Brandt Snedeker stood on the driving range, hitting balls as he awaited his fate. He had waited 2,821 days—what were a few more minutes?
After a final-round 5-under 65 at the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic, Snedeker found himself tied for the lead with Mark Hubbard at 18 under. As Hubbard played the 18th hole, Snedeker continued hitting balls, preparing for a potential playoff. Hubbard pulled his drive into the right rough on the par-4, laid up to 126 yards, and his wedge shot left him 24 feet from the hole—a big-breaking, downgrain putt to force extra holes. Snedeker watched as Hubbard’s putt missed low.
Then Brandt Snedeker’s emotions poured out. He lightly tossed a head cover onto the driving range turf and buried his head into caddie Heath Holt’s shoulder, tears streaming.
It was an emotional victory for the 45-year-old, his first win since his mother passed away. “Your mom is smiling down on you right now, buddy,” Holt told him. “I’m so happy for you, brother. All your hard work. What a comeback. Win No. 10. Way to go, man. Awesome.”
The victory gave Snedeker, who started the year with conditional status, a two-year exemption, a spot in next week’s PGA Championship, and entry into the 2027 Players. The road from win No. 9 to No. 10 had been brutal for the 2026 Presidents Cup captain.
Seven years, eight months, and 21 days earlier, Snedeker won the 2018 Wyndham Championship. Then things unraveled. He underwent experimental surgery in 2022 to fix a separating joint in his sternum, requiring eight months to return to competition—but he wasn’t the same. Since the pandemic, Snedeker had missed 68 cuts and recorded just five top 10s. In 2024, he made only 7 of 26 cuts without a top 10. His game improved slightly last season with three top 10s, including a T7 at the Memorial, but he finished 126th in the FedEx Fall standings and entered 2025 on conditional status.
As Snedeker battled his body and his game, doubt crept in. “There were points in the last couple of years I didn’t think I could win again,” he said Sunday. “My golf game wasn’t very good. My body wasn’t feeling great. Lots of self-doubt. Lots of ‘What am I doing?'”
But Snedeker refused to give up. “I did the only thing I knew how to do—get back to work,” he said. “That’s all you can do. Quit looking around for solutions and look for answers. I don’t want excuses. I need solutions for problems. The solution was to get back to work and do what I love. And every time I did it, I kept getting a little better, and my confidence started growing, and I felt like I could play.”
Slowly, his game returned in spurts—a good round here, a good result there. Then he began piecing things together. A putter switch earlier this year helped him contend at the Valspar, though a shaky Sunday cost him a chance. Now, he has finally found his way back to the winner’s circle.
