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Mon Sep 14, 2009 3:36 pm EDT

How much did Brandt Snedeker lose by missing a three-footer?

By Jay Busbee

Three feet. It's not quite inside the leather, not quite gimme, but close. Veeery close. So close that you've probably knocked down a hundred of them in your life without thinking twice about it.

Brandt Snedeker would love to have one of those hundred, please, delivered to Sunday afternoon. By four-putting from 12 feet, and three-putting from inside three feet, he not only bounced himself out of the Tour Championship, he cost himself a nice little chunk of change. ESPN's Bob Harig figures it this way:

• $100,000 by falling from a T-8 to a T-10 in the BMW standings.

• At least $120,000, the take for the last-place finisher in the Tour Championship.

• $175,000, the bonus for anybody competing in the FedEx Cup.

• Guaranteed invitations to the Masters, British Open and U.S. Open next year.

Ouch.

The last thing Snedeker needs is for anybody to pile on; facing a three-footer with that much on the line must have felt like facing a 300-footer. And according to Snedeker, everything came unraveled when he made the mistake of asking NBC's Roger Maltbie in the 18th fairway what he needed to get in:

"I thought I had to make par and he told me bogey would get in," Snedeker said. "Shouldn't have affected me. Shows you how weak mentally I am. Shows you what I need to work on. We'll work on it and we'll be back next year."

Ouch, again. Instead of making par, Snedeker finished with a quadruple triple bogey. And hopefully not a completely wrecked psyche.

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89 Comments

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  1. LongTrans
    1. Posted by LongTrans Mon Sep 14, 2009 4:00 pm EDT

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    Brandt shot a very good 66 on Saturday and that is who he really is. I was explaining to my son, who is 12 y.o. what happened to Brandt. He said, "well, if he 4-putted from 12 feet, he wasn't meant to play in the final tournament." Ah, the faith of children. It's hard for him to accept now, but in the long run, Brandt's already impressive talent will get even stronger due to this hiccup. Money isn't everything. Maybe it was 'meant' for him to spend time with his family. That's where the real value is. This guy is a great golfer and I see majors in his future.
  2. Ron H
    2. Posted by Ron H Mon Sep 14, 2009 4:29 pm EDT

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    In a TV interview on the previous day, he was talking about how well he was putting. Maybe its time for a putter change or a grip change, give Berhand Langer a call....
  3. musicman72143
    3. Posted by musicman72143 Mon Sep 14, 2009 5:45 pm EDT

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    I don't have any useable comment. I just have to say I was watching, and I just felt a cold spot in the pit of my stomach. My heart goes out to the guy. All amateur hackers have days like that. For a pro, it must have felt like a root canal. I'm sure it was a one time thing.
  4. LukeM
    4. Posted by LukeM Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:09 pm EDT

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    Mr. Busbee, a 7 on a par 4 is NOT a quadruple bogey, it is a TRIPLE bogey.......
    http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/players/Brandt+Snedeker/6936/scorecard/2009/27
  5. Emile
    5. Posted by Emile Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:18 pm EDT

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    First the Masters collapse and now this. You hate to see bad things happen to good people.
  6. max o
    6. Posted by max o Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:56 pm EDT

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    didn't he triple? not quadruple
  7. Ed
    7. Posted by Ed Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:00 pm EDT

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    He flat out choked BIG TIME!!! It is what it is! He should have just thrown himself into the water hazard after that 4-put or stick his head in the hole until everyone went home.
  8. willreynoldstha2nd
    8. Posted by willreynoldstha2nd Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:21 pm EDT

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    A big pointless article once again. I'm a journalism major and this crap makes me want to rethink my career.
  9. Jay Busbee
    9. Posted by Jay Busbee Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:58 pm EDT

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    @Luke M, Max o: Thanks for the catch. Corrected.
    @ Bradley: Fat, drunk and snarking in blog comments is no way to go through life, son.
  10. Lionsfan
    10. Posted by Lionsfan Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:30 pm EDT

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    We've all done it at some point, but man. That must feel awful. First!
  11. Dan B
    11. Posted by Dan B Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:43 pm EDT

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    Brandt's putter has been his weak spot since he joined the tour.....his stroke needs a center shafted belly putter....it's a shame cause he's a real talented player...
  12. Kelly G
    12. Posted by Kelly G Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:59 pm EDT

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    I thought his two putts were more careless than anything else. I always knew we were going to see something go wrong the way the guys try to tap it in off balance and I'm surprised it hasn't happened before now. Bet next time he concentrates a little harder.
  13. momostugatz
    13. Posted by momostugatz Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:04 pm EDT

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    to bradley. you nailed it! very insightfull and i couldn't agree more. definetly consider a different career. maybe heckler, yeah thats it. no brain-power needed for that career path, perfect.
  14. Jim
    14. Posted by Jim Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:14 pm EDT

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    bradley and momostugatz: you're dopes. The rest of us would like to reflect on an interesting topic...
  15. JEFF L
    15. Posted by JEFF L Tue Sep 15, 2009 12:09 am EDT

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    Hey at least he didnt hurt anybody but himself. How many other sport pros go out and verbally trash a official (Srena), kill a ex wife (OJ), bash a teammate (TO), shoot himself in the leg (Buress), or kill dogs). Notice a trend here? Brandt will get over this and be just fine. What about these other fools.
  16. Jennifer S
    16. Posted by Jennifer S Tue Sep 15, 2009 12:12 am EDT

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    Hey musicman72143 (#3), I'm a dentist . Root canals are fun and I take offense to your comment. Do we need to have a beer summit? lol
  17. Superman
    17. Posted by Superman Tue Sep 15, 2009 12:12 am EDT

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    You are allowed to make mistakes all the time, and you can still keep your job, ok raise your hand, the guilty one!!
    LOL,
  18. Ryan
    18. Posted by Ryan Tue Sep 15, 2009 12:21 am EDT

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    It has been interesting to listen to the post-round interviews with the questions on whether the players have been paying attention to their positions. I think Brandt might be the only one telling the truth with his inquiry on the the 18th fairway. Hopefully next time he marks it and takes a breath before trying to finish.
  19. JAMES
    19. Posted by JAMES Tue Sep 15, 2009 12:33 am EDT

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    I posted before the final round that the player who was playing with Tiger would shoot 75 and Tiger would shoot 67. I was pretty close. Tiger has a scoring average of somewhere around 69 and most of these guys on tour are anywhere from 70 to 71. Over four rounds of golf Tiger could give some of these guys 4 shots and others 8 shots. When the chips are down in the last round the final round scores of the field are horrendous. I dont call it choking I call it lack of talent because it happens all the time.
  20. Dannon G
    20. Posted by Dannon G Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:43 am EDT

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    Tells you how good Tiger is and how each week we get a pretender to challenge Tiger only to have one good week. Tiger didn't win a major this year because one time in his career he choked. But that's one time over 11 years. Money leader, win leader and believe me he thinks this year is a failer...That's what champions do and think...If some of the same guys would challenge him every week I would think diffrent but they don't.. Where is thei Y. E Yang guy, haven't seen him in the top ten sence his win?
  21. Hans Gruber
    21. Posted by Hans Gruber Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:55 am EDT

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    Brandt is loaded and will come back next year and try again. Unfortunate ending, but I think I would trade my job for his any day of the week.
  22. John H
    22. Posted by John H Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:02 am EDT

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    Tiger, after his win, didn't look too happy when Maltbie went to interview him. I think he was feeling bad for Snedeker. I think Rog missed an opportunity to ask him about that.
    I think the mistake was the first putt. He should have been lagging, and instead he was too agressive. Now doubt he was kicking himself after giving himself a 3 footer coming back and that probably contributed to his nerves. It wasn't that long of a first putt. He should have just trickled it towards the hole.
  23. conrad
    23. Posted by conrad Tue Sep 15, 2009 11:09 am EDT

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    Well.. you can already see this happening all along. The way he plays is like us weekend hackers, never pause ,never think and try to finish your round as fast as you can. he should develope a routine whether teeing off or putiing. This guy is too hyper and seems to rush everything . Needs to slow down a bit and focus more on what he's doing. I hope he learned a lesson on this one,
  24. TX_Lubbock
    24. Posted by TX_Lubbock Tue Sep 15, 2009 11:10 am EDT

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    Hey JEFF L (post#15), since this is a golf blog, I think what you meant to write was:
    “Snedeker didn’t hurt anybody but himself. How many other pro-golfers verbally trash an official (Sergio Garcia), bash a teammate (Sandy Lyle accusing Colin Montgomerie of cheating at the 2005 Indonesian Open), or kill hawks (Tripp Isenhour). Notice a trend here?”
    Notice that “kill a ex wife “(sic) and “shoot himself (sic) in the leg” were excluded because OJ wasn’t found guilty (although I personally think he probably did it) and Burress ,when accidentally shooting himself in the leg, didn’t hurt anybody but…himself.
  25. jeffrey.young19
    25. Posted by jeffrey.young19 Tue Sep 15, 2009 9:00 pm EDT

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    Granted, he did lose some cash from missing that putt, but he'll be fine for the rest of his life with the cast he's already accumulated. I played with him in high school, and he's a great guy, and responsible as well. Plus, he'll already have invites to the next year's majors based based on his money list finish and fedex points.

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