FanHouse Brandt Snedeker

ATLANTA -- John Senden isn't apologizing for being in this week's Tour Championship.

"Points are points," he said. "If every shot counts, then I'm No. 30.''

He's right. The top 30 golfers on the FedEx Cup points list are at East Lake Golf Club this week, and Senden was the last guy in. It's the way he arrived that makes it interesting.

Two weeks ago at the BMW Championship, where this week's field was settled, Senden bogeyed the 17th hole of his final round and saw his projected finish drop him to 31st on the points list and out of action.

Senden was conceding as much, standing outside the scoring tent at Cog Hill lamenting the close call. But then a strange thing happened.

A year and a half and a handful of strokes have defined Brandt Snedeker's career. It's not fair, but sometimes perception carries more weight than it should.

Snedeker is probably best remembered for his 2008 Masters performance. Specifically, his blubbering post-round presser after he missed out on a shot at a green jacket. And now there's this, from last week's BMW Championship: a four-putt from 12 feet on the 72nd hole.

Alone, it's just an embarrassing rarity in the life of a PGA Tour pro. In context, however, it's much, much worse. Via Devil Ball Golf (via ESPN.com's Bob Harig):

This week's Wyndham Championship is the last tournament of the year for players to earn a little more cash, and jump a few more spots in the FedEx Cup point standings, hoping to make their way into the playoffs that kick off next week. Basically, it is the best shot for people that aren't having their best year to do a little more to make sure they aren't left out when the Barclays begins and only the top-125 on the FedEx Cup point list are invited.

On a weather-shortened Thursday at Sedgefield Country Club, a few players did just that. Chez Reavie, who won the Canadian Open last season but has struggled mightily in '09, shot a 6-under 64, his best round of the year, to tie Brandt Snedeker and Ryan Moore atop of the leaderboard. All three leaders have had lackluster years, but Reavie is the one that needs the biggest boost.

The reason Johnny Miller is still in the booth for most golf broadcasts is because he can make a non-issue a huge issue in about three words. He's upset Tiger Woods, called Rocco Mediate a "pool boy" and now is questioning the U.S. Ryder Cup picks days before the matches get underway.

Miller said yesterday he thinks Paul Azinger should have bypassed rookie J.B. Holmes, who will be playing in his home state of Kentucky and might very well be the perfect match-play partner with his long drives and streaky putting, for a more veteran player like Scott Verplank. Yeah, Verplank, who has been a good player in his two events but has never been on a winning team. Actually, he's never even been close to a winning team.

"I certainly wouldn't have gone with J.B. Holmes, I tell you that," Miller said yesterday in Louisville, Ky., where the Ryder Cup gets underway Friday.

Miller said he would have chosen Verplank, Mediate, Brandt Snedeker and 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson over Holmes and Campbell, but agreed that his views are like arguing over favorite ice cream flavors.

You know, Miller was an amazing PGA Tour golfer in his heyday with a decent Cup record of 2-2-2, but this is just ridiculous. You want to trade out a rookie that will draw huge American support for Mediate (never played in a Ryder Cup), Snedeker (ditto) or Johnson (1-1-1 in '06)?

Donald Ross is known worldwide to golf fans as one of the consummate masters of course design. And now, thanks to the Wyndham Championship's recent move to the Sedgefield Country Club, PGA golfers competing in the FedEx Cup event (August 11-17, 2008) will get to experience the same pristine Piedmont Triad golf conditions that legends like Sam Sneed, Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer enjoyed for years after Ross' original design in 1926.

Of course, this isn't the Wyndham's first rodeo here, although it is the first year back to Sedgefield following a 31-year hiatus, and the return did not come at a cheap price. The recently finished, nearly yearlong renovation of the course cost over $3 million, but as tournament director Mark Brazil put it, the intent was to make Sedgefield "one of the favorite spots on tour."

Brazil pointed out that right now, "this golf course is as good as it gets" and by all accounts, he is absolutely right. A friend of mine recently teed it high and called the dense rough "diabolical" (by all accounts complimentary), while recent praise from former winner David Toms has already attracted some big name attention.

Three-time major winner Vijay Singh, who recently announced his entry into the Wyndham, joins an already stout group of golfers that includes Toms, last year's champions Brandt Snedeker, Tim Clark, Carl Pettersson, local favorite and Masters darling Drew Weaver, Davis Love III, and, of course, goshdarn American hero and two-time Wyndham winner Rocco Mediate.

I'm pretty sure you could have named a ton of golfers to plug into the sentence, "like playing with Elvis" and before last week nobody on this side of sanity would have busted out with Rocco Mediate.

That's what a near defeat of Tiger Woods will do for a guy.

According to the New York Times, Mediate is becoming a rather popular fellow.

The 19-hole playoff last Monday at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego cast the sport's giant against one of its jolly journeymen. The ensuing drama captivated a public that responded as if it had just seen an ant move a rubber tree plant. On the course, thousands of voices, many belonging to people who could not have picked Mediate out on the driving range at the tournament's start, were cheering, "We will, we will, Roc-co!"

Mediate was attending the CVS Classic, a charity tournament put on by fellow touring professionals Billy Andrade and Brad Faxon. Rocco said since the U.S. Open playoff last Monday he had only "hit a few dozen balls on Sunday with his three boys" but managed to fire a 9-under 62 with teammate Brandt Snedeker to finish in second place after the first half of the 36-hole team tournament.

Fame can make people do some rather strange things (like wear rather flashy belt buckles) and Mediate didn't disappoint yesterday, telling random fans "I'm a hugger" before giving them a full Yogi Bear.

Where all ten golfers on this page will be emailing me to take them off the unlucky number page, the FanHouse Media Guide.

• Justin Rose -- t-5 -- I'm fully convinced Justin Rose (pictured) goes to every golf tournament with one thing in mind -- wearing tighter clothes than any female spectator in attendance. He has never won a PGA Tour event but he has won a tournament in 2002 called "The Crowns" which I'm sure is made-up.

• Rory Sabbatini -- t-51 -- Sabbatini hates Tiger Woods, normal belt etiquette and headwear that covers the top-portion of your head. He isn't having the year he's used to (33rd in FedEx points) and has missed the cut in four of his last six tournaments. Oh, and he hates this thing I just wrote.

• Adam Scott -- t-21 -- In case him being the third best golfer in the world and that your girlfriend wants to watch golf now because she might catch a glimpse of him isn't enough to hate him, check his sponsors. Titleist, Burberry, Rolex, Gulfstream, EA Sports, Footjoy, Aspen Group, Scott Golf Designs and Australian Golf Digest to name a few. Also, the U.S. Open is the only major he's never cracked the top-10.
  

• Patrick Sheehan -- DNP -- A journeyman that has bounced around between the Nationwide and PGA, Sheehan only has one top-10 this season. He graduated from the University of Hartford where he played golf with both Tim Petrovic and Jerry Kelly.

• Kevin Silva -- DNP -- Silva, a Tar Heel, has played on the Tarheel Tour, the New England Pro Golf Tour and the Minor League Golf Tour. Needless to say, this week will be the biggest stage he's ever been on.

• Vijay Singh -- t-3 -- The big Fijian has made the cut in 13 straight U.S. Opens, with seven top-10s during that stretch. He might struggle at times to find the fairway (147th in driving accuracy) but he always seems to make it work. Also, he was appointed a goodwill ambassador for Fiji in 2005.

• Heath Slocum -- CUT -- Slocum has been extremely consistent in 2008, making every cut since February 3. Slocum played on the same golf team as Boo Weekley (Bubba Watson joined the same team two years later) in Milton, Florida.

• Brandt Snedeker -- t-23 -- Everyone seemed excited about Snedeker at the Masters this year, where he closed with a 77 to tie for third. Since Augusta, he hasn't fared better than a tie for 35th with two missed cuts.

• Kyle Stanley (a) -- DNP -- He played in the 2007 Arnold Palmer Invitational, missing the cut with rounds of 75-74. A member of the Clemson golf team, Stanley is currently ranked 34 by Golfweek.

• Henrik Stenson -- t-26 -- It's amazing that Stenson has never finished in the top-10 at a major. The 15th ranked player in the world hasn't won this season on the European Tour but he does have six top-10s in just nine events.

Last year Zach Johnson had one career PGA Tour win to his credit when he showed up at Augusta National and won the Masters. Early on the second day, Brandt Snedeker and Trevor Immelman are looking like they'll threaten to do the same.

Snedeker and Immelman, each of whom has exactly one career first-place finish on the PGA Tour, currently sit atop the leaderboard at 6-under overall, with Snedeker at 3-under today through nine holes, and Immelman at 2-under today through 12. Snedeker has birdies on the second, sixth and seventh holes, while Immelman birdied five, seven and 11 and bogeyed six.

It's awfully early, but Snedeker and Immelman are looking like they could pull off a big surprise. The betting odds posted this week listed Immelman at 100-1, and Snedeker was such a long shot that there weren't any odds on him at all. When people asked before the Masters started about "Tiger Woods or the field," I don't think Snedeker and Immelman were the members of the field they had in mind.