Golf fans leave the course during a weather delay in the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016, in San Diego.
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After play was suspended three times Sunday because of driving rain and howling winds that gusted to 40 miles per hour, tournament officials ultimately sent spectators home, evacuated the media from its tent because of unsafe winds and then announced the final round would resume Monday at 8 a.m. The course will be closed to the public because of safety issues.
Brandt Snedeker won the Farmers Insurance Open as the chasing pack were unable to overhaul his six-under-par score on the extra day at Torrey Pines.
This time, his help might come from Mother Nature.
“It was like a British Open being played on a U.S. Open course”, Snedeker said.
Biggest disappointments: Up one with eight holes to play Monday, Walker opened with a prompt bogey at the par-3 11 and made three more at 14, 15, and 17, ending his chances.
To put Snedeker’s remarkable effort into context, the other 71 players in the field were a combined 377 over par on the day, with nobody under the card. After missing a 15-foot par putt on the opening hole, Snedeker bore down and kept his round from getting away by knocking in a 35-foot par putt on the fourth hole that runs along the ocean, and then a 15-foot par putt on the next hole. But kind of insane how everything panned out perfectly for me.
Further bogeys on the 10th and 11th holes say him drop back to 1-over for the tournament. Kevin Streelman made back-to-back bogeys late in his round and wound up with a hard-earned 74 to finish third. The marquee foursome wasn’t around on a weekend in which the weather turned violently foul and ultimately made a victor of a man who never hit a shot on the final day.
“It was a tough week with everything going on so to deal with all that in my first week and have the result I did I’m pretty happy”, Ruffels said.
The American finished one stroke ahead of South Korea’s KJ Choi, who missed a long birdie putt at the last that would have forced a play-off. “But if the weather was better I would have been worse, so I was glad for the bad weather”.
“If I can somehow birdie 16 and 17 and get a chance for eagle on the last tomorrow who knows”, he said.
Needing an eagle to force a playoff, Lewis parred the par-5 18th for a 68.
Walker tied for fourth, three shots back.
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Spieth was left to rue shooting 70 in the second and third rounds, but said all the right things and graciously posed for a selfie with Song before the winner’s press conference.
