Snedeker stays afloat - Albany Times Union

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- By now, according to most golf game experts, Willy Brandt Snedeker should have got had his ticket to NoWheresVille, a land created by Justin Rose and occupied by others who demo up on the Edgar Lee Masters leaderboard early in the tourney only to vanish on weekends.

What the galleries establish out Saturday at Capital Of Maine National is that Snedeker, the 2007 PGA Tour Cub of the Year, isn't going away easily.

Snedeker played the 3rd unit of ammunition in the concluding grouping with Trevor Immelman, who held a one-shot lead. They will be paired again today in the concluding group, although it took some unbelievable golf game by Snedeker to do that happen.

After briefly taking the tourney Pb with a birdie on the 8th hole, Snedeker seemingly played his manner out of contention with three consecutive bogies on the dorsum nine. He drop into 4th topographic point and had Tiger Forest nipping at his heels.

"My caddie, George C. Scott (Vail), was fantastic," Snedeker said. "He grabbed me walking off 13 greenness and said, 'You're playing great. Keep your caput on straight. Everything is going fine.' "

Snedeker parlayed the advice into birdies on 14, 15 and 18 to leapfrog Alice Paul Casey and Steve Flesch and move back into second, two shots behind Immelman.

"I wasn't surprised that he came back," Immelman said. "He's a antic player. He's only been a professional a couple of years, so for him to be at this point so early in his calling is an unbelievable achievement."

Snedeker, a Cornelius Vanderbilt graduate, won the 2003 U.S. Populace Golf Course Championship, which enabled him to play in the 2004 Edgar Lee Masters (he tied for 41st). He also capitalized on the regulation allowing Edgar Lee Masters guests to have got virtually limitless drama here after Christmas.

"They almost changed the regulation the adjacent twelvemonth because of me," he said. "I said, 'How many modern times can I have got a rank at Capital Of Maine National for four months?' "

Snededker, 27, won twice on the Nationwide Tour in 2006 before joining the PGA, where he got his maiden triumph last twelvemonth at the Wyndham Championship. He finished 17th on the tour's money listing and is 44th (and climbing) in the Official World Golf Ranking.

"He cognizes he belongs here," said brother Nationwide alumna Samuel Johnson Wagner. "He's always had that sort of personality. Willy Brandt is not in awe of anything. He's here to win a tournament, and that's it."

That's exactly the manner Snedeker set it Saturday eventide after his 2-under-par 70.

"At the end of the day, I'm going out there to win a golf game tournament," he said. "It doesn't substance that it's a major. I'm going out there to win a golf game tournament.

"Everything I've grown up trying to do, everything I've practiced for, everything I've done is in readying for (today). I'm not nervous about it at all. I'm very excited about it."