No rest for in-form Snedeker in hectic tour schedule - H0us3
>> Wednesday, July 31, 2013
| AKRON, Ohio (Reuters) - Most players tend to pace themselves with the occasional break heading into golf's big events but in-form Brandt Snedeker has no qualms about his plan to compete in every PGA Tour event left on the 2013 schedule. Fresh from his second victory of the season at the Canadian Open on Sunday, Snedeker intends to tee it up all the way through the FedExCup playoffs before likely making his debut appearance for the United States at the October 3-6 Presidents Cup. "I'm playing the rest and no concern at all," the fast-talking American told reporters on Wednesday while preparing for Thursday's opening round at Firestone Country Club in the elite WGC event. "I'm being really smart about practice and taking time away. I didn't touch a club since Sunday, had two days off with the family, which was nice. I'm being real smart about how much I'm hitting balls and practising, and should be fine." Snedeker always knew he would have a hectic late schedule on the U.S. circuit this season, and he prepared by competing only once in May and just once between the U.S. Open and British Open. "I made sure I was working on the right stuff, that we had a clear game plan of what we were going to do these last nine events, eight events, and start to execute it," the 32-year-old said. "Any time you put a lot of hard work in to execute your game plan and what you want to do, you start feeling like you're doing the right stuff. "My golf game feels as good as it's felt in a long time, and I'm excited to keep playing. I did the exact same schedule last year and it worked out pretty well. Hopefully I can do it again this year." Snedeker believes he is close to the spectacular form he displayed at the start of this year when he recorded four top-threes in his first five events, including a two-shot triumph at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. "Beginning of the year, I was driving the ball fantastic and I was hitting a lot of greens and hitting my irons fantastic," he said. "I felt like I haven't been able to piece that together like I was early in the year. "Last week my iron play was phenomenal, but I didn't drive the ball particularly well. I got really lucky last week a lot, and then to do that this week is not going to be successful. "I've got to hit fairways this week. There's no way around it. If I can just kind of get that mentality of my driver that I've had with my irons the last couple weeks, everything should be pretty good." Snedeker, bidding this week for a sixth PGA Tour victory, has been paired with Northern Irish world number three Rory McIlroy for the first two rounds at Firestone. (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Julian Linden) |
