Wyndham Championship round four: Snedeker has a tilt at Tiger

How’s this for a bit of Tiger-bashing? “When you’re playing well the rule of thumb is to keep playing, not take weeks off.” I don’t know if Brandt Snedeker was thinking of Tiger Woods when he said it after Sunday’s victory, but it has a certain ring now the world number one has decided to skip the first of the FedEx playoffs.

Compared to Tiger, Snedeker’s a golfing workaholic - 25 appearances this season to Tiger’s 12 - which is not surprising when your prime concern at the outset it simply keeping your card. Worry no more. Not only is he nailed on for the next two years, he’s now in the top 10 of the FedEx Cup rankings which I am assured, without frankly understanding it too well yet, gives him a huge advantage for the playoffs.

To win even a relatively low-level affair like the Wyndham with the low round of the tournament says something about the manner of Snedeker’s victory - even on this course 10 birdies on day four is some going. He was almost invincible with the putter, summed up by the 32-footer that effectively sealed the deal on the 17th.

Given that it’s been nine years since someone came from behind to win, and then from only three shots back, I never figured someone five shots off the pace like Snedeker would stand a chance. Until that birdie it had indeed looked touch and go.

It was tough luck on Tim Petrovic that the heat got to him after the turn, because he too was blistering the course. And Carl Pettersson, who massively tightened up his driving and approach work, looked every inch a potential winner until the implosion on the 16th.

But the main reason Snedeker spectacularly succeeded was because Jeff Overton spectacularly failed. Should he find himself leading into Sunday again Overton would do well to take a leaf out of Snedeker’s book and sing to himself around the course. By all accounts Snedeker was no less nervous, but it was Overton who seized up from the get-go and was off key tee to green.

The biggest disappointment though was again Lucas Glover, who managed to hit six birdies, but somehow conspired to mix in four bogeys and a double. Not the sort of stuff you expect from someone just picked for the President’s Cup.