Brandt Snedeker wins Tour Championship and FedEx Cup

Golf is a game of momentum and the timing was perfect for the 31 year old Brandt Snedeker, the PGA Tour’s number one putter.

In his 10-under par performance on the historic Donald Ross designed East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Snedeker missed only one putt under eight feet for the four rounds. His rounds of 68-70-64-68 on this difficult par 70 layout bettered second place finisher Justin Rose by three strokes for the Tour Championship by Coca-Cola title and $1.4 prize money. He also won the FedEx Cup with golf’s biggest payday of $10 million.  

This was an emotional week for Snedeker. His swing coach Todd Anderson’s son Tucker was in a near fatal automobile accident. Tucker, a member of the University of West Florida Golf Team, was visited by Brandt before his last round and was in a responsive coma and able to make eye contact. Larry Snedeker, Brandt’s father who received a liver transplant last year, was in attendance for just the second time since the surgery.

Snedeker said, “It just made me realize…as much as I made today out to be important, how unimportant it really is, it got me focused on the small stuff, which I did a great job of doing today.”  

This was Snedeker’s fourth win on the PGA Tour. He ends up third on the PGA Tour Money List this year with $4.9 million plus his $10 million bonus and to cap off a great year was Davis Love’s captain’s pick for this week’s Ryder Cup at Medinah in Chicago.

“I think this solidifies what I already know, I think when I play my best golf, my best golf is some of the best in the world,” Snedeker noted.

Rory McIlroy, ranked number one in the World Golf Rankings, was leading the FedEx Cup going into this week’s championship but finished in tenth place in the Tour Championship, nine strokes behind Snedeker. The Nothern Ireland phenom received $3 million for his second place FedEx Cup finish.

“I’m a little disappointed, but at the same time Brandt really deserves to win,” McIlroy explained. “He played–if you look at his stats the whole way throughout the week–he played the best golf out of anyone. He knew what he needed to do.”  

Snedeker, the 10th ranked golfer in the world, is known being one golf’s nice guys and resides in Nashville, where he was born and went to college (Vanderbilt). “It is like winning the lottery. I’m not by any means a flashy guy. Of anybody that I know, I do not need $11 million. So there are going to be things we can do to really help people. So that’s the way I look at it. This is unbelievable to be financially stable for the rest of my career. As long as I’m not an idiot, I should be really fine, really. I really think we can make a difference and help a lot of people out in Nashville and Tennessee and the surrounding area.”

Tour Championship by Coca-Cola Top 10 Finishers

East lake Golf Club Atlanta Par 70

Brandt Snedeker 68-70-64-68 – 270

Justin Rose 66-68-68-71 – 273

Luke Donald 71-69-67-67 – 274

Ryan Moore 69-70-65-70 – 274

Webb Simpson 71-68-70-66 – 275

Bubba Watson 69-66-70-70 – 275

Jun Furyk 69-64-72-72 – 277

Hunter Mahan 68-73-71-66 – 278

Tiger Woods 66-73-67-72 – 278

Robert Garrigus 68-69-69-73 – 279

Dustin Johnson 69-67-73-70 279

Matt Kuchar 67-69-70-73 – 279

Rory McIlroy 69-68-68-74 – 279