2015 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am results: 3 things we learned from Brandt Snedeker’s win

The Pebble Beach Pro-Am is one of the early-season highlights on the PGA Tour -- one of those few venues on the annual regular schedule that’s a top 10 course in the world and a major championship layout. This year’s edition produced a world-class winner in Brandt Snedeker, who has challenged for a major championship in the past but had just finished one of his worst seasons. But his win Sunday at Pebble should set up a a big year for a player who belongs as one of the best Americans in the game. Here are three things we learned Sunday at “the most felicitous meeting of land and sea in creation.”

After a miserable season with some injuries, a swing coach change, and a tumble out of the top 50 in the world rankings, Brandt Snedeker is back on track with an early 2015 win. Snedeker started Sunday a shot off the lead, but he cruised into the clubhouse with a comfortable three-shot win. He made his move early in the round, posting red numbers on three of Pebble’s easier opening seven holes. That included perfect wedge down to the 7th, the most beautiful par-3 in the world.

It was pretty clear early in his back nine that Snedeker would be in command all the way. A few big name challengers circled around him, but the margin stayed at multiple shots and no pressure was really every applied.

This is the seventh PGA Tour win of Snedeker’s career and his second at this event. After multiple wins in back-to-back years, however, his game dove off a cliff in 2014. The most startling part to watch was his putting. Snedeker is widely reputed as one of the best putters in the world, but that club often left him at the biggest tournaments last season. He also changed swing coaches, leaving longtime instructor Todd Anderson for Butch Harmon. Both are world class coaches but despite all his past success, maybe it was time for a change for Snedeker.

Now with this win, Snedeker should jump back inside the top 50 and lock up a spot in the World Golf Championships. Oh, and he’s also now earned an invitation to the Masters, his favorite place in the world and where he’s contended deep into Sunday twice in his career. If his putter is back on track, given his form at Augusta in the past, he’ll be one of the betting favorites come mid-April.

Now he’s got a win to wipe away the shakiness from last year and the good bet is that he’ll finish the year with world-class form and a spot on the Presidents Cup team

A majority of people started Sunday rooting for Jim Furyk. He may not stir up the passions of the millennial or casual golf fan, but he’s a good dude who grinds with that funky swing. Furyk has been deadly consistent over the last two-to-three years, rebounding from a brutal stretch after the FedExCup title and that $10 million payday. He’s always in contention it seems, but he has not been able to close out a win to end a drought going back to that 2010 TOUR Championship.

So the narrative was already pre-written when Furyk started the final round at Pebble with a one-shot lead. He flipped the leaderboard late Saturday with Matt Jones to go up one with 18 to play, but probably would have rather avoided the distinction altogether and stayed one shot back. That’s because another Sunday fade adds to this ignominious mark.

It seemed over early for Furyk, who couldn’t capitalize on Pebble Beach’s early stretch of holes. While guys out ahead made their move, such as Nick Watney opening with four straight birdies and Pat Perez with five in his first six holes, Furyk stalled out with bland pars and got quickly lapped. It looked like his chances at contention were gone for good at the sixth, but he caught a decent lie on the side of a cliff and saved a par.

That par save notwithstanding, this Sunday was one of those instances where Furyk’s own play, not an incredible streak from a competitor, resulted in another blown 54-hole lead.

Furyk HAAAAAATES this constant “closer” talking point every time his name comes up and every time he has success at a tournament. The irony is that he’s been maybe the most consistent and successful American player over the last few years -- he just hasn’t finished. Furyk has been in it repeatedly at several majors and your regular PGA Tour events, but a combination of his own poor play and some hot rounds from the opposition (like last year’s Barclays title) have kept the Sunday shortcomings narrative alive.

He keeps taking home big checks and is playing some of the best golf of his life in what is also the most frustrating stretch of his career. He’s got to bust down the door at some point this year, right?

Jason Day took juuuuust a bit too much club at the famed par-3 17th, blasting a 5-iron way over the green and almost across the entire 18th tee behind it. The ball was never close to hitting that narrow green, and quickly bounded toward what appeared to be a walking scorer. This gentleman was just innocently going to grab a seat at the adjacent tee when all of a sudden his life flashed before his eyes.

Those are some cat-like reflexes and might have been the most athletic feat of the entire day at Pebble.

The Tour now swings down to Los Angeles for the Northern Trust Open at Riviera. It’s the last stop of the annual West Coast swing.

Here are your final results from Pebble: