After finishing the fourth round of the Farmers Insurance Open on Sunday with a spectacular 69 and taking the clubhouse lead at 6-under par, Brandt Snedeker was not sure if that would be low enough to win. Most of the field did not get a chance to finish the final round due to nasty weather.
He thought six might be good enough to get him in to a playoff but with so many good players still in contention, and a night to let the weather subside, Snedeker went to sleep on Sunday night thinking he had a small chance to end up the winner.
“I went from thinking I had no chance of winning to feeling pretty good about it to thinking a playoff might be a best-case scenario,” said Snedeker.
At the end that six was just enough. Snedeker won the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines for the second time, even though he did not have to hit a single shot on Monday. Jimmy Walker, who was leading Snedeker by a shot when play halted on Sunday, had issues with a windy back-9 on the South Course and struggled to a final-round 77.
K.J. Choi, who was tied with Snedeker what play continued on Monday, was only one better, finishing with a 76 to put him one shot back of the champion.
“Those last 30 minutes were kind of killing me,” said Snedeker, who also won this tournament in 2012. “K.J. gave me about a heart attack on those last couple of holes. It was good enough to get the job done but it was still nerve-racking up until the last couple of minutes.”
Snedeker’s final-round 69 was truly a phenomenal achievement. He was the only player in the entire field to break par in the 4th round. That’s the kind of thing you usually see at a wicked U.S. Open course, not a normal tournament in San Diego.
Snedeker is from Nashville and went to school at Vanderbilt but he sure seems to like California. Four of his eight career PGA Tour wins have come in the Golden State (two at Torrey Pines, two at Pebble Beach).
