Sports

Snedeker banks $11.4M with playoff win, FedEx bonus

ATLANTA — With the biggest round of his career, Brandt Snedeker won something far more valuable than money yesterday.

He proved to himself he could beat the best in the world.

Snedeker knew his best chance to be the FedEx Cup champion was to win the Tour Championship, no simple task with East Lake as tough as ever and Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods going after the same prize.

Snedeker was the only player in the last five groups to break par.

He answered the final challenge with three big birdies on the back nine, building such a big lead that his final tee shot sailed into the grandstands to the left of the 18th green and it didn’t even matter. Snedeker still closed with a 2-under 68 for a three-shot win in the Tour Championship, and a $10 million bonus for winning the FedEx Cup.

But this was never about money.

“I think it solidifies what I already know,” Snedeker said. “I think when I play my best golf, my best golf is some of the best in the world. I’ve never had more confidence in myself than I have the last five weeks, and I made sure that I kept telling myself that all day. I am one of the best players in the world. This is supposed to happen. It’s OK to feel nervous, and no matter what I feel today, everybody else in the field feels exactly the same way I do.

“So go out there and get it done. I did a great job of that.”

McIlroy, the best player in golf this year and the No. 1 seed going into the Tour Championship, faded early by dropping four shots in a four-hole span on the front nine. So did Woods, who already was 3 over on his round before making his first birdie on the par-5 ninth.

Snedeker wound up with a three-shot victory over Justin Rose (71) to win the Tour Championship, his second win this year and a trophy that came with $1.44 million. Add the $10 million bonus from the FedEx Cup, and it’s the richest payoff in golf.

Big deal.

The 31-year-old from Nashville, Tenn., calls that kind of money “crazy talk … like winning the lottery.” Far greater perspective came from a 30-minute hospital visit yesterday morning with Tucker Anderson, the son of his swing coach who was critically injured in a car accident and is in a responsive coma.

“I asked him if he thought I was going to beat Rory McIlroy, and he gave me a wink,” Snedeker said.

And so ends the most successful year yet in the FedEx Cup — four wildly entertaining playoff events packed with the biggest names, even if the No. 1 player in the world wound up at No. 2.

“I’m a little disappointed, but at the same time, Brandt really deserves to win,” McIlroy said. “He played the best golf out of anyone.”