AUGUSTA, Ga. -- He plays fast. "But I think slow," said Brandt Snedeker. Whatever the speed, he has to be thinking of winning the Masters.
He knows the course, played it dozens of times in college. He knows himself.
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| Snedeker has played Augusta '40 or 50 times.' (Getty Images) |
Brandt Snedeker is a talent. PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 2007. National Public Links champion in 2003. And three days into the 2008 Masters, two shots out of the lead.
"He's got a motor," said Brandt's pal Zach Johnson, who, of course, won the Masters last year. "I don't think quick is the right word. ... I think it's just more high energy. But it's efficient."
Efficient and effective. He won a tournament and more than $2.8 million his first year on Tour.
"His routines," said Johnson, having another good Masters, "are, to the second, spot-on."
Snedeker on Saturday shot one of the more amazing subpar rounds in Masters memory. He got into the lead at 9-under, bogeyed 11, 12 and 13, and then when it was assumed he had come apart, birdied 14, 15 and 18. There he was with a 2-under 70 and a total of 9-under 207, two behind Trevor Immelman.
There he was with that mop of blond hair and oversized visor, looking as if he had wandered in from the backwoods and not stepped out of the back door of Augusta National.
Of any player here, Snedeker comes the closest to being an Augusta member without actually being an Augusta member. As a college student in Nashville, Brandt was allowed to play the course at every opportunity.
"I'd say I played here 40 or 50 times," he said. "It was 5½ hours down from Nashville, and I would come down on the weekends, come down Thursday night, play 36. Be first out Friday morning, play another in the afternoon.
"What better scenario could you have than to come play this course as many times as you wanted?"
Here's a better scenario: playing it to win the Masters. Which he might do.
