeker's rib healed, and so did his game. He returned in June and had three-top five finishes in his next seven starts (a T5 at the AT&T National, a T2 at the John Deere Classic and a T5 at the RBC Canadian Open). In his last 13 tournaments, he has five top-10 finishes, seven top-25s and earnings of more than $1.3 million.

"I don't want the season to end," Snedeker said.

At least the PGA TOUR's Rookie of the Year in 2007 got to enjoy a successful start to his so-called "silly season" career. He and Weekley survived an interesting format called a "reverse scramble," where after six skills challenges decided the pairings, the two-man teams were forced to play their worst shots instead of their best. That meant, for instance, both players had to make a putt for it to count and there was little need to play aggressively.

Fred Couples had a chance to move himself and partner Hunter Mahan into the finals over the Snedeker-Weekley pairing in the first semifinal match, but Couples missed a 4-footer for the win and then a 3-footer for the tie. ("I flew across the country for that?" Couples said, shaking his head.) Nick Price also missed a short putt that enabled Perry and Holmes to advance over the Price-Fred Funk pairing.

"That format was interesting, but it makes those putts a little more nerve-wracking," Snedeker said. "I told Freddie (Couples) we should have this format in the Presidents Cup, where you're stuck having to play your worst shot."

"Reverse scramble" also kind of describes Snedeker's third full season on the PGA TOUR. He managed to reverse the horrid start with a lot of scrambling in between.

"That's why I'm not going to beat myself over that missed putt," he said. "For one thing, I can still get into next year's majors. For another, when you look at where I was in May, I think I had a very good year. Making THE TOUR Championship would have been the icing on the cake."

Instead, he got another valuable lesson in sports' school of hard knocks.

NBC will televise the ADT Golf Skills Challenge on Dec. 26-27.

Craig Dolch is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.