DEBUNKING ROYAL LYTHAM: Tiger Woods is pumped after sinking a bunker chip-in for birdie on the 18th hole en route to his second-straight 3-under 67 yesterday at the British Open. (AFP/Getty Images)
Lytham St. Annes, England — Nothing would make Brandt Snedeker happier than to have a good cry tomorrow night.
The last time Snedeker was this close to winning his first major championship he was two shots out of the lead playing in Sunday’s final pairing at the 2008 Masters, but he melted down with a final-round 77.
Afterward, Snedeker broke down crying in front of reporters.
With a 6-under 64 in yesterday’s second round of the Open Championship at Royal Lytham, Snedeker takes a one-shot lead over Adam Scott and a four-shot lead over Tiger Woods into today’s third round. His two-day total of 130 tied Nick Faldo’s British Open record for 36 holes. Heady stuff.
Snedeker’s 10-under assault of Lytham through 36 holes made little sense considering he had missed the British Open cut in each of the three times he played (2008, 2009, 2011).
“I’m sure everybody in this room is in about as much shock as I am right now,’’ Snedeker said.
But he has played bogey-free, has not three-putted once and, more remarkably, has not hit a single ball into one of the 206 bunkers on the course.
A good deal of Snedeker’s inspiration — particularly here — has come from his golfing idol, Tom Watson, with whom he played a British Open practice round in 2008 at Royal Birkdale, just two months after his bitter Masters disappointment.
Snedeker said Watson, who has won the Claret Jug five times, told him that day the first time he came to the British Open he disliked links golf, but grew to love it.
Watson had some other words of wisdom for Snedeker, too.
“With the pressure of winning the Masters on the line, it does things to you that only being in that arena can you learn from being under that pressure,’’ Watson said yesterday. “He failed and was disappointed. I told him, ‘Look, you were there, you had the opportunity and you’ll be there again. You’ll learn from what you did.’
“You just don’t know how [the pressure] affects your swing until you’re in it, until you’re swimming in it without the life preserver. That’s the only way to learn.’’
We will know what Snedeker learned by how he handles the next 48 hours.
Woods, Scott and the rest of the star-studded leaderboard should not sleep on Snedeker, though. Despite his youthful, wide-eyed appearance, he has proven himself to be unafraid.
In his third PGA Tour start, the 2007 Buick Invitational, he shot an 11-under 61 in the first round to tie the course record at Torrey Pines North. In his victory at the 2007 Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., he shot a final-round 63 to break out of a tie for eighth place and win.
Fellow PGA Tour pro Johnson Wagner said he knows Snedeker has the ability hold a lead and close out a tournament.
“When he’s playing well he tends to keep playing well,” he said.
Through 36 holes, Snedeker has hit 31 of 36 greens and 17 of-28 fairways and has taken 58 putts. He said he feels like he’s making “every 25-footer I look at.’’
“Typically, when I get going I have no problem going low, and I enjoy that,’’ he said. “That’s what I’m going to keep trying to do over the weekend. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen, but I’m not going to change anything.’’
Through those tears that April evening in 2008 at Augusta, Snedeker said, “I found out a lot about myself today.’’
Explaining the tears, he said, “It’s hard to put that much effort into something and get so little out of it. But it’s just part of life, part of growing up. Obviously, I need a lot more of that.’’
If we see tears of joy flowing down his face tomorrow night as he hoists the Claret Jug as a major champion for the first time, we will know Brandt Snedeker has grown up as a golfer.