For Snedeker, It Was Laughter and Tears, but Mostly Tears
AUGUSTA, Ga. - Fate could have been far kinder to Brandt Snedeker. He is, by all indications, a good guy, a hard worker and of such demeanor that he would help old ladies across the street. Fate could have been far kinder to him by skewering him right off the bat in the final round of the Masters Sunday, by not letting him smell the delicious azaleas of Augusta National, and by not lifting that cup of ambrosia up to his mouth and then snatching it away.He tried to hide his tears. His visor was pulled low, down near his eyes, clamped to the flow of his youthful blond mane. There were the tears and soft sobs of a man of 27, rendered young and vulnerable by a wound of the soul.
He had started the day in second place, two behind Immelman, and caught him with that magnificent eagle at No. 2, and suddenly the guy from Nashville, the tour sophomore, with one win in his bag, realized he could win the Masters. This was a surprising thing. The best golfers in the world were being turned inside out by the winds buffeting Augusta. And here was someone with the thinnest of resumes, presuming to entertain notions of winning the Masters.
It was a stunning thought. Earlier in the week, he wouldn't let himself even flirt with the notion. They had let him come to the prom, and the beauty of the class was waiting to be asked, but they didn't mean by him. Why would she ever dance with him? But at least he did have his expectations.
“Certainly not this,” Snedeker confessed. Make a nice showing, perhaps. Make the cut, rub elbows with the boys, get a name for himself.
“I was expecting, hopefully, a good week,” he said. “I felt like I was playing well and I felt like I was doing the right stuff. But all in all, if you told me at the beginning of the week, would I have taken a tie for third, I'd say heck, yes, and watch it on TV.”
Long ago, a man knew the danger of fatal attraction, and how to avoid it. Odysseus had his seamen stuff their ears with wax, to escape the Sirens' enticing song. But there is no escape from the song of the Masters. Snedeker heard the haunting voices at No. 2, when he rolled in that unmakeable long putt from an improbable place. And so he was tied with Immelman at a wonderful 10 under par, two strokes ahead of the crowd, and better yet, five ahead of Tiger Woods. They knew they were not safe, of course, but they were, after all, leading.
Immelman would make his way and stay ahead, absorbing an error here, an error there, but trouble would consume Snedeker, a bite at a time. Before long, he finally realized it was over for him.
“The 13th was probably the pivotal hole,” Snedeker said. “A great putt on 12. And 13, I had a 4-iron to that hole, and golly, man, if somebody could tell me how to play that second shot, I'd love to know, because two days in a row I've hit it right in the middle of that damn water.”
The song was most irresistible there. Get that second shot to the green, make an eagle, maybe, or a birdie for sure. Never mind that little creek.
“Told myself not to do it,” he said. “I tried to pull it and still couldn't do it. “It's tough when you're looking eagle, birdie in the face, and you walk out with a bogey. Could have put a little pressure on Trevor right there, and hope things might have been a little different.”
No. For Snedeker, they probably won't be different for a while. It will be a joy, eventually, when he comes to appreciate his performance, that the 77, his worst score of the week by seven shots, got him a tie for third and a reservation in next year's Masters. For the moment, there was the whipsaw of feelings.
“I was laughing outside - I'm crying in here,” he told the press corps. “I have no idea why I'm so emotional.”
Heartbreak would explain it. Outside, as he marched up the 18th fairway -- out of the running and shaking Immelman's hand in tribute -- it was a glorious moment. This was only his second Masters, and he had come so close. He had come much closer than he'd ever expected. And so he could laugh.
And later, he realized how truly close he had come. Then he had to cry.
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