An unexpected match for Matt Atkins

Mandy Snedeker had just dropped her two children, Lily and Austin, off at school near their home in Nashville. Her husband, Brandt, was in Greensboro, North Carolina, playing in the Wyndham Championship. He was in one of the morning’s featured groups, paired with Billy Horschel and Hideki Matsuyama, so she could follow the PGA TOUR Live coverage of his round as she ran errands. “And then all of a sudden, I don’t know what hole it was, but they started mentioning that there was a chance that he could shoot 59,â€� Mandy recalls. “I kind of went, errrk, pulled over in a parking lot, and watched the rest of it.â€� Mandy sat in that parking lot for a good hour on that Thursday morning a year ago, watching the final four holes or so on her cell phone. So, she saw the 20-footer he made on the Sedgefield’s ninth hole, his last of the day, to become just the ninth player in PGA TOUR history to shoot a 59. “Oh, my gosh, I screamed and just went crazy,â€� Mandy says. And then her telephone started virtually blowing up with text messages. In relatively short order, she had probably 40 or 50; her husband’s phone pinged with roughly double that amount – all meaningful in their own way. “We have a lot of friends that are in the music industry … and obviously are huge golfers,â€� Mandy says. “So, they were all texting me. I thought that was cool. “I don’t know if I have anyone that (stood out); it was just so many at one time I couldn’t believe it because I wasn’t sure if everybody knew. It was a Thursday, Thursday morning. So, I was texting people all morning. Brandt shot 59. Brandt shot 59. It was crazy.â€� Of course, her first text was to Brandt. He was whisked away to interviews after he signed his scorecard but called as soon as he could. “He was so excited,â€� Mandy recalls. “You know, golf, it’s crazy. It’s like up and down and he hadn’t been playing that great. But out of nowhere he shoots 59. So, it’s just how the sport rolls.â€� Then came the hard part. At least for Brandt. Take that four-stroke lead he had accrued with the 59, play three more rounds and try to win a golf tournament.  “Fifty‑nine was such a cool moment and such a great place, has such a great place in my memory and the history of the game obviously, but doing it on Thursday when you’ve got three more days to deal with, A, all the questions, B, all the kind of attention you draw on yourself, and then most importantly, the expectations you have on yourself,â€� Brandt says.  “You have a … four‑shot lead after the first day, play that kind of round of golf, you can’t really think of anything other than messing it up from there, to be honest with you. So, it’s hard to kind of deal with that, try to get over it and make sure you get back into what made you successful that first day.â€� The internal pressure was one thing. After all, Brandt had already won eight times on the PGA TOUR. But the 2018 Wyndham Championship was the first time his kids, who were 7 and 5 years old at the time, really understood what was going on. “The second he (shot 59) it was, Dad are you going to win the tournament? Dad are you winning?â€� Mandy recalls with a smile. “We flew in Saturday; we go upstairs to the player dining. Dad, are you leading still? Dad are you leading? Are you going to win? I was like, oh my goodness. Stop. “So, we had joked if he can win with that pressure of the kids constantly reminding him, you know, he’s got it. He’s got it.â€� Steve Holmes, who is chairman of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and Wyndham Destinations, had sent a private jet to Nashville to pick up Mandy and the kids. Wyndham has sponsored Brandt since shortly after he won the 2007 tournament at Sedgefield, which was his first PGA TOUR victory. Holmes was the one who presented Brandt with the Sam Snead Cup that year. “It just so happened he was coming up to New York for the first playoff event right afterwards and he offered me a ride up on his plane,â€� Brandt remembers. “And so, I hop on the plane. We celebrated and talked and just kind of grew from there and Steve’s one of the best human beings in the world. Spending that little time with them on a plane, I realized what a quality guy he was and what they stood for. “Just always have been very fortunate in my career, surround myself with really good people and make sure I have the right partnerships and it all started with him and them because they are a bunch of great people and do stuff the right way.â€� So, Brandt wasn’t at all surprised that Holmes flew Mandy and the kids in for what turned out to be another Sunday celebration with Lily and Austin racing onto the 18th green to jump into their dad’s arms. “They’ve been dear friends of ours for a long time,â€� Mandy says. “That’s what made it so special, too. It’s not just shooting the 59 … it was just like a storybook book setting. I mean, with it being Wyndham and his sponsor and just all the years that we’ve been with them and stuff. “So yeah, it was really special.â€�

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Dylan Frittelli (+260 for a Top 20) … Relative to the competition, this is not a reach despite the fact that he hasn’t cracked a top 20 since a T8 at the Valero Texas Open in early April or rested in five weeks. He cashed in 13 of his last 14 starts, including a T28 at The Open Championship where he led the field in putting and totaled only two three-putts on the massive greens. The South African also hasn’t missed an edition of the 3M Open where he’s 2-for-3 with a T18 in 2020. His scoring average in 10 rounds at TPC Twin Cities is 69. His only PGA TOUR victory occurred a few hundred miles south at TPC Deere Run, another Midwestern stop with bentgrass greens. Nate Lashley (+333 for a Top 20) … He’s veered into the same lane as Adam Long, who is in the Power Rankings. Like his fellow one-time PGA TOUR winner five years his junior, Lashley has been trading weekends off with top 20s and top 30s. It’s a heckuva way to make a keep one’s job at this level. Obviously, it requires confidence post-cut, and Lashley has that. He’s 14th in final-round scoring average. He’s also T3 in par-4 scoring and inside the top 50 in greens in regulation, converting those chances into par breakers and Strokes Gained: Putting. In lockstep with his recent trending, he’s looking for this first cut made in three tries at TPC Twin Cities. Michael Gligic … Where you can find it, a top 30 is a better play for the native Ontarian. In the last three months, he’s 8-for-9 with a trio of top 30s to surge to 145th in the FedExCup. He’s performed his best on easier tracks, so TPC Twin Cities should keep his rally rolling. He’s chasing his third payday in as many starts on the course and playing well enough right now to better a T26 in his debut in 2020. Averaging a couple of yards longer than TOUR average in distance of all drives at 291.0 (to rank T85), he’s not a short hitter by any judgment, but it’s still impressive that he’s T40 in par-5 scoring. That can matter more at TPC Twin Cities given its set of three par 5s has carved out a spot easily within the hardest half of all courses on the PGA TOUR. Justin Lower … Other PGA TOUR rookies are hogging the attention in 2021-22, but the 33-year-old from Ohio is putting together a nice season over on a side stage, so he’s worth checking out. He’s 13-for-21 with five top 20s, including a pair in the last two weeks to rise to 135th in the FedExCup. Currently inside the top 50 in both greens hit and proximity to the hole, but he’s also tightened up his putting on the average of almost one stroke per round within the last three months, and he’s showing zero signs of easing off that throttle. Cole Hammer … The decorated collegian at the University of Texas, where he contributed to his program’s national title a few weeks ago, is making already his fifth start as a professional and second on the PGA TOUR (MC, Travelers). Until he begins building in earnest, he presents merely as one to watch as he finished fifth in the Velocity Global Ranking for PGA TOUR University. That yields Korn Ferry Tour membership this summer and an exemption into the final stage of the KFT Qualifying Tournament. He arrives in Minnesota fresh off a T7 at the Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS where he co-led the field in par-3 scoring. Odds were sourced on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. For live odds, visit BetMGM.

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The weight of history was almost too much. In his first interview since winning the Masters and returning home to Japan, Hideki Matsuyama said becoming the first from his country to win the coveted Green Jacket – or any men’s major, for that matter – was almost too overwhelming to think about as he navigated the course Sunday. “I was filled with nerves from the first hole to the last,” said Matsuyama, who bogeyed three of the last four holes but still edged Will Zalatoris by one. “I never felt there was a time for me to let up even a little bit and relax.” The victory was huge in Japan, with congratulations pouring in from all corners. Retired golfers like Isao Aoki and Jumbo Ozaki weighed in, as expected, but so did tennis pro Kei Nishikori and even Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Matsuyama, who spoke Sunday of inspiring kids back home, said in his press conference in Japan that he hopes his daughter will be among them. Japan’s women golfers, he added, have been pushing the men for years. His breakthrough victory came a decade after he was the low amateur at Augusta, and he climbed from 33rd to seventh in the FedExCup. Now comes the question of what’s next. More history? Perhaps. Asked about capturing the remaining three major titles, he said he’ll have to draw up some new goals. He laughed when asked about the next 10 years, but he’s still just 29, and absent the weight of history he could feel liberated to summon his A game more often. He was T7 in greens in regulation and second in scrambling at Augusta. And his putting, always hot and cold, was good enough. Most crucially, swing changes that Matsuyama had been working since the outset of this year – he was trying to break a win drought that dated to 2017 – have finally set. He sensed it prior to the opening round last week. “Technically, I’ve had some pretty frustrating days since the beginning of this year and haven’t been able to see the results that I’ve wanted,” he said. “But after my practice round on Wednesday, I felt like I kind of found something and started to feel pretty good about my chances that week. It’s hard to define what those feeling were but that was probably the biggest impression I had going into the tournament.” Matsuyama did not play in the 2012 PGA Championship at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, where it will return May 20-23. Nor did he play in the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, where the tournament will return June 17-20, or the 2011 Open Championship at Royal St. George’s, which will host that tournament a year later than originally planned, July 15-18. After a three-week break, he will return to action at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, May 6-9. His best in five Wells Fargo starts is a T11 in 2016, although he finished T5 at the 2017 PGA there. Most top of mind, of course, for Matsuyama and throughout all of Japan, is the Olympics Men’s Golf Competition at Kasumigaseki Country Club in Saitama, Japan, July 29-Aug. 1. “To be honest, I don’t know what will happen yet, but I think I will be selected via the rankings,” he said. “So right now, I just plan to be careful and try and avoid any injuries in the tournaments I have left to play before the Olympics, and then go there and win a gold medal. “That’s my goal,” he added, “and I’ll do my best to accomplish it.” Given the barrier he just broke, don’t bet against him.

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