Brandt Snedeker healthy, hoping for victory in Masters

Brandt Snedeker was beginning to worry that he wasn’t going to be playing in his favorite event.

Injuries affected his play, and he had not qualified for this year’s Masters Tournament. He dropped out of the top 50 in the world ranking and hadn’t won in the previous year, two of the main ways to qualify.

He took care of that concern by winning at Pebble Beach in mid-February in dominating fashion.

“It was a big relief,” Snedeker said. “It was my main goal starting the year out, to get back to Augusta. I played the way I needed to at Pebble. My back was kind of against the wall a little bit. It was nice to get that win and get back in the Masters. …”

Snedeker never hid his love for the tournament. In his first start, as an amateur in 2004, he made so many pre-tournament visits to Augusta National Golf Club that he knew the first names of many employees, he said. He would trade his seven PGA Tour wins for one green jacket.

“It means that much to me,” said Snedeker, who has been in contention in the final round twice, finishing tied for third in 2008 and tied for sixth in 2013. He played in Sunday’s final in both years.

“It’s the one tournament I want to win above anything else,” said Snedeker, who grew up in Nashville, Tenn., played golf at Vanderbilt. “We all get into this game to do certain things. Mine is, the thing that drove me the most to play golf, was to win the Masters. And nothing has changed. I love being out here and competing, but at the end of my career, if I don’t win the Masters, I’m going to be disappointed because I love that place so much and it’s meant so much to me growing up.”

Does that put pressure on him after he arrives at Augusta National?

“No, I think it motivates you,” he said. “There are two ways to look at it, that I’ve built it up so much that anything beside a win is unacceptable, but I look at it as a way to keep motivating myself. This is my main goal, and until I reach it I’ll keep practicing and working at it. I’m willing to turn over every stone possible to give myself every chance to win there.”

To that end, each year Snedeker plays one practice round in an effort to duplicate what it’s like when the leaders play late on the weekend.

“I like to play one practice round really late in the afternoon and try to simulate what the course will be like on Saturday and Sunday afternoons,” he said. “Seeing the golf course in the afternoon vs. 6 a.m. in the morning, it’s completely different.”

Injuries slowed his prep­arations for the past two Mas­ters. A year after he skipped five consecutive events in early 2013 because of a strained intercostal muscle, he bruised a tibia and sustained a strained ACL in his left knee in November 2013 in a Segway accident in Shanghai and wasn’t at 100 percent for the 2014 Masters. He tied for 37th place.

Then there was the strangeness of his tournament. Snedeker had a one-stroke penalty – and a five-putt. In the first round, his ball moved slightly in the rough around the 13th green, costing him a penalty shot:

“That was just one of those things that happens once in a blue moon. The ball moved half an inch, and I made par instead of a birdie. One shot makes a big difference.”

In the third round, he five-putted the fourth hole. It led to 80, his worst round at Augusta. He rebounded with 71 in the final round.

Now, with his win at Pebble Beach, Snedeker is back in the Masters – and healthy. He happily says it’s been almost a year since he was in a doctor’s office.

“This year, I’m kind of coming in there in a different frame of mind,” said Snedeker, who is working with instructor Butch Harmon. “I feel confident in what we’re doing, and I’m working on the right stuff. My game feels really, really good.”