Brandt Snedeker shot an opening round 59 and survived a late scare on Sunday to win the Wyndham Championship, his first victory on the PGA Tour since 2016.
Snedeker shot 21-under for the week to finish three strokes ahead of Pan Cheng-tsung and Webb Simpson to earn his ninth career PGA Tour win.
Despite the fact that he started the tournament with one of the best rounds in PGA Tour history, Snedeker found himself in a tie with Pan heading into the final hole on Sunday. A birdie, combined with a double-bogey for Pan, gave him a three-shot cushion that looked more comfortable than it felt as the final holes played out.
“Shooting 59 on Thursday, your expectations go through the roof,” Snedeker said after the tournament.
Anatomy of Historic Round 59
That 59 was all the more incredible considering that Snedeker started the first round with a bogey on the first hole. After that, he went on an incredible roll, shooting 27 on the front nine and hitting a 20-foot putt on 18 to become only the 10th player ever to break 60 on the tour.
“Nobody could see this coming, trust me,” Snedeker told reporters after his historic round. “As much as I tried to positive self-talk myself into playing good, I didn’t see 59 coming today, to be honest with you.”
Jim Furyk remains the only player ever to shoot a 58 on the PGA Tour, having shot that total in the final round of the 2016 Travelers Championship.
While the round was special, it didn’t separate Snedeker from the pack as much as might be expected. He took a four-shot lead after the first round, and great scoring conditions kept the field close through the weekend.
It was Pan that seemed most likely to catch Snedeker down the stretch. The 26-year-old Taiwanese golfer was tied with Snedeker at 20-under-par heading into the final hole, but shanked his tee shot out of bounds. That resulted in a penalty stroke that virtually sealed the tournament for Snedeker, and Pan would end up tied for second with Webb Simpson at 18-under.
“It’s my fault. I can learn something from it,” Pan said after the tournament. “I only played one bad hole, which is fine. You know, I’ve still got a lot of golf left.”
FedEx Cup Playoffs Bound
Wyndham served as the regular season finale for the PGA Tour this year, meaning it was the last chance for players to secure a spot in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, or to improve their position going into the postseason. For Snedeker, the win moved him all the way from 80th in the FedEx Cup rankings to 30th, boosting his chances of making it into all four playoff tournaments.
“To be perfectly frank, I didn’t have any chance at all [to win the FedEx Cup],” Snedeker said of his position heading into the Wyndham Championship. “After this week, I feel like I have a chance.”
The FedEx Cup begins next weekend with the Northern Trust at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, New Jersey. According to William Hill, Dustin Johnson is the 8/1 favorite to win the tournament, while Snedeker enters with 40/1 odds of winning a second straight event.