“I was honored to get the call from Jim and thrilled to accept this role.”
Brandt Snedeker, the 2024 recipient of the Payne Stewart Award, is joining Jim Furyk’s United States Presidents Cup roster as a captain’s assistant. Snedeker, who will serve as one of Keegan Bradley’s vice captains next year at the 2025 Ryder Cup, played in the 2013 Presidents Cup (2-3-0 record).
“I was honored to get the call from Jim and thrilled to accept this role as one of his captain’s assistants for the Presidents Cup,” Snedeker said in a statement. “He’s someone I’ve looked up to throughout my career and I know will be a strong leader for the U.S. Team at Royal Montreal. My goal is to add a trusted voice to our players throughout the week and do everything I can to help us pull out the win.”
The nine-time PGA Tour winner joins Kevin Kisner, Stewart Cink and Justin Leonard in the assistant room.
“I enjoyed competing together with Brandt at the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah,” Furyk said in a statement. “He is a fierce competitor, great teammate and one of the most respected players on the PGA Tour. He will provide a steady voice in the team room, and I will rely on him for insight and advice as we lead our 12 players into Montreal at the end of the month.”
The Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal will be played Sept 27-29.
“I’m hoping to show the young guys in the room what the award means and how important this award is.”
ATLANTA – When Brandt Snedeker won his first tournament in 2006 on what is now known as the Korn Ferry Tour, he confessed to a rare moment of indiscretion.
Snedeker, who won the U.S. Amateur Public Links in 2003 and earned an invite to the Masters the following year, stole a white robe from Augusta National, which he kept hung in his closet.
“Everybody who goes to Augusta steals a bathrobe,” Snedeker said after he beat former U.S. Amateur champion Jeff Quinney with a birdie on the second playoff hole.
That purloined robe didn’t stop Snedeker from being named the 2024 recipient of the PGA Tour’s Payne Stewart Award presented by Southern Company, which was to be presented on Tuesday night. The award is presented annually to a professional golfer who best exemplifies Stewart’s steadfast values of character, charity and sportsmanship.
“It’s something I kind of early on in my career, I kind of circled as something I’d like to accomplish out here,” he said. “I went to it every year I played the Tour Championship and just saw these heroes, icons of mine kind of breaking down on stage and going through what they’ve given back in their communities and kind of reinforce what the Tour’s all about.”
And let’s not kid ourselves: Stewart probably had a Masters robe in his closet too. But Snedeker always conducted himself the right way, including during his rookie year when he played his way into the final group of the Australian Open and had a chance to win.
“I was in the rough on the 16th hole and the ball moved. I knew it moved, my caddie saw it move. I remember telling my caddie, I said, ‘Did you see that?’ He goes, ‘No, I did not see that.’ I was like, ‘No, it moved.’ He was like, ‘Dang it.’ I called it, ended up losing by a shot, called a penalty on myself,” Snedeker recalled. “I’m a big believer in karma. I don’t want any bad karma on my side, so I’ve always tried to play by the rules and do stuff the right way and try to help people understand that’s the way we play golf out here.”
“If Payne Stewart was still alive, he and Brandt would’ve gotten along,” Billy Horschel said. “People like to be around Sneds and to play with Sneds. They’re both competitors and grinders and give it all they’ve got.”
Brandt Snedeker victorious with FedEx Cup trophy (L) and tournament trophy (R) after winning on Sunday at East Lake GC. Atlanta, GA 9/23/2012 (Photo by Fred Vuich /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
Behind a brilliant short game and deadly putting stroke, Snedeker, a 43-year-old nine-time PGA Tour winner, claimed the 2012 FedEx Cup so it is fitting that he would receive the Payne Stewart Award here 12 years later. Winning the season-long competition set him up for life and gave him the means to give back to the game that has been so good to him. Snedeker, who grew up playing Shelby Golf Course and McCabe GC, public courses in Nashville, chose to support junior golf in his native state of Tennessee, and the tour he grew up on was renamed the Sneds Tour.
“I really thought I could help it grow,” Snedeker said. “It’s about giving people access, making sure the game is available.”
For several years, Snedeker had the oversized cardboard check from his victory at the Scholarship America Showdown, his first win in the minors for $99,000, framed on a wall in his bedroom, a symbol that he had made it.
“Lost it in a move along the way but it meant everything to me at the time,” he said. “It was the first positive reinforcement and validation that I can do this. I’d look at that check and think I’m a winner and I want to win again.”
Snedeker blossomed into a Ryder Cupper and climbed to a career-best of fourth in the world. There’s a lot about Snedeker’s career that stacks up favorably with that of Stewart, who was his childhood idol.
“I don’t have his personality or charisma. I’d like to think I tried to carry myself similarly, treat people similarly, do things the right way and give back to my community,” Snedeker said. “I didn’t quite have the major resume of Payne.”
Brandt Snedeker with daughter Lily and son Austin after winning the Wyndham Championship. (Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports
Stewart had the nickname of Avis for all his runner-up finishes before he finally found his winning formula and won three majors in a Hall of Fame career before his untimely death in a plane crash in 1999. Snedeker played in the final group alongside eventual winner Trevor Immelman at the 2008 Masters, stumbling home in 77 and finishing T-3. That day, Snedeker shook Immelman’s hand on the walk up 18 and told him he’d played like a champ. A few weeks later, when they saw each other again for the first time, Immelman thanked him for losing with considerable grace. During his post-round press conference, Snedeker let the rush of emotions pour out and he cried the tears of a person who had come within a whisker of living out his dream only to watch it slip out of reach.
“At the time, I couldn’t separate me the person from me the player,” he said all these years later. “That’s why it hit so hard.”
But it also was relatable to viewers at home and abroad to see that it was OK to cry, and refreshing to see someone who cared as much as he did. More than 500 strangers, including soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq told him so via the mail in the first three weeks.
“I kept all those letters and put them in a binder,” Snedeker said.
Will there be tears during his acceptance speech on Tuesday night in a roomful of friends, family and his peers? “I hope not. I intentionally put some stuff late in the speech that may cause me to get emotional so I at least can make it through the majority of it,” he said. “I’m hoping to show the young guys in the room what the award means and how important this award is and hopefully it will do what it did for me 16 years ago. It gave me something to shoot for.”
United States Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley has appointed Brandt Snedeker as one of his vice captains for the 45th Ryder Cup, scheduled for Sept. 26-28, 2025, at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York.
This announcement follows Bradley’s earlier appointment of Webb Simpson as a vice captain, and it adds another experienced voice to the the U.S. team’s locker room. Snedeker, 43 is a veteran of two Ryder Cups, boasting a 4-2-0 career record. He was the only undefeated American player in the 2016 Ryder Cup, going 3-0-0 to help the U.S. team defeat Europe 17-11 at Hazeltine National in Chaska, Minnesota.
“As I’ve started preparing for the 2025 Ryder Cup, I quickly realized that Brandt was someone I wanted by my side,” Bradley said in a release. “Having competed in two Ryder Cups, including a stellar individual performance in 2016, Brandt’s experience and insight will surely be beneficial to our team in the months ahead.”
This will be Snedeker’s first appearance as a vice captain.
“I am so grateful to Keegan and the PGA of America for giving me the opportunity to represent my country in the role of vice captain,” Snedeker said. “The Ryder Cup is unlike anything in our sport, and I hope to bring the passion and pride to help Keegan deliver his vision of what a Ryder Cup in New York should look like. I am so excited to serve alongside my good friend Webb and know we will do everything in our power to help Keegan and the players be ready for a great competition next September at Bethpage Black.”
A native of Nashville, Tennessee, Snedeker has nine PGA Tour wins, with the biggest being the 2012 Tour Championship. He was the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 2007. Last week, Snedeker named the 2024 recipient of the PGA Tour’s Payne Stewart Award. The award is presented annually to a professional golfer who best exemplifies Stewart’s steadfast values of character, charity and sportsmanship.
The cut at TPC Scottsdale didn’t happen until nearly 2 p.m. local time Saturday.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Rain delays, frost delays, 4:30 a.m. alarm clocks, playing as many as 30 holes in one day and 20,000 drunk, screaming and often booing fans – and that’s just at 16 – this is a week where PGA Tour pros earned their paycheck at the WM Phoenix Open. Yet the 132-man field still must be whittled down, even if the 36-hole cut day extended to nearly 2 p.m. local time on Saturday thanks to multiple suspensions of play.
When it was all said and done, 73 players moved on for 36 more holes at TPC Scottsdale and a chance to take home the trophy as champion and more than seven figures in prize money. The total purse this week is $8.8 million, with $1.584 million going to the winner.
It took a score of 2-under 140 to make all that hard work and effort pay off into a paycheck in the Valley of the Sun.
Among those to sneak through on the number included Tom Kim, who rallied to shoot 5-under 66, Garrick High (67), Adam Scott (68), Brian Harman (69), Sungjae Im (70) and Zach Johnson (70).
Two of the three Monday qualifiers made it through in Jim Knous (66, T-34) — read his story here — and former Arizona State golfer Nicolo Galetti (67, T-34) as did Bud Cauley (-5, T-23), who made his first start since the 2020 Fortinet Championship. Kevin Chappell (68) made a 12-foot birdie putt at nine, his last hole of the day, to make the cut on the number.
But not everyone was so fortunate — Adam Svensson, for one, missed a birdie putt from 44 feet. Here’s a closer look at the notables who were sent packing at the WM Phoenix Open.
It’s one of the hardest things to achieve in the game.
The first one came in 1977.
It was another 14 years before someone did it again.
It was then eight years after that before it happened a third time.
Breaking 60 has always held mythical status in golf.
Al Geiberger (1977), Chip Beck (1991) and David Duval (1999) were the first three to pull it off.
Since 2010, there have been eight more PGA Tour golfers who shot a 59, including Jim Furyk, who also shot a record-setting 58 from in 2016. He remains the only golfer to shoot a 58 on Tour and he’s the only golfer to break 60 twice.
Bryson DeChambeau joined the 58 Club after his 12-under round in a LIV Golf event.
Scottie Scheffler is the latest to break 60 on the PGA Tour, shooting a 59 in the second round of the 2020 Northern Trust. It’s the 12th time that a Tour golfer broke 60.
On the LPGA, there has only been one 59. It came in 2001 and was accomplished by Annika Sorenstam.
Joaquinn Niemann’s 59 in the 2024 LIV opener made him the second on that circuit to do it.
And in 2024, a golfer on the Korn Ferry Tour became the first to shoot 57 in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event.
Here’s a closer look at the sub-60 rounds in pro golf.
After posting rounds of 66-70 around the Tiger Woods-designed El Cardonal at Diamante, Brandt Snedeker withdrew from the 2023 World Wide Technology Championship in Las Cabos, Mexico, due to a rib injury.
Sneds was tied for 27th after 36 holes south of the border as he was looking for his first top-40 finish since making his return to the PGA Tour.
The 9-time Tour winner has tied for 65th at the Sanderson Farms Championship and for 52 at the Shriners Children’s Open during the FedEx Cup Fall. He’s currently 211th in the fall standings.
Brandt Snedeker withdrew from the World Wide Technology Championship prior to round three with a rib injury.
“It’s in dire need of an upgrade … We have a jewel here that has kind of been underserved the last 15 to 20 years.”
NASHVILLE — Brandt Snedeker pointed out Thursday that Shelby Golf Course, where he often played as a youth, is the least-played course in the Metro Parks system in this Tennessee city. But that might not be the case much longer.
Snedeker, a nine-time PGA Tour winner and the 2012 FedEx Cup champion, attended a media event at the golf course Thursday where Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced a $2 million renovation project that will begin at Shelby and VinnyLinks, also located in Shelby Park, in March.
The upgrades slated for Shelby include combining the winter and summer greens into one green complex on each hole; expansion of the practice putting green at the clubhouse to more than five times its current size; new irrigation; replacing and expanding six tee boxes; and work on the cart path.
The main scope at VinnyLinks will be an improvement of all nine tee boxes and tree work.
The renovations coincide with Shelby Golf Course’s 100th anniversary in 2024.
“Being a Nashvillian, I grew up playing golf courses around here but Shelby is where I spent most of my time,” Snedeker said. “My dad would play here every day with the old chief of police Joe Casey. They had a 12 o’clock standing tee time and I’d come out here when I was 16, 17, 18 years old and play. It was awesome getting to spend time playing golf with my dad and to have this momentous day where we’re doing a redo of this course with Metro Parks wanting to bring it back to the way it was designed is a really special moment.”
Snedeker, who estimated he has played thousands of rounds at Shelby, also mentioned how unique the 18-hole course is with its location so close to downtown.
“The access that this course can provide to a lot of Nashvillians that have not been traditional golfers is huge,” he said. “But it’s in dire need of an upgrade . . . We have a jewel here that has kind of been underserved the last 15 to 20 years.”
Shelby, a 6,079-yard, par-72 course, has long been the least-played municipal golf course of the seven in the Metro Parks system. It had more than 39,000 nine-hole rounds played in the past fiscal year, compared to McCabe, which had the most at more than 122,000.
Whit Turnbow, president of the Tennessee Golf Foundation, which will oversee the renovations executed by architect Bruce Hepner and Hepner Golf Design LLC, expects the average rounds per year to double or even triple after the improvements. The foundation has a guarantee on cost overruns that might occur with the project.
Cooper said the improvements are part of those that began three years ago after a tornado caused severe damage to homes and businesses in East Nashville.
“The homes and businesses that have been rebuilt have been substantially repaired but now this is the last link to the tornado damage,” Cooper said. “The $2 million for the project is funded, it’s ready to go and work is going to start in March.”
Hepner recently finished similar renovations at Percy Warner Golf Course.
“What we’re trying to do here is upgrade the facility,” Hepner said. “It’s the least-played golf course (in Metro) and it might be because of conditions, it might be because we still have the old winter/summer greens. So we’re trying to improve the playing characteristics of the golf course so we can get this community involved here in playing golf.”
The renovations are expected to take a year to complete. Turnbow said Cooper, who is a golfer, would be invited back to tee off on the first hole when the project is done.
Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X, formerly Twitter @MikeOrganWriter.
Since the FedEx Cup Playoffs began in 2007, 13 different champions have been crowned. Rory McIlroy leads the way with three FedEx Cups to his name, surpassing Tiger Woods’ record in 2019. The two all-time greats are the only players to claim multiple FedEx Cups.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Justin Thomas fell to the ground Sunday at Sedgefield Country Club when his pitch shot at 18 hit the flagstick but wouldn’t drop, leaving him on the outside looking in at No. 71 in the final regular season FedEx Cup point standings.
The FedEx Cup Playoffs begin at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, with the top 70 players in the standings through the Wyndham Championship qualifying (down from 125 in 2009-2022). The top 50 players after the first event will advance to the BMW Championship and also qualify for all eight Signature Events (formerly known as the Designated Events) on the PGA Tour schedule in 2024.
The level of disappointment that Thomas experienced on being left out of the playoffs is only expected to be ratcheted up this week. Those moving on to the BMW in Chicago next week will gain admission to a world of $20 million purses, jacked up FedEx Cup points and limited field, no-cut events with guaranteed paydays in many cases. (The Players Championship will still have a full field and cut to 65 and ties while the Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial will have fields of no more than 80 players and a cut to 50 and ties.)
Two tours?
“I don’t like the idea of creating two tours, which is what it’s doing,” said veteran pro Brandt Snedeker. “I don’t think it’s good for golf, for our tour, for our sponsors.”
Fellow veteran pro Kevin Streelman, who previously served as a player director on the board and remains involved as a member of the Player Advisory Council, argued that the player who ends up at No. 50 receives too much of a jumpstart on keeping his card and remaining in the top 50 compared to the player who finishes No. 51.
Kevin Streelman hits his tee shot on the 11th hole during the second round of the 3M Open. (Photo: Matt Krohn/USA TODAY Sports)
“It seems like a pretty extreme reward,” he said.
Ryan Armour, a fellow member of the PAC, who dubbed rank-and-file players of his ilk “the mules” of the organization, agreed.
“The fifth ranked player on the PGA Tour and the No. 55 player on the PGA Tour, why should their schedule be so vastly different than what they are going to become next year?” said Armour when he joined the 5 Clubs podcast. “There is a big discrepancy between No. 5 and 55, but there isn’t between No. 49 and 55. That to me is what irked everybody.”
Fewer events, more points at the majors
In 2024, the season returns to a calendar year, running from January through September’s Labor Day Weekend and condensed from 44 to 36 events, plus three playoff tournaments. Meanwhile the number of limited-field events increase from two (Sentry Tournament of Champions and WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play) to eight. Add in that 750 FedEx Cup points will be allocated to the winners of the four majors and the Players Championship, an increase from 600, and 700 for the Signature events, up from 550, compared to 500 for winners of regular full-field events and 300 to winners of opposite-field events, and it’s clear how membership in the top 50 has its privileges.
It’s unprecedented change and has many players who won’t be in the top 50 concerned that the deck is stacked against them.
Michael Kim lines up a putt on the 18th green during the third round of the 2023 Wyndham Championship. (Photo: David Yeazell-USA TODAY Sports)
“My initial reaction was, ‘What the hell is this?’” said Michael Kim, who finished No. 79 and missed the playoffs. “I’m trying not be too knee-jerk reaction.”
Players outside the top 50 still will have other avenues to qualify for the Signature events. Thomas, for instance, is No. 25 in the Official World Golf Ranking and players in the top 30 will be automatically eligible. Should his ranking no longer satisfy the criteria, he likely would be a popular candidate for one of four sponsor exemptions.
The Tour also created categories called the “Next 10” and the “Swing 5.” The Next 10 is “composed of the top 10 members, not otherwise exempt,” from the current FedEx Cup standings. The Swing 5 are the “top five FedEx Cup points earners, not otherwise exempt, from the swing of five full-field and additional events that precede each signature event.”
‘Path is stacked against you’
Speaking earlier this season, Rory McIlroy proclaimed, “You play well for two or three weeks, you’re in a (signature) event. You know, then, if you keep playing well, you stay in them.”
But that may be an oversimplification. Will the 30 Korn Ferry Tour grads, 10 DP World Tour grads and five PGA Tour Q-School grads get enough starts on the West Coast Swing? They also may endure a three-week sabbatical in the middle of the season if they don’t qualify for the U.S. Open. For those who do play their way in, how can they sustain energy to make the opportunity a success? If they don’t play well, they’ll be right back in the full field event and likely gassed from playing upwards of five events in a row.
Gary Woodland hits from a greenside bunker on the 13th hole during the second round of the 2023 3M Open in Blaine, Minnesota. (Photo: Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports)
“They are giving you opportunities to play your way in, but the path is stacked against you,” said 2019 U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland, who remains exempt to the four majors and hopes to play his way into the invitationals or else receive sponsor invites. “The top guys had leverage at the time, they had Jay (Monahan) in a tough spot. Jay was losing guys left and right and the guys that wanted to stay made a play and set the Tour up in their favor. I don’t have a problem with that. The sponsors will benefit from having more of the top players playing every week. Is it good for the Tour as a whole? Only time will tell. If you play well, you will be rewarded and that’s probably how it should be.”
The Tour has crunched the numbers, running over a thousand simulations, and predicts the churn of players being replaced in the FedEx Cup top 50 year after year to be between 14 and 22 players.
“I wouldn’t have thought that,” said Peter Malnati, one of the player directors on the board, noting earlier this year, “It seems kind of hard to believe.”
Play well and you’re in
Webb Simpson, another player director on the Tour’s board who voted in favor of the Signature events despite being outside the top 50, said he believes the Tour created enough play-in opportunities – some 20 per event – to reward the hot hands.
“I’ve always had the attitude that you adapt to how the system changes and if you play good enough you’ll be in those fields. I know some guys probably have a problem with that statement, that there needs to be more fair opportunities for everybody, but if you play well enough you’ll get in them,” he said. “I think at the end of the day, the PGA Tour is not here to showcase the best 200 players in the world. I think we’re here to showcase the best 75-100 players in the world. I think that’s what fans want, TV wants, and some people may not like that but that’s the truth. Sure, we want to take care of everybody as much as we can but at the end of the day, can guys qualify for these? Absolutely.”
Catch up on the action from the first round in the Twin Cities.
BLAINE, Minn. — The first day of the 2023 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities is (almost) in the books, and the leaderboard is deep.
There are 17 players within three shots of the lead, and all but four of those played in the morning wave Thursday in Minnesota. Birdies were available, and they came in numerous ways as players did their best to start fast and position themselves for a great finish in anticipation of the FedEx Cup Playoffs beginning in two weeks.
The weather horn sounded at 6:59 p.m. local time (7:59 p.m. ET), ending play with a handful of groups left on the course. Round 1 will continue at 9 a.m. ET on Friday, and with Round 2 scheduled to begin on time.
Here’s some key things you need to know from the first day of the 2023 3M Open.
