By Jim O'Shea
Forget the Official World Golf Ranking,
Brandt Snedeker is really the number-one golfer on tour right now. Not Rory
McIlroy, not Tiger Woods, not Phil Mickelson, not anybody else. The 32 year-old
from Nashville, Tennessee has taken the PGA Tour by storm in 2013.
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| (AP Photo) |
Snedeker has played five tournaments so
far in 2013. His finishes are: third at the Tournament of Champions, tied for
23rd at the Humana Challenge, tied for second at the Farmers
Insurance Open, second at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and first last
week at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. The summary of these five
tournaments is one victory, four top-three finishes, and no finish outside the
top 23. This stretch is amazing, considering there have only been six PGA Tour
tournaments in 2013, so Snedeker has only taken off one week. He’s played in
four straight weeks, and the last three weeks he hasn’t finished outside the
top two.
Here’s how he stacks up against the
rest of the PGA Tour this year:
He is tied for the most victories with
one. He is leading the FedEx Cup standings by 700 points. He has the most
top-ten finishes, with only one other golfer having three top-ten finishes,
which is still one behind Snedeker’s four. In the last three weeks when
Snedeker hasn’t finished outside the top two, no player has more than one
top-five finish. Snedeker has three top-two finishes. To say he is dominating
the golf world right now is an understatement.
Snedeker is number-four in the Official
World Golf Ranking. Above him is Luke Donald at three, Tiger Woods at two, and
Rory McIlroy at one. Luke Donald hasn’t competed in a tournament in 2013. Tiger
Woods has played in two tournaments, missing the cut and winning the other one.
Rory McIlroy has played one tournament, missing the cut in Abu Dhabi. These
three combined have played in three tournaments with two missed cuts and one
victory. Snedeker, on the other hand, has played in two more tournaments than
the three, won the same amount as the three combined, and has three more
top-three, top-five, and top-ten finishes than the “Big Three”. Brandt Snedeker
is dominating the world’s best by himself.
Brandt Snedeker is on a streak that
compares to LeBron James’ current streak of six straight games of 30 points and
shooting at least 60 percent from the field. I’m not saying that Snedeker is
the LeBron of golf or even that Snedeker is as good at golf as LeBron is at
basketball. But, he is dominating his sport currently in the same manner that
LeBron is dominating his.
Calling Snedeker the best golfer in the
world may sound weird or wrong, but right now it’s the truth. The rest of the
golf world, especially the top three, better be aware of this young phenom.
Come April in Augusta at the Masters, Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy will be the
popular picks to win, but don’t sleep on Mr. Brandt Snedeker, the number-one
golfer in the world.
