‘Really cool feeling’: Snedeker shoots 59 at Wyndham
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Golfer Brandt Snedeker predicted low scores at the Wyndham Championship — but not this low.
Snedeker shot an 11-under 59 on Thursday, falling one shot shy of matching the PGA Tour record.
He made a 20-foot putt on his final hole to become the 10th player in tour history to break 60. Jim Furyk set the record with a 58 in the final round of the Travelers Championship in 2016.
“I better be smiling,” Snedeker said. “I don’t do this every day.”
This is the third consecutive year the PGA Tour has had a sub-60 round. Snedeker is the first to shoot 59 since Canadian Adam Hadwin in the third round of the 2017 CareerBuilder Challenge.
It gave him a four-stroke lead after one round. Ryan Moore and John Oda shot 63s, and Martin Flores, D.A. Points, Brett Stegmaier, David Hearn, Abraham Ancer, Ollie Schniederjans and Jonathan Byrd had 64s.
Snedeker, who said a day earlier the tournament would turn into a “birdie-fest,” began his round at par-70 Sedgefield Country Club with a bogey at No. 10, and he took off. He played the front nine in 27, including an eagle 2 on the par-4 sixth hole.
“To know what you’re trying to do and step up and have a 20footer (on the final hole) and know what it means, I was very aware of what was going on, and to knock that putt in was really special,” Snedeker said. “To know I’m a part of a small club on tour and not very many people have done this, really cool feeling right now.”
Snedeker, the 2012 FedEx Cup champion, won the Wyndham in ’07. He broke Si Woo Kim’s 2-yearold Wyndham record of 60 and had the best opening round in this event’s history. Arjun Atwal had a 61 in ’10. It’s been a somewhat frustrating, turbulent year for Snedeker. He has three top-10 finishes and two missed cuts in his last seven events and has not won on tour since 2016. During his first 16 tournaments of the season, he finished in the top 10 just once.
“Nobody could see this coming — trust me,” Snedeker said. “As much as I tried to positive selftalk myself into playing good, I didn’t see 59 coming today, to be honest with you . ... Luckily, it kind of clicked all day today, and hopefully it will keep clicking for the next three days.”
At No. 80 on the points list entering the final event of the tour’s regular season, he’s nowhere near the playoff bubble and his spot at The Northern Trust in New Jersey seems safe. But that ranking is his lowest since the tour’s post-season format debuted in 2007. During his tie for 42nd at the PGA Championship in St. Louis, Snedeker says he “kind of found something” when he simplified some swing fundamentals and began to feel better about that part of his game.
Then, he spent the first round showing it off. “Could have been even more special,” he said, “but happy with the way everything turned out.”