LIFE'S A BEACH FOR BRANDT SNEDEKER

By Torleif Sorenson on 2/16/15

When an emotional Brandt Snedeker parred the 72nd hole to win the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am for the second time in three years, he gave credit to his wife and his coach. First, to his wife, Mandy:

"It's been a long time since I've felt this feeling. It's really special. Probably the only time I've cried walking off 18th green was this week, because everything I've done the past year-and-a-half I've put my wife through.

"When you're not playing good, the home life is not always great because you take it out somewhere and she's been a huge supporter of everything I've been doing."

Next, coach Butch Harmon:

"He did a great job of kind of helping me understand how I swing the golf club, what I need to do to be successful. The great thing about Butch is he's not technical at all. He instills confidence in you when you don't even realize he's doing it.

"We might have a three-hour practice session and he might say one thing about my swing and 15 things about the mental side of it or what you should be thinking in certain situations or what he learned from Seve or Tiger or anybody else. He's got all these little nuggets that are great that come in handy on days like today."

Snedeker later said that Harmon's advice to tee the ball lower in order to find more fairways was helpful.

As any devoted golfer knows, muscle memory is vitally important — and Snedeker's changes, he said, had become so ingrained that they had become second nature. "It's fun to do that," Snedeker said.

The victory netted Snedeker a cool $1.2 million before taxes, the caddie fees, travel, etc. More importantly, Snedeker is now qualified for the Masters Tournament in April and all four World Golf Championship events this year. Snedeker also boosted himself into 31st place in the Official World Golf Ranking, which is important after last year, when he slipped out of the top 50.

An interesting statistic: Snedeker's win also represents the 400th time that a graduate of the PGA Tour's AA circuit, currently known as the Web.com Tour, has won on the big circuit.

Life on the Rocks

Jim Furyk found himself in a spot of bother at the 6th hole, when his tee-shot leaked right, down into the rocks. In a potentially dangerous situation, Furyk decided to climb down and see if he had any shot back to the fairway.

Perhaps against better advice, he did:


However, this was probably the only bright spot for Furyk on Sunday. After shooting 63 on Saturday to take the lead, he skied to a 74 on Sunday and finished tied for 7th place at -16 271, six shots behind Snedeker.

Life was most decidedly not a beach for Matt Bettencourt's caddie and brother-in-law, Brian Rush. He fell on some rocks while looking for a ball at the 18th hole and suffered a broken shoulder, a compound break in his forearm and a concussion. Bettancourt finished alone in 63rd place, 19 shots behind the winner, so why Rush was sent to look for a wayward ball on the rocks at 18, when the game was already long done, is a mystery.

On a happier note, Steve Wheatcroft gets the "Shot of the Day" nod for this magnificent approach to 18:


Meanwhile, PGA Tour rookie Mark Hubbard, who proposed to his girlfriend on Thursday, missed the 36-hole cut. Still, we don't think Mark and Meghan will be complaining too much.


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