Snedeker goes for broke in end

The 26-year-old finished with a 63 in the low-scoring
Wyndham Championship.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Tied with two holes to play and seemingly headed for a playoff, Brandt Snedeker needed to make something bold happen. He made the best shot of his short career.

Snedeker’s 3-iron to within 32 feet on the par-3 17th set up a birdie putt that moved him ahead of Tim Petrovic for good, and the rookie finished with a 9-under 63 Sunday for his first career PGA Tour win, a two-stroke victory at the low-scoring Wyndham Championship.

No other choice

“I knew I was going to have to birdie one of the last two to give myself a chance,” Snedeker said. “The way the scores were going, everybody was getting birdies everywhere.”

Snedeker, 26, had the best round of the tournament. He finished at 22-under 266, earned $900,000 — and, perhaps most importantly, jumped 17 spots to No. 9 on the FedEx Cup points list.

“Everything the tour has been telling us, you have a legitimate chance to win the FedEx Cup, [but] you’ve got to be inside the Top 15,” Snedeker said. “That’s why I came here — I wanted to get in the Top 15 and give myself a chance.”

Petrovic (67) — who was tied with Snedeker with two holes to play — joined Jeff Overton (70) and Billy Mayfair (67) two strokes back.

Carl Pettersson (68) finished three strokes behind Snedeker, who joined Shigeki Maruyama (2003) and K.J. Choi (2005) as recent winners at 22 under at a Forest Oaks Country Club course dominated all week by high temperatures and low scores.

Playoff likely

Snedeker and Petrovic were tied at 21 heading into the final two holes, and a playoff seemed a real possibility until Snedeker made his move on the par-3 17th.

He hit his 3-iron 32 feet from the flagstick — a shot that “under the pressure, probably was the best swing of my life,” he said — to set up the clutch birdie putt.

Petrovic, playing two groups behind him, landed his tee shot on the green about 70 feet from the hole but missed his birdie attempt and tapped in from about 2 feet for par.

“I knew what I had to do. Everybody was out here making birdies today, so I wasn’t mad, I wasn’t shocked,” Petrovic said. “I was just kind of ready to go and do my own thing.”

Snedeker then closed his round with an uneventful par on No. 18, while Petrovic sent his drive into the woods on the left side of the fairway and wound up finishing with a bogey.

“A guy shoots 63, you’ve got to take your hat off to him — he won it, I didn’t lose it,” Petrovic said.