Brandt Snedeker is earnestly polite, and he could pass for Opie Taylor's big brother with his reddish-blond hair and sunny smile.
Do not be fooled.
Put Snedeker on a golf course, and he's got an edge the X-Games set would respect. He dishes it right back when Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods give him grief - "I want to make sure they don't get a hall pass" - and he's as competitive as they come. After three top-10 finishes in the last six weeks, including his monster win at the Tour Championship last weekend, he sees no reason why he can't make a run at No. 1 in the world.
"People might think that's crazy talk, but I don't," Snedeker said Wednesday. "After the way I played the last six weeks, I think I proved that I can do that."
First, however, there is a Ryder Cup to win. U.S. captain Davis Love III raised a few eyebrows when he made Snedeker, a Ryder Cup rookie at 31, his final captain's pick. Not that he wasn't worthy. Snedeker is one of the purest putters around, and Ryder Cups often turn on which team is more dependable on the green.
But Snedeker had missed a big chunk of the summer because of a rib injury, returning at the British Open. Hunter Mahan had won twice on the PGA Tour, including the Match Play Championship when he beat Rory McIlroy. He also had Ryder Cup experience, making one of the key putts when the United States last won the Ryder Cup in 2008 at Valhalla.
"I look forward to getting to Medinah and trying to make Davis look like a genius," Snedeker said after he was selected.
He didn't need that long. Snedeker was the runner-up at The Barclays, then shot 65-67 on the weekend to finish sixth at the Deutsche Bank Championship. After tying for 37th at the BMW Championship, he knew his only shot at the FedEx Cup title - and it's $10-million payday - was to win the Tour Championship. No small task, considering Rory McIlroy and Woods were eying the same prize.
But Snedeker was the only player in the last five groups who broke par Sunday. With three birdies on the back nine, he'd built such a big lead it didn't even matter that he put his tee shot on 18 into the stands. He still finished with a 2-under 68, beating Justin Rose by three strokes.
"If you told me at the beginning of the year that I was going to be FedEx Cup champion, I probably would have told you I did not see that coming. I don't see how I can be there," Snedeker said. "As the year went on, I realized I was playing a lot better and better, practising more concisely and doing the right stuff a lot more often than I had in the past. And the results started coming more and more.
"The last six weeks, I give myself all the credit in the world for believing 100 per cent in what I'm doing and not backing down to anybody, trying to play the best golf in the world."
