Brandt Snedeker was crowned Farmers Insurance Open champion for a second time after wind, rain and fallen trees led to a delayed finish on Monday.
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SAN DIEGO (AP) – Brandt Snedeker wound up winning the Farmers Insurance Open on Monday without hitting a shot.
Not long after Snedeker posted his 69 – almost 10 shots better than the average score of the players who finished – for a 6-under 282, the final round was suspended for a third and final time because of unplayable conditions. “Under these conditions, to shoot anything under par or around par is a good round”.
He won at Torrey Pines in 2012 by rallying from seven shots back in the final round, needing help from a triple bogey by Kyle Stanley on the final hole before beating him in a playoff.
“The way the wind blew and made those last five holes play so tough on those guys, I feel bad for them”, Snedeker said. Everything worked out perfectly for me.
But Snedeker caught a lucky break when the winds that buffeted the field on Sunday continued to whip across the course on Monday, causing havoc among those who had to complete the round. “It came out a little hotter than I thought”. But that’s just the way golf goes, and luckily enough, I played good enough yesterday to get the job done.
With 16 players separated by three shots, this could be anybody’s tournament.
Australian Aaron Baddeley looked a chance after playing his opening nine holes in even par and getting as high as a tie for sixth only to have a bogey train derail his hopes. He promptly dropped a shot with a bogey a the first and had another bogey at the fourth, before recovering with a birdie at the sixth, which put him in the lead at eight-under.
The restart of the final round has been pushed to 1 p.m. ET. The leader at that time, Jimmy Walker, was 4-over on the eight holes he played Monday, when play was completed.
Choi went to the par-5 18th hole with a chance to tie, but pushed his approach 45feet right and above the pin and left his birdie putt 3 feet to the left of the hole.
“This has probably been the most nerve-wracking 24 hours I’ve had on tour”, he said, “just because of the lack of control I had over anything that was going to happen today”. I wasn’t playing great and I found something there midway through the round, hit some great shots and made a couple putts around the turn that got me going.
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His performance on Sunday was impressive for a number of reasons, from the difficulty of the course to the conditions on it. Snedeker evaluated his own showing following the round.
